django/docs/ref/forms/api.txt

.. _ref-forms-api:

=============
The Forms API
=============

.. currentmodule:: django.forms

.. admonition:: About this document

    This document covers the gritty details of Django's forms API. You should
    read the :ref:`introduction to working with forms <topics-forms-index>`
    first.

.. _ref-forms-api-bound-unbound:

Bound and unbound forms
-----------------------

A :class:`Form` instance is either **bound** to a set of data, or **unbound**.

    * If it's **bound** to a set of data, it's capable of validating that data
      and rendering the form as HTML with the data displayed in the HTML.

    * If it's **unbound**, it cannot do validation (because there's no data to
      validate!), but it can still render the blank form as HTML.

To create an unbound :class:`Form` instance, simply instantiate the class::

    >>> f = ContactForm()

To bind data to a form, pass the data as a dictionary as the first parameter to
your :class:`Form` class constructor::

    >>> data = {'subject': 'hello',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'foo@example.com',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)

In this dictionary, the keys are the field names, which correspond to the
attributes in your :class:`Form` class. The values are the data you're trying to
validate. These will usually be strings, but there's no requirement that they be
strings; the type of data you pass depends on the :class:`Field`, as we'll see
in a moment.

.. attribute:: Form.is_bound

If you need to distinguish between bound and unbound form instances at runtime,
check the value of the form's :attr:`~Form.is_bound` attribute::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> f.is_bound
    False
    >>> f = ContactForm({'subject': 'hello'})
    >>> f.is_bound
    True

Note that passing an empty dictionary creates a *bound* form with empty data::

    >>> f = ContactForm({})
    >>> f.is_bound
    True

If you have a bound :class:`Form` instance and want to change the data somehow,
or if you want to bind an unbound :class:`Form` instance to some data, create
another :class:`Form` instance. There is no way to change data in a
:class:`Form` instance. Once a :class:`Form` instance has been created, you
should consider its data immutable, whether it has data or not.

Using forms to validate data
----------------------------

.. method:: Form.is_valid()

The primary task of a :class:`Form` object is to validate data. With a bound
:class:`Form` instance, call the :meth:`~Form.is_valid` method to run validation
and return a boolean designating whether the data was valid::

    >>> data = {'subject': 'hello',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'foo@example.com',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)
    >>> f.is_valid()
    True

Let's try with some invalid data. In this case, ``subject`` is blank (an error,
because all fields are required by default) and ``sender`` is not a valid
e-mail address::

    >>> data = {'subject': '',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'invalid e-mail address',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)
    >>> f.is_valid()
    False

.. attribute:: Form.errors

Access the :attr:`~Form.errors` attribute to get a dictionary of error
messages::

    >>> f.errors
    {'sender': [u'Enter a valid e-mail address.'], 'subject': [u'This field is required.']}

In this dictionary, the keys are the field names, and the values are lists of
Unicode strings representing the error messages. The error messages are stored
in lists because a field can have multiple error messages.

You can access :attr:`~Form.errors` without having to call
:meth:`~Form.is_valid` first. The form's data will be validated the first time
either you call :meth:`~Form.is_valid` or access :attr:`~Form.errors`.

The validation routines will only get called once, regardless of how many times
you access :attr:`~Form.errors` or call :meth:`~Form.is_valid`. This means that
if validation has side effects, those side effects will only be triggered once.

Behavior of unbound forms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's meaningless to validate a form with no data, but, for the record, here's
what happens with unbound forms::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> f.is_valid()
    False
    >>> f.errors
    {}

Dynamic initial values
----------------------

.. attribute:: Form.initial

Use ``initial`` to declare the initial value of form fields at runtime. For
example, you might want to fill in a ``username`` field with the username of the
current session.

To accomplish this, use the ``initial`` argument to a ``Form``. This argument,
if given, should be a dictionary mapping field names to initial values. Only
include the fields for which you're specifying an initial value; it's not
necessary to include every field in your form. For example::

    >>> f = ContactForm(initial={'subject': 'Hi there!'})

These values are only displayed for unbound forms, and they're not used as
fallback values if a particular value isn't provided.

