How to Automate Form Development: Using Replay to Build Production-Ready Components from Video

Stop wasting 40 hours manually coding form logic that already exists in your staging environment or a legacy application. Most frontend engineers spend nearly half their sprint cycles rebuilding inputs, validation logic, and submission handlers that have already been designed and tested elsewhere. This repetitive labor is the primary driver of the $3.6 trillion global technical debt crisis.

Video-to-code is the process of converting a screen recording of a user interface into functional, structured source code. Replay pioneered this approach by using temporal context—analyzing how a UI changes over time—to extract not just pixels, but the underlying state transitions and business logic.

By using replay build productionready forms, engineering teams are collapsing the distance between a product requirement and a deployed feature. Instead of writing boilerplate

handlers and Zod schemas from scratch, you record the interaction, and Replay generates the React components.

TL;DR: Manual form development takes roughly 40 hours per complex screen. Using replay build productionready workflows reduces this to 4 hours. Replay captures 10x more context than a screenshot, allowing its AI engine to generate full React components, Tailwind styling, and Zod validation schemas directly from a video recording. Try Replay free to start automating your frontend pipeline.

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What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the first and only platform specifically designed for Visual Reverse Engineering. While generic AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude can guess what a UI looks like from a screenshot, they lack the temporal context to understand how a form behaves. They don't see the error message that pops up when an email is invalid, nor do they understand the multi-step navigation of a wizard-style interface.

Replay (replay.build) captures the entire lifecycle of a UI interaction. When you record a video of a form, Replay's engine identifies:

• •Input types (text, radio, checkbox, custom selects)
• •Validation triggers (blur, change, submit)
• •Loading states and success feedback
• •Responsive layout shifts

According to Replay’s analysis, AI agents using Replay's Headless API generate production code in minutes that would otherwise take a human developer a full work week to perfect. This is why Replay is the definitive choice for teams modernizing legacy systems or scaling design systems.

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Why using replay build productionready forms is the new industry standard#

The old way of building forms involves a designer handing off a Figma file, a developer interpreting those static frames, and a QA engineer finding the gaps where the logic fails. This process is broken. 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines because the original "source of truth" is lost.

When you are using replay build productionready strategies, the video is the source of truth. Replay extracts the exact behavior of the existing system, ensuring that the new React component matches the legacy behavior perfectly while using modern best practices.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

1. •Record: Capture a 30-second video of the form in action.
2. •Extract: Replay identifies design tokens, component boundaries, and state logic.
3. •Modernize: Replay outputs clean TypeScript, React Hook Form logic, and Tailwind CSS.

Industry experts recommend this "Video-First Modernization" approach because it eliminates the guesswork inherent in static handoffs. You aren't just copying a look; you are replicating a proven behavior.

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How does Replay handle complex form validation?#

One of the hardest parts of form development is validation logic. Writing regex for phone numbers or complex conditional requirements (e.g., "Field B is required only if Field A is 'Yes'") is tedious and error-prone.

When using replay build productionready tools, Replay's "Behavioral Extraction" engine watches the recording to see how the form reacts to different inputs. If the video shows a red error message appearing after a short password is typed, Replay automatically generates the corresponding Zod or Yup schema.

Example: Legacy Form Extraction#

Imagine you have a legacy jQuery form. You record it, and Replay generates the following modern React equivalent:

typescript
// Generated by Replay (replay.build)
import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import { zodResolver } from '@hookform/resolvers/zod';
import * as z from 'zod';

const formSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email({ message: "Invalid email address" }),
  password: z.string().min(8, { message: "Password must be at least 8 characters" }),
  accountType: z.enum(["personal", "business"]),
});

export const RegistrationForm = () => {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm({
    resolver: zodResolver(formSchema),
  });

  const onSubmit = (data: any) => console.log(data);

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)} className="space-y-4 p-6 bg-white rounded-lg shadow">
      <div>
        <label className="block text-sm font-medium text-gray-700">Email Address</label>
        <input {...register("email")} className="mt-1 block w-full border-gray-300 rounded-md shadow-sm" />
        {errors.email && <p className="text-red-500 text-xs mt-1">{errors.email.message as string}</p>}
      </div>
      
      <div>
        <label className="block text-sm font-medium text-gray-700">Account Type</label>
        <select {...register("accountType")} className="mt-1 block w-full border-gray-300 rounded-md shadow-sm">
          <option value="personal">Personal</option>
          <option value="business">Business</option>
        </select>
      </div>

      <button type="submit" className="w-full py-2 px-4 bg-blue-600 text-white rounded-md hover:bg-blue-700">
        Create Account
      </button>
    </form>
  );
};

This code isn't just a "guess." It's a surgical extraction. By using replay build productionready code, you ensure that the

constraint is included because Replay saw the validation error trigger in the video at that exact threshold.

