Django formsets are for working with multiple forms on the same page. They allow you to manage and process multiple instances of a form in a single request, making it easier to handle complex form interactions. In this blog post, we'll explore how to use Django formsets to streamline your form handling and improve the user experience of your Django applications.
What are Django Formsets?
Django formsets are a way to work with multiple instances of a form on the same page. They provide a convenient way to handle scenarios where you need to display and process multiple forms simultaneously, such as creating multiple records in a database or updating multiple objects at once.
Using Django Formsets
To use Django formsets, you'll first need to import the formset_factory function from Django's formset module
from django.forms import formset_factory
from django import forms
class Myform(forms.Form):
name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
email = forms.EmailField()
Then, you'll create a formset using the formset_factory function:
MyformSet = formset_factory(Myform, extra=3)
Rendering Formsets in Templates
To render a formset in a template, you'll pass it to the template context as we do with a regular form
def myview(request):
formset = MyformSet()
return render(request, 'mytemplate.html', {'formset': formset})
a formset object named formset is created using the MyformSet class. This line instantiates a formset object without any initial data. It creates a blank formset ready to be displayed to the user.
return render(request, 'mytemplate.html', {'formset': formset})
This line returns an HTTP response that renders a template named 'mytemplate.html'. The second argument is the name of the template to render, and the third argument is a dictionary containing context data to pass to the template.
In template, we'll loop through the formset and render each form:
<form method="post">
{% for form in formset %}
{{ form.as_p }}
{% endfor %}
<button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
Processing Formsets in Views:
def myview(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
formset = MyformSet(request.POST)
if formset.is_valid():
#will process the formset data
else:
formset = MyformSet()
return render(request, 'mytemplate.html', {'formset': formset})
If the request method is POST, we instantiate a formset object called formset using the data contained in the request.POST dictionary. This dictionary contains the form data submitted by the user. We pass this data to the MyformSet class constructor, which initializes the formset with the submitted data.
We check if the formset data is valid by calling the is_valid() method on the formset object. This method performs validation on all forms If all the forms pass validation, this method returns True, indicating that the formset data is valid.