Note that if a ``Field`` defines ``initial`` *and* you include ``initial`` when
instantiating the ``Form``, then the latter ``initial`` will have precedence. In
this example, ``initial`` is provided both at the field level and at the form
instance level, and the latter gets precedence::

    >>> class CommentForm(forms.Form):
    ...     name = forms.CharField(initial='class')
    ...     url = forms.URLField()
    ...     comment = forms.CharField()
    >>> f = CommentForm(initial={'name': 'instance'}, auto_id=False)
    >>> print f
    <tr><th>Name:</th><td><input type="text" name="name" value="instance" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Url:</th><td><input type="text" name="url" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Comment:</th><td><input type="text" name="comment" /></td></tr>

Accessing "clean" data
----------------------

Each ``Field`` in a ``Form`` class is responsible not only for validating data,
but also for "cleaning" it -- normalizing it to a consistent format. This is a
nice feature, because it allows data for a particular field to be input in
a variety of ways, always resulting in consistent output.

For example, ``DateField`` normalizes input into a Python ``datetime.date``
object. Regardless of whether you pass it a string in the format
``'1994-07-15'``, a ``datetime.date`` object or a number of other formats,
``DateField`` will always normalize it to a ``datetime.date`` object as long as
it's valid.

Once you've created a ``Form`` instance with a set of data and validated it,
you can access the clean data via the ``cleaned_data`` attribute of the ``Form``
object::

    >>> data = {'subject': 'hello',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'foo@example.com',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)
    >>> f.is_valid()
    True
    >>> f.cleaned_data
    {'cc_myself': True, 'message': u'Hi there', 'sender': u'foo@example.com', 'subject': u'hello'}

.. versionchanged:: 1.0
    The ``cleaned_data`` attribute was called ``clean_data`` in earlier releases.

Note that any text-based field -- such as ``CharField`` or ``EmailField`` --
always cleans the input into a Unicode string. We'll cover the encoding
implications later in this document.

If your data does *not* validate, your ``Form`` instance will not have a
``cleaned_data`` attribute::

    >>> data = {'subject': '',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'invalid e-mail address',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)
    >>> f.is_valid()
    False
    >>> f.cleaned_data
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
    AttributeError: 'ContactForm' object has no attribute 'cleaned_data'

``cleaned_data`` will always *only* contain a key for fields defined in the
``Form``, even if you pass extra data when you define the ``Form``. In this
example, we pass a bunch of extra fields to the ``ContactForm`` constructor,
but ``cleaned_data`` contains only the form's fields::

    >>> data = {'subject': 'hello',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'foo@example.com',
    ...         'cc_myself': True,
    ...         'extra_field_1': 'foo',
    ...         'extra_field_2': 'bar',
    ...         'extra_field_3': 'baz'}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)
    >>> f.is_valid()
    True
    >>> f.cleaned_data # Doesn't contain extra_field_1, etc.
    {'cc_myself': True, 'message': u'Hi there', 'sender': u'foo@example.com', 'subject': u'hello'}

``cleaned_data`` will include a key and value for *all* fields defined in the
``Form``, even if the data didn't include a value for fields that are not
required. In this example, the data dictionary doesn't include a value for the
``nick_name`` field, but ``cleaned_data`` includes it, with an empty value::

    >>> class OptionalPersonForm(Form):
    ...     first_name = CharField()
    ...     last_name = CharField()
    ...     nick_name = CharField(required=False)
    >>> data = {'first_name': u'John', 'last_name': u'Lennon'}
    >>> f = OptionalPersonForm(data)
    >>> f.is_valid()
    True
    >>> f.cleaned_data
    {'nick_name': u'', 'first_name': u'John', 'last_name': u'Lennon'}

In this above example, the ``cleaned_data`` value for ``nick_name`` is set to an
empty string, because ``nick_name`` is ``CharField``, and ``CharField``\s treat
empty values as an empty string. Each field type knows what its "blank" value
is -- e.g., for ``DateField``, it's ``None`` instead of the empty string. For
full details on each field's behavior in this case, see the "Empty value" note
for each field in the "Built-in ``Field`` classes" section below.

You can write code to perform validation for particular form fields (based on
their name) or for the form as a whole (considering combinations of various
fields). More information about this is in :ref:`ref-forms-validation`.

