395 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
395 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
.. _topics-forms-index:
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==================
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Working with forms
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==================
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.. admonition:: About this document
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This document provides an introduction to Django's form handling features.
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For a more detailed look at the forms API, see :ref:`ref-forms-api`. For
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documentation of the available field types, see :ref:`ref-forms-fields`.
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.. highlightlang:: html+django
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``django.forms`` is Django's form-handling library.
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While it is possible to process form submissions just using Django's
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:class:`~django.http.HttpRequest` class, using the form library takes care of a
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number of common form-related tasks. Using it, you can:
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1. Display an HTML form with automatically generated form widgets.
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2. Checking submitted data against a set of validation rules.
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3. Redisplaying a form in the case of validation errors.
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4. Converting submitted form data to the relevant Python data types.
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Overview
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========
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The library deals with these concepts:
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.. glossary::
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Widget
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A class that corresponds to an HTML form widget, e.g.
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``<input type="text">`` or ``<textarea>``. This handles rendering of the
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widget as HTML.
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Field
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A class that is responsible for doing validation, e.g.
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an ``EmailField`` that makes sure its data is a valid e-mail address.
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Form
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A collection of fields that knows how to validate itself and
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display itself as HTML.
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Form Media
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The CSS and JavaScript resources that are required to render a form.
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The library is decoupled from the other Django components, such as the database
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layer, views and templates. It relies only on Django settings, a couple of
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``django.utils`` helper functions and Django's internationalization hooks (but
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you're not required to be using internationalization features to use this
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library).
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Form objects
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============
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A Form object encapsulates a sequence of form fields and a collection of
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validation rules that must be fulfilled in order for the form to be accepted.
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Form classes are created as subclasses of ``django.forms.Form`` and
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make use of a declarative style that you'll be familiar with if you've used
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Django's database models.
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For example, consider a form used to implement "contact me" functionality on a
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personal Web site:
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.. code-block:: python
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from django import forms
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class ContactForm(forms.Form):
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subject = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
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message = forms.CharField()
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sender = forms.EmailField()
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cc_myself = forms.BooleanField(required=False)
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A form is composed of ``Field`` objects. In this case, our form has four
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fields: ``subject``, ``message``, ``sender`` and ``cc_myself``. ``CharField``,
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``EmailField`` and ``BooleanField`` are just three of the available field types;
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a full list can be found in :ref:`ref-forms-fields`.
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If your form is going to be used to directly add or edit a Django model, you can
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use a :ref:`ModelForm <topics-forms-modelforms>` to avoid duplicating your model
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description.
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Using a form in a view
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----------------------
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The standard pattern for processing a form in a view looks like this:
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.. code-block:: python
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def contact(request):
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if request.method == 'POST': # If the form has been submitted...
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form = ContactForm(request.POST) # A form bound to the POST data
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if form.is_valid(): # All validation rules pass
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# Process the data in form.cleaned_data
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# ...
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return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/') # Redirect after POST
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else:
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form = ContactForm() # An unbound form
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return render_to_response('contact.html', {
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'form': form,
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})
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There are three code paths here:
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1. If the form has not been submitted, an unbound instance of ContactForm is
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created and passed to the template.
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2. If the form has been submitted, a bound instance of the form is created
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using ``request.POST``. If the submitted data is valid, it is processed
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and the user is re-directed to a "thanks" page.
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3. If the form has been submitted but is invalid, the bound form instance is
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passed on to the template.
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.. versionchanged:: 1.0
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The ``cleaned_data`` attribute was called ``clean_data`` in earlier releases.
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The distinction between **bound** and **unbound** forms is important. An unbound
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form does not have any data associated with it; when rendered to the user, it
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will be empty or will contain default values. A bound form does have submitted
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data, and hence can be used to tell if that data is valid. If an invalid bound
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form is rendered it can include inline error messages telling the user where
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they went wrong.
