django-form-scaffold is a package of helper functions for generating Django template code with markup from Django form instances.

It solves the problem of generating, over and over again, markup for a full form which is effectively a templated version of the BaseForm as_p, as_ul and as_table methods output (which output static values, rather than dyanmic Django template code).

django-form-scaffold outputs in the same form as these methods, but uses the template placeholders for all the form and field values, which is what I find myself doing time and time again as it's easier to control the individual format/styling etc. of fields in a form, and is also generally easier for designers to get their heads around a form template.

For example, outputting a login form, rather than doing:

{{ form.as_p }}

We would do:

<p>
{% if form.username.errors %}
  {% for error in form.username.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
{{ form.username.label }} {{ form.username }}
</p>
<p>
{% if form.password.errors %}
  {% for error in form.password.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
{{ form.password.label }} {{ form.password }}
</p>

Requirements

• Django >= 1.1

Installation

Install django-form-scaffold using easy_install (or pip):

easy_install django-form-scaffold

Or from the setup script:

python setup.py install

Usage

Form scaffolding is meant for generating content to then be placed in your template files, so you wouldn't called scaffold.as_p from within a template itself.

The best way to call the scaffold functions are from within a bootstraped Django Python shell, using the management script:

python manage.py shell

Then just import scaffold from the dfs namespace, import your form(s), and pass an instance to one of the functions:

>>> from dfs import scaffold
>>> from MyProject.MyApp.forms import MyForm
>>> form = MyForm()
>>> print scaffold.as_p(form)
{% if form.email.errors %}{% for error in form.email.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}{% endif %}
<p>{{ form.email.label }} {{ form.email }}</p>
{% if form.password1.errors %}{% for error in form.password1.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}{% endif %}
<p>{{ form.password1.label }} {{ form.password1 }}</p>
{% if form.password2.errors %}{% for error in form.password2.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}{% endif %}
<p>{{ form.password2.label }} {{ form.password2 }}</p>

>>> # We can also use a form class rather than an instance, but
>>> # this won't always work if your form requires params etc.,
>>> # this just creates an instance for you anyway.
>>> print scaffold.as_ul(cls=MyForm)
<li>{% if form.email.errors %}{% for error in form.email.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}{% endif %}{{ form.email.label }} {{ form.email }}</li>
<li>{% if form.password1.errors %}{% for error in form.password1.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}{% endif %}{{ form.password1.label }} {{ form.password1 }}</li>
<li>{% if form.password2.errors %}{% for error in form.password2.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}{% endif %}{{ form.password2.label }} {{ form.password2 }}</li>

The following helper functions available in dfs.scaffold:

as_p

Outputs the same markup <p> style as the inbuilt Django BaseForm.as_p.

as_ul

Outputs the same markup <ul> style as the inbuilt Django BaseForm.as_ul.

as_table

Outputs the same markup <table> style as the inbuilt Django BaseForm.as_table.

as_div

Extra scaffold-only helper to output an alternative <div> based form layout, similar in layout to as_p but with <div>s.

Management command

As of v1.1.0 django-form-scaffold ships with the management command formscaffold, which acts as a simple wrapper around the scaffold functions.

To use the command just add dfs to your INSTALLED_APPS setting and use via python manage.py (or bin/django if you're using buildout) like so:

$ python manage.py formscaffold myapp.forms MyForm as_p

This just use the class-based generation functionality of scaffold functions (pass in a class and they init a blank instance), if you need any customisations performing to the form instance before hand, use from within a Django-ized Python shell as above (e.g. with manage.py shell).