Outputting forms as HTML
------------------------

The second task of a ``Form`` object is to render itself as HTML. To do so,
simply ``print`` it::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> print f
    <tr><th><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label></th><td><input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_message">Message:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label></th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></td></tr>

If the form is bound to data, the HTML output will include that data
appropriately. For example, if a field is represented by an
``<input type="text">``, the data will be in the ``value`` attribute. If a
field is represented by an ``<input type="checkbox">``, then that HTML will
include ``checked="checked"`` if appropriate::

    >>> data = {'subject': 'hello',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'foo@example.com',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data)
    >>> print f
    <tr><th><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label></th><td><input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" value="hello" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_message">Message:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" value="Hi there" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" value="foo@example.com" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label></th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" checked="checked" /></td></tr>

This default output is a two-column HTML table, with a ``<tr>`` for each field.
Notice the following:

    * For flexibility, the output does *not* include the ``<table>`` and
      ``</table>`` tags, nor does it include the ``<form>`` and ``</form>``
      tags or an ``<input type="submit">`` tag. It's your job to do that.

    * Each field type has a default HTML representation. ``CharField`` and
      ``EmailField`` are represented by an ``<input type="text">``.
      ``BooleanField`` is represented by an ``<input type="checkbox">``. Note
      these are merely sensible defaults; you can specify which HTML to use for
      a given field by using widgets, which we'll explain shortly.

    * The HTML ``name`` for each tag is taken directly from its attribute name
      in the ``ContactForm`` class.

    * The text label for each field -- e.g. ``'Subject:'``, ``'Message:'`` and
      ``'Cc myself:'`` is generated from the field name by converting all
      underscores to spaces and upper-casing the first letter. Again, note
      these are merely sensible defaults; you can also specify labels manually.

    * Each text label is surrounded in an HTML ``<label>`` tag, which points
      to the appropriate form field via its ``id``. Its ``id``, in turn, is
      generated by prepending ``'id_'`` to the field name. The ``id``
      attributes and ``<label>`` tags are included in the output by default, to
      follow best practices, but you can change that behavior.

Although ``<table>`` output is the default output style when you ``print`` a
form, other output styles are available. Each style is available as a method on
a form object, and each rendering method returns a Unicode object.

``as_p()``
~~~~~~~~~~

``Form.as_p()`` renders the form as a series of ``<p>`` tags, with each ``<p>``
containing one field::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> f.as_p()
    u'<p><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label> <input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>\n<p><label for="id_message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></p>\n<p><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></p>\n<p><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></p>'
    >>> print f.as_p()
    <p><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label> <input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
    <p><label for="id_message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></p>
    <p><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></p>
    <p><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></p>

``as_ul()``
~~~~~~~~~~~

``Form.as_ul()`` renders the form as a series of ``<li>`` tags, with each
``<li>`` containing one field. It does *not* include the ``<ul>`` or ``</ul>``,
so that you can specify any HTML attributes on the ``<ul>`` for flexibility::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> f.as_ul()
    u'<li><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label> <input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>\n<li><label for="id_message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></li>\n<li><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></li>\n<li><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></li>'
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label> <input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></li>

``as_table()``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, ``Form.as_table()`` outputs the form as an HTML ``<table>``. This is
exactly the same as ``print``. In fact, when you ``print`` a form object, it
calls its ``as_table()`` method behind the scenes::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> f.as_table()
    u'<tr><th><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label></th><td><input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>\n<tr><th><label for="id_message">Message:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></td></tr>\n<tr><th><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></td></tr>\n<tr><th><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label></th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></td></tr>'
    >>> print f.as_table()
    <tr><th><label for="id_subject">Subject:</label></th><td><input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_message">Message:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_sender">Sender:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label></th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" /></td></tr>

.. _ref-forms-api-configuring-label:

Configuring HTML ``<label>`` tags
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An HTML ``<label>`` tag designates which label text is associated with which
form element. This small enhancement makes forms more usable and more accessible
to assistive devices. It's always a good idea to use ``<label>`` tags.

By default, the form rendering methods include HTML ``id`` attributes on the
form elements and corresponding ``<label>`` tags around the labels. The ``id``
attribute values are generated by prepending ``id_`` to the form field names.
This behavior is configurable, though, if you want to change the ``id``
convention or remove HTML ``id`` attributes and ``<label>`` tags entirely.

Use the ``auto_id`` argument to the ``Form`` constructor to control the label
and ``id`` behavior. This argument must be ``True``, ``False`` or a string.