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See :ref:`ref-forms-api-bound-unbound` for further information on the
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differences between bound and unbound forms.
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Processing the data from a form
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-------------------------------
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Once ``is_valid()`` returns ``True``, you can process the form submission safe
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in the knowledge that it conforms to the validation rules defined by your form.
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While you could access ``request.POST`` directly at this point, it is better to
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access ``form.cleaned_data``. This data has not only been validated but will
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also be converted in to the relevant Python types for you. In the above example,
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``cc_myself`` will be a boolean value. Likewise, fields such as ``IntegerField``
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and ``FloatField`` convert values to a Python int and float respectively.
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Extending the above example, here's how the form data could be processed:
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.. code-block:: python
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if form.is_valid():
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subject = form.cleaned_data['subject']
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message = form.cleaned_data['message']
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sender = form.cleaned_data['sender']
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cc_myself = form.cleaned_data['cc_myself']
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recipients = ['info@example.com']
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if cc_myself:
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recipients.append(sender)
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from django.core.mail import send_mail
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send_mail(subject, message, sender, recipients)
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return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/') # Redirect after POST
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For more on sending e-mail from Django, see :ref:`topics-email`.
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Displaying a form using a template
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----------------------------------
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Forms are designed to work with the Django template language. In the above
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example, we passed our ``ContactForm`` instance to the template using the
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context variable ``form``. Here's a simple example template::
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<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
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{{ form.as_p }}
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<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
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</form>
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The form only outputs its own fields; it is up to you to provide the surrounding
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``<form>`` tags and the submit button.
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``form.as_p`` will output the form with each form field and accompanying label
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wrapped in a paragraph. Here's the output for our example template::
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<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
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<p><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label>
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<input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
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<p><label for="id_message">Message:</label>
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<input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></p>
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<p><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label>
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<input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></p>
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<p><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label>
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<input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></p>
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<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
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</form>
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Note that each form field has an ID attribute set to ``id_<field-name>``, which
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is referenced by the accompanying label tag. This is important for ensuring
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forms are accessible to assistive technology such as screen reader software. You
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can also :ref:`customize the way in which labels and ids are generated
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<ref-forms-api-configuring-label>`.
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You can also use ``form.as_table`` to output table rows (you'll need to provide
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your own ``<table>`` tags) and ``form.as_ul`` to output list items.
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Customizing the form template
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-----------------------------
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If the default generated HTML is not to your taste, you can completely customize
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the way a form is presented using the Django template language. Extending the
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above example::
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<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{{ form.subject.errors }}
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<label for="id_subject">E-mail subject:</label>
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{{ form.subject }}
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</div>
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{{ form.message.errors }}
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<label for="id_message">Your message:</label>
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{{ form.message }}
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</div>
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{{ form.sender.errors }}
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<label for="id_sender">Your email address:</label>
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{{ form.sender }}
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</div>
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{{ form.cc_myself.errors }}
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<label for="id_cc_myself">CC yourself?</label>
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{{ form.cc_myself }}
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</div>
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<p><input type="submit" value="Send message" /></p>
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</form>
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Each named form-field can be output to the template using
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``{{ form.name_of_field }}``, which will produce the HTML needed to display the
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form widget. Using ``{{ form.name_of_field.errors }}`` displays a list of form
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errors, rendered as an unordered list. This might look like::
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<ul class="errorlist">
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<li>Sender is required.</li>
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</ul>
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The list has a CSS class of ``errorlist`` to allow you to style its appearance.
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If you wish to further customize the display of errors you can do so by looping
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over them::
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{% if form.subject.errors %}
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<ol>
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{% for error in form.subject.errors %}
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<li><strong>{{ error|escape }}</strong></li>
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{% endfor %}
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</ol>
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{% endif %}
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Looping over the form's fields
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------------------------------
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If you're using the same HTML for each of your form fields, you can reduce
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duplicate code by looping through each field in turn using a ``{% for %}``
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loop::
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<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
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{% for field in form %}
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{{ field.errors }}
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{{ field.label_tag }}: {{ field }}
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</div>
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{% endfor %}
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<p><input type="submit" value="Send message" /></p>
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</form>
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Within this loop, ``{{ field }}`` is an instance of :class:`BoundField`.
