What is the most efficient way to get object field labels in Lightning component?

Question

I need to display custom object field inputs on Lightning component. This has to support localization.

My code looks like this:

<aura:attribute name="myFieldsMap" type="Map" default="{ 'Field1__c': 'Field 1 label', 'Field2__c': 'Field 2 label',  }" />
<aura:attribute name="myObject" type="myObject__c" />

<lightning:input label="{!v.myFieldsMap.Field1__c}" value="v.myObject.Field1__c" />
<lightning:input label="{!v.myFieldsMap.Field2__c}" value="v.myObject.Field2__c" />

I get labels in apex using DescribeFieldResult and return values to component.

force:inputField is not rendered for some reason and I don't want to investigate why (Lightning Component - force:inputField not rendering)

What I don't like in this solution is that I have to specify default value for map with all fields I am using, because if label value is empty, component throws an error. For adding new fields I just want to populate lightning:input. Unfortunately I also have to add field definition to list in Apex to get the label, but specifying default makes this messy. Is there more elegant way than this?

Answer 1

Best practice and solution would be to get the actual sObject from the server side and put it as the attribute, lets say this is a custom object called TestObj__c:

<aura:attribute name="myObject" type="TestObj__c" />

Then - all fields that you will attach to components would have labels - also the translated ones!!!

And also - since getting field labels from client side is not supported yet - you can support my idea that does exactly what you have asked for:

https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=0873A000000cNLeQAM