If ``auto_id`` is ``False``, then the form output will not include ``<label>``
tags nor ``id`` attributes::

    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id=False)
    >>> print f.as_table()
    <tr><th>Subject:</th><td><input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Message:</th><td><input type="text" name="message" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Sender:</th><td><input type="text" name="sender" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Cc myself:</th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></td></tr>
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li>Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li>Message: <input type="text" name="message" /></li>
    <li>Sender: <input type="text" name="sender" /></li>
    <li>Cc myself: <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></li>
    >>> print f.as_p()
    <p>Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
    <p>Message: <input type="text" name="message" /></p>
    <p>Sender: <input type="text" name="sender" /></p>
    <p>Cc myself: <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></p>

If ``auto_id`` is set to ``True``, then the form output *will* include
``<label>`` tags and will simply use the field name as its ``id`` for each form
field::

    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id=True)
    >>> print f.as_table()
    <tr><th><label for="subject">Subject:</label></th><td><input id="subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="message">Message:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="message" id="message" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="sender">Sender:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="sender" id="sender" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="cc_myself">Cc myself:</label></th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="cc_myself" /></td></tr>
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li><label for="subject">Subject:</label> <input id="subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li><label for="message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="message" /></li>
    <li><label for="sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="sender" /></li>
    <li><label for="cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="cc_myself" /></li>
    >>> print f.as_p()
    <p><label for="subject">Subject:</label> <input id="subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
    <p><label for="message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="message" /></p>
    <p><label for="sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="sender" /></p>
    <p><label for="cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="cc_myself" /></p>

If ``auto_id`` is set to a string containing the format character ``'%s'``,
then the form output will include ``<label>`` tags, and will generate ``id``
attributes based on the format string. For example, for a format string
``'field_%s'``, a field named ``subject`` will get the ``id`` value
``'field_subject'``. Continuing our example::

    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id='id_for_%s')
    >>> print f.as_table()
    <tr><th><label for="id_for_subject">Subject:</label></th><td><input id="id_for_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_for_message">Message:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="message" id="id_for_message" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_for_sender">Sender:</label></th><td><input type="text" name="sender" id="id_for_sender" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th><label for="id_for_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label></th><td><input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_for_cc_myself" /></td></tr>
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li><label for="id_for_subject">Subject:</label> <input id="id_for_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_for_message" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_for_sender" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_for_cc_myself" /></li>
    >>> print f.as_p()
    <p><label for="id_for_subject">Subject:</label> <input id="id_for_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
    <p><label for="id_for_message">Message:</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_for_message" /></p>
    <p><label for="id_for_sender">Sender:</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_for_sender" /></p>
    <p><label for="id_for_cc_myself">Cc myself:</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_for_cc_myself" /></p>

If ``auto_id`` is set to any other true value -- such as a string that doesn't
include ``%s`` -- then the library will act as if ``auto_id`` is ``True``.

By default, ``auto_id`` is set to the string ``'id_%s'``.

Normally, a colon (``:``) will be appended after any label name when a form is
rendered. It's possible to change the colon to another character, or omit it
entirely, using the ``label_suffix`` parameter::

    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id='id_for_%s', label_suffix='')
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li><label for="id_for_subject">Subject</label> <input id="id_for_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_message">Message</label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_for_message" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_sender">Sender</label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_for_sender" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_cc_myself">Cc myself</label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_for_cc_myself" /></li>
    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id='id_for_%s', label_suffix=' ->')
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li><label for="id_for_subject">Subject -></label> <input id="id_for_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_message">Message -></label> <input type="text" name="message" id="id_for_message" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_sender">Sender -></label> <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_for_sender" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_for_cc_myself">Cc myself -></label> <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_for_cc_myself" /></li>

Note that the label suffix is added only if the last character of the
label isn't a punctuation character (``.``, ``!``, ``?`` or ``:``)

Notes on field ordering
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the ``as_p()``, ``as_ul()`` and ``as_table()`` shortcuts, the fields are
displayed in the order in which you define them in your form class. For
example, in the ``ContactForm`` example, the fields are defined in the order
``subject``, ``message``, ``sender``, ``cc_myself``. To reorder the HTML
output, just change the order in which those fields are listed in the class.

