Django — Forms

Basic Form

# blog/forms.py
from django import forms
from .models import Post

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = ['title', 'content', 'published']
        widgets = {
            'title': forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
            'content': forms.Textarea(attrs={'class': 'form-control', 'rows': 5}),
        }

Regular Form

class ContactForm(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
    email = forms.EmailField()
    message = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea)

Form in View

def post_create(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = PostForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            post = form.save()
            return redirect('post_detail', pk=post.pk)
    else:
        form = PostForm()
    return render(request, 'blog/form.html', {'form': form})

Form Template

<form method="post">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {{ form.as_p }}
    <button type="submit">Save</button>
</form>

Form Validation

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    def clean_title(self):
        title = self.cleaned_data.get('title')
        if len(title) < 5:
            raise forms.ValidationError("Title must be at least 5 characters")
        return title

Mini Practice

1. Create a ModelForm
2. Create a regular Form
3. Handle form submission in views
4. Add custom validation

Up Next

Continue with Form Validation — validating form data.