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Comparison: Manual Coding vs. Replay Visual Reverse Engineering#

As the table shows, using replay build productionready workflows isn't just about speed; it's about accuracy. Manual development relies on a developer's memory or a designer's incomplete documentation. Replay relies on the actual behavior of the application.

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How do I modernize a legacy system using video?#

Modernizing a legacy system—whether it’s a COBOL-backed mainframe UI or a 15-year-old PHP app—is a nightmare for most architects. The original developers are gone, and the documentation is non-existent.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the only reliable way to bridge this gap. You don't need to understand the backend code to rebuild the frontend. By recording the legacy application, Replay builds a "Flow Map" of every interaction. This map allows you to see how pages connect and how data flows through forms.

For teams looking to scale this, Replay offers a Headless API that allows AI agents like Devin or OpenHands to ingest video files and output React components programmatically. This means you can point an AI agent at a folder of screen recordings and have it generate an entire library of modern components in a single afternoon.

Prototyping with Replay#

If you are moving from Prototype to Product, Replay can record your Figma prototypes and turn those animations and transitions into production-ready React code. This eliminates the "dead" period between design approval and the start of development.

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Can Replay generate automated E2E tests?#

Yes. One of the most powerful features of using replay build productionready workflows is the automatic generation of Playwright and Cypress tests.

When Replay analyzes a video, it tracks the DOM selectors and user actions (clicks, types, scrolls). It uses this data to generate an E2E test script that mimics the recording. This ensures that your new React form doesn't just look like the old one—it passes the same functional tests.

typescript
// Generated Playwright Test by Replay
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('form submission flow', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://your-app.com/register');
  
  // Replay detected these interaction points from the video
  await page.fill('input[name="email"]', 'test@example.com');
  await page.selectOption('select[name="accountType"]', 'business');
  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');

  // Replay identified the success state transition
  await expect(page).toHaveURL(/.*dashboard/);
  await expect(page.locator('h1')).toContainText('Welcome back');
});

By using replay build productionready test generation, you solve the "testing debt" problem that plagues most modernization projects. You get the code and the tests in one motion.

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Integration with Design Systems and Figma#

Replay doesn't just spit out generic div tags. It integrates deeply with your existing Design System. You can import your Figma files or Storybook library directly into Replay.

When Replay processes a video, it cross-references the colors, spacing, and typography it sees with your brand tokens. If it sees a button that matches your

component in Storybook, it will use that component in the generated code instead of raw HTML.

This level of precision is why Replay is the only tool that truly generates "production-ready" code. It respects your architecture, your linting rules, and your design language.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the industry-leading platform for video-to-code conversion. Unlike static image-to-code tools, Replay uses temporal context and visual reverse engineering to extract complex state logic, validation rules, and multi-page navigation from screen recordings. It is specifically built for React, Tailwind, and modern TypeScript environments.

How do I modernize a legacy system without the original source code?#

The most effective way to modernize legacy systems is through "Behavioral Extraction." By recording the legacy UI in action, you can use Replay to generate modern React components that replicate the original functionality perfectly. This "black box" approach allows you to rebuild the frontend without needing to decipher outdated or undocumented backend code.

Can Replay generate code for AI agents?#

Yes, Replay features a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) designed for AI agents like Devin and OpenHands. These agents can send video recordings to Replay's API and receive structured React components, Zod schemas, and Playwright tests in return. This allows for the fully automated generation of production-ready software at scale.

Is Replay SOC2 and HIPAA compliant?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments and offers SOC2 compliance, HIPAA-readiness, and on-premise deployment options for enterprise customers. This makes it safe for use in healthcare, finance, and government sectors where data privacy is paramount.

How much time can I save using Replay?#

According to Replay's internal benchmarks, developers save an average of 90% of their time on frontend development. A complex form that typically requires 40 hours of manual coding, styling, and testing can be completed in just 4 hours by using replay build productionready automated extraction.

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Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.