How errors are displayed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you render a bound ``Form`` object, the act of rendering will automatically
run the form's validation if it hasn't already happened, and the HTML output
will include the validation errors as a ``<ul class="errorlist">`` near the
field. The particular positioning of the error messages depends on the output
method you're using::

    >>> data = {'subject': '',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'invalid e-mail address',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data, auto_id=False)
    >>> print f.as_table()
    <tr><th>Subject:</th><td><ul class="errorlist"><li>This field is required.</li></ul><input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Message:</th><td><input type="text" name="message" value="Hi there" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Sender:</th><td><ul class="errorlist"><li>Enter a valid e-mail address.</li></ul><input type="text" name="sender" value="invalid e-mail address" /></td></tr>
    <tr><th>Cc myself:</th><td><input checked="checked" type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></td></tr>
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li><ul class="errorlist"><li>This field is required.</li></ul>Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li>Message: <input type="text" name="message" value="Hi there" /></li>
    <li><ul class="errorlist"><li>Enter a valid e-mail address.</li></ul>Sender: <input type="text" name="sender" value="invalid e-mail address" /></li>
    <li>Cc myself: <input checked="checked" type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></li>
    >>> print f.as_p()
    <p><ul class="errorlist"><li>This field is required.</li></ul></p>
    <p>Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
    <p>Message: <input type="text" name="message" value="Hi there" /></p>
    <p><ul class="errorlist"><li>Enter a valid e-mail address.</li></ul></p>
    <p>Sender: <input type="text" name="sender" value="invalid e-mail address" /></p>
    <p>Cc myself: <input checked="checked" type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></p>

Customizing the error list format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By default, forms use ``django.forms.util.ErrorList`` to format validation
errors. If you'd like to use an alternate class for displaying errors, you can
pass that in at construction time::

    >>> from django.forms.util import ErrorList
    >>> class DivErrorList(ErrorList):
    ...     def __unicode__(self):
    ...         return self.as_divs()
    ...     def as_divs(self):
    ...         if not self: return u''
    ...         return u'<div class="errorlist">%s</div>' % ''.join([u'<div class="error">%s</div>' % e for e in self])
    >>> f = ContactForm(data, auto_id=False, error_class=DivErrorList)
    >>> f.as_p()
    <div class="errorlist"><div class="error">This field is required.</div></div>
    <p>Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></p>
    <p>Message: <input type="text" name="message" value="Hi there" /></p>
    <div class="errorlist"><div class="error">Enter a valid e-mail address.</div></div>
    <p>Sender: <input type="text" name="sender" value="invalid e-mail address" /></p>
    <p>Cc myself: <input checked="checked" type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></p>

More granular output
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``as_p()``, ``as_ul()`` and ``as_table()`` methods are simply shortcuts for
lazy developers -- they're not the only way a form object can be displayed.

To display the HTML for a single field in your form, use dictionary lookup
syntax using the field's name as the key, and print the resulting object::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> print f['subject']
    <input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" />
    >>> print f['message']
    <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" />
    >>> print f['sender']
    <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" />
    >>> print f['cc_myself']
    <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" />

Call ``str()`` or ``unicode()`` on the field to get its rendered HTML as a
string or Unicode object, respectively::

    >>> str(f['subject'])
    '<input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" />'
    >>> unicode(f['subject'])
    u'<input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" />'

Form objects define a custom ``__iter__()`` method, which allows you to loop
through their fields::

    >>> f = ContactForm()
    >>> for field in f: print field
    <input id="id_subject" type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" />
    <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" />
    <input type="text" name="sender" id="id_sender" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" id="id_cc_myself" />

The field-specific output honors the form object's ``auto_id`` setting::

    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id=False)
    >>> print f['message']
    <input type="text" name="message" />
    >>> f = ContactForm(auto_id='id_%s')
    >>> print f['message']
    <input type="text" name="message" id="id_message" />

For a field's list of errors, access the field's ``errors`` attribute. This
is a list-like object that is displayed as an HTML ``<ul class="errorlist">``
when printed::

    >>> data = {'subject': 'hi', 'message': '', 'sender': '', 'cc_myself': ''}
    >>> f = ContactForm(data, auto_id=False)
    >>> print f['message']
    <input type="text" name="message" />
    >>> f['message'].errors
    [u'This field is required.']
    >>> print f['message'].errors
    <ul class="errorlist"><li>This field is required.</li></ul>
    >>> f['subject'].errors
    []
    >>> print f['subject'].errors

    >>> str(f['subject'].errors)
    ''

.. _binding-uploaded-files:

Binding uploaded files to a form
--------------------------------

.. versionadded:: 1.0

Dealing with forms that have ``FileField`` and ``ImageField`` fields
is a little more complicated than a normal form.