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``BoundField`` also has the following attributes, which can be useful in your
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templates:
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``{{ field.label }}``
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The label of the field, e.g. ``E-mail address``.
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``{{ field.label_tag }}``
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The field's label wrapped in the appropriate HTML ``<label>`` tag,
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e.g. ``<label for="id_email">E-mail address</label>``
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``{{ field.html_name }}``
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The name of the field that will be used in the input element's name
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field. This takes the form prefix into account, if it has been set.
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``{{ field.help_text }}``
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Any help text that has been associated with the field.
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``{{ field.errors }}``
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Outputs a ``<ul class="errorlist">`` containing any validation errors
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corresponding to this field. You can customize the presentation of
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the errors with a ``{% for error in field.errors %}`` loop. In this
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case, each object in the loop is a simple string containing the error
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message.
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``field.is_hidden``
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This attribute is ``True`` if the form field is a hidden field and
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``False`` otherwise. It's not particularly useful as a template
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variable, but could be useful in conditional tests such as::
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{% if field.is_hidden %}
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{# Do something special #}
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{% endif %}
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Looping over hidden and visible fields
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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If you're manually laying out a form in a template, as opposed to relying on
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Django's default form layout, you might want to treat ``<input type="hidden">``
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fields differently than non-hidden fields. For example, because hidden fields
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don't display anything, putting error messages "next to" the field could cause
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confusion for your users -- so errors for those fields should be handled
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differently.
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Django provides two methods on a form that allow you to loop over the hidden
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and visible fields independently: ``hidden_fields()`` and
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``visible_fields()``. Here's a modification of an earlier example that uses
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these two methods::
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<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
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{% for field in form.visible_fields %}
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{# Include the hidden fields in the form #}
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{% if forloop.first %}
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{% for hidden in form.hidden_fields %}
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{{ hidden }}
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{% endfor %}
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{% endif %}
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{{ field.errors }}
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{{ field.label_tag }}: {{ field }}
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</div>
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{% endfor %}
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<p><input type="submit" value="Send message" /></p>
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</form>
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This example does not handle any errors in the hidden fields. Usually, an
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error in a hidden field is a sign of form tampering, since normal form
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interaction won't alter them. However, you could easily insert some error
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displays for those form errors, as well.
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.. versionadded:: 1.1
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The ``hidden_fields`` and ``visible_fields`` methods are new in Django
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1.1.
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Reusable form templates
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-----------------------
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If your site uses the same rendering logic for forms in multiple places, you
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can reduce duplication by saving the form's loop in a standalone template and
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using the :ttag:`include` tag to reuse it in other templates::
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<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
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{% include "form_snippet.html" %}
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<p><input type="submit" value="Send message" /></p>
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</form>
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# In form_snippet.html:
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{% for field in form %}
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<div class="fieldWrapper">
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{{ field.errors }}
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{{ field.label_tag }}: {{ field }}
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</div>
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{% endfor %}
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If the form object passed to a template has a different name within the
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context, you can alias it using the :ttag:`with` tag::
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<form action="/comments/add/" method="POST">
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{% with comment_form as form %}
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{% include "form_snippet.html" %}
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{% endwith %}
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<p><input type="submit" value="Submit comment" /></p>
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</form>
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If you find yourself doing this often, you might consider creating a custom
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:ref:`inclusion tag<howto-custom-template-tags-inclusion-tags>`.
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Further topics
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==============
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This covers the basics, but forms can do a whole lot more:
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.. toctree::
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:maxdepth: 1
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modelforms
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formsets
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media
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.. seealso::
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The :ref:`form API reference <ref-forms-index>`.
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