Firstly, in order to upload files, you'll need to make sure that your
``<form>`` element correctly defines the ``enctype`` as
``"multipart/form-data"``::

  <form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="/foo/">

Secondly, when you use the form, you need to bind the file data. File
data is handled separately to normal form data, so when your form
contains a ``FileField`` and ``ImageField``, you will need to specify
a second argument when you bind your form. So if we extend our
ContactForm to include an ``ImageField`` called ``mugshot``, we
need to bind the file data containing the mugshot image::

    # Bound form with an image field
    >>> from django.core.files.uploadedfile import SimpleUploadedFile
    >>> data = {'subject': 'hello',
    ...         'message': 'Hi there',
    ...         'sender': 'foo@example.com',
    ...         'cc_myself': True}
    >>> file_data = {'mugshot': SimpleUploadedFile('face.jpg', <file data>)}
    >>> f = ContactFormWithMugshot(data, file_data)

In practice, you will usually specify ``request.FILES`` as the source
of file data (just like you use ``request.POST`` as the source of
form data)::

    # Bound form with an image field, data from the request
    >>> f = ContactFormWithMugshot(request.POST, request.FILES)

Constructing an unbound form is the same as always -- just omit both
form data *and* file data::

    # Unbound form with a image field
    >>> f = ContactFormWithMugshot()

Testing for multipart forms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you're writing reusable views or templates, you may not know ahead of time
whether your form is a multipart form or not. The ``is_multipart()`` method
tells you whether the form requires multipart encoding for submission::

    >>> f = ContactFormWithMugshot()
    >>> f.is_multipart()
    True

Here's an example of how you might use this in a template::

    {% if form.is_multipart %}
        <form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="/foo/">
    {% else %}
        <form method="post" action="/foo/">
    {% endif %}
    {{ form }}
    </form>

Subclassing forms
-----------------

If you have multiple ``Form`` classes that share fields, you can use
subclassing to remove redundancy.

When you subclass a custom ``Form`` class, the resulting subclass will
include all fields of the parent class(es), followed by the fields you define
in the subclass.

In this example, ``ContactFormWithPriority`` contains all the fields from
``ContactForm``, plus an additional field, ``priority``. The ``ContactForm``
fields are ordered first::

    >>> class ContactFormWithPriority(ContactForm):
    ...     priority = forms.CharField()
    >>> f = ContactFormWithPriority(auto_id=False)
    >>> print f.as_ul()
    <li>Subject: <input type="text" name="subject" maxlength="100" /></li>
    <li>Message: <input type="text" name="message" /></li>
    <li>Sender: <input type="text" name="sender" /></li>
    <li>Cc myself: <input type="checkbox" name="cc_myself" /></li>
    <li>Priority: <input type="text" name="priority" /></li>

It's possible to subclass multiple forms, treating forms as "mix-ins." In this
example, ``BeatleForm`` subclasses both ``PersonForm`` and ``InstrumentForm``
(in that order), and its field list includes the fields from the parent
classes::

    >>> class PersonForm(Form):
    ...     first_name = CharField()
    ...     last_name = CharField()
    >>> class InstrumentForm(Form):
    ...     instrument = CharField()
    >>> class BeatleForm(PersonForm, InstrumentForm):
    ...     haircut_type = CharField()
    >>> b = BeatleForm(auto_id=False)
    >>> print b.as_ul()
    <li>First name: <input type="text" name="first_name" /></li>
    <li>Last name: <input type="text" name="last_name" /></li>
    <li>Instrument: <input type="text" name="instrument" /></li>
    <li>Haircut type: <input type="text" name="haircut_type" /></li>

.. _form-prefix:

Prefixes for forms
------------------

.. attribute:: Form.prefix

You can put several Django forms inside one ``<form>`` tag. To give each
``Form`` its own namespace, use the ``prefix`` keyword argument::

    >>> mother = PersonForm(prefix="mother")
    >>> father = PersonForm(prefix="father")
    >>> print mother.as_ul()
    <li><label for="id_mother-first_name">First name:</label> <input type="text" name="mother-first_name" id="id_mother-first_name" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_mother-last_name">Last name:</label> <input type="text" name="mother-last_name" id="id_mother-last_name" /></li>
    >>> print father.as_ul()
    <li><label for="id_father-first_name">First name:</label> <input type="text" name="father-first_name" id="id_father-first_name" /></li>
    <li><label for="id_father-last_name">Last name:</label> <input type="text" name="father-last_name" id="id_father-last_name" /></li>