Change a Django form field to a hidden field
Question:
I have a Django form with a RegexField
, which is very similar to a normal text input field.
In my view, under certain conditions I want to hide it from the user, and trying to keep the form as similar as possible. What’s the best way to turn this field into a HiddenInput
field?
I know I can set attributes on the field with:
form['fieldname'].field.widget.attr['readonly'] = 'readonly'
And I can set the desired initial value with:
form.initial['fieldname'] = 'mydesiredvalue'
However, that won’t change the form of the widget.
What’s the best / most “django-y” / least “hacky” way to make this field a <input type="hidden">
field?
Answers:
If you have a custom template and view you may exclude the field and use {{ modelform.instance.field }}
to get the value.
also you may prefer to use in the view:
field = form.fields['field_name']
field.widget = field.hidden_widget()
but I’m not sure it will protect save method on post.
edit: field with multiple values don’t supports HiddenInput as input type, so use default hidden input widget for this field instead.
Hope it helps.
Firstly, if you don’t want the user to modify the data, then it seems cleaner to simply exclude the field. Including it as a hidden field just adds more data to send over the wire and invites a malicious user to modify it when you don’t want them to. If you do have a good reason to include the field but hide it, you can pass a keyword arg to the modelform’s constructor. Something like this perhaps:
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = MyModel
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
from django.forms.widgets import HiddenInput
hide_condition = kwargs.pop('hide_condition',None)
super(MyModelForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
if hide_condition:
self.fields['fieldname'].widget = HiddenInput()
# or alternately: del self.fields['fieldname'] to remove it from the form altogether.
Then in your view:
form = MyModelForm(hide_condition=True)
I prefer this approach to modifying the modelform’s internals in the view, but it’s a matter of taste.
This may also be useful: {{ form.field.as_hidden }}
an option that worked for me, define the field in the original form as:
forms.CharField(widget = forms.HiddenInput(), required = False)
then when you override it in the new Class it will keep it’s place.
For normal form you can do
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
slug = forms.CharField(widget=forms.HiddenInput())
If you have model form you can do the following
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = TagStatus
fields = ('slug', 'ext')
widgets = {'slug': forms.HiddenInput()}
You can also override __init__
method
class Myform(forms.Form):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(Myform, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.fields['slug'].widget = forms.HiddenInput()
You can just use css :
#id_fieldname, label[for="id_fieldname"] {
position: absolute;
display: none
}
This will make the field and its label invisible.
If you want the field to always be hidden, use the following:
class MyForm(forms.Form):
hidden_input = forms.CharField(widget=forms.HiddenInput(), initial="value")
If you want the field to be conditionally hidden, you can do the following:
form = MyForm()
if condition:
form.fields["field_name"].widget = forms.HiddenInput()
form.fields["field_name"].initial = "value"
Example of a model:
models.py
from django.db import models
class YourModel(models.Model):
fieldname = models.CharField(max_length=255, default="default")
In your form, you can add widgets with ModelForm. To make it hidden add 'type': 'hidden'
as shown below
forms.py
from .models import YourModel
from django import forms
class YourForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = YourModel
fields = ('fieldname',)
widgets = {
'fieldname': forms.TextInput(attrs={'type': 'hidden'}),
}
If you don’t know how to add it to your views.py file, here is some videos about it.
If you use Function Based View:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oOHlcHkX2U
If you use Class Based View:
{{ form.field}}
{{ form.field.as_hidden }}
with this jinja format we can have both visible form fields and hidden ones too.
if you want to hide and disable the field to protect the data inside. as others mentioned use the hiddenInput widget and make it disable
in your form init
example:
if not current_user.is_staff:
self.base_fields['pictureValid'].disabled = True
self.base_fields['pictureValid'].widget = forms.HiddenInput()
With render_field is easy
{% render_field form.field hidden=True %}
I have a Django form with a RegexField
, which is very similar to a normal text input field.
In my view, under certain conditions I want to hide it from the user, and trying to keep the form as similar as possible. What’s the best way to turn this field into a HiddenInput
field?
I know I can set attributes on the field with:
form['fieldname'].field.widget.attr['readonly'] = 'readonly'
And I can set the desired initial value with:
form.initial['fieldname'] = 'mydesiredvalue'
However, that won’t change the form of the widget.
What’s the best / most “django-y” / least “hacky” way to make this field a <input type="hidden">
field?
If you have a custom template and view you may exclude the field and use {{ modelform.instance.field }}
to get the value.
also you may prefer to use in the view:
field = form.fields['field_name']
field.widget = field.hidden_widget()
but I’m not sure it will protect save method on post.
edit: field with multiple values don’t supports HiddenInput as input type, so use default hidden input widget for this field instead.
Hope it helps.
Firstly, if you don’t want the user to modify the data, then it seems cleaner to simply exclude the field. Including it as a hidden field just adds more data to send over the wire and invites a malicious user to modify it when you don’t want them to. If you do have a good reason to include the field but hide it, you can pass a keyword arg to the modelform’s constructor. Something like this perhaps:
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = MyModel
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
from django.forms.widgets import HiddenInput
hide_condition = kwargs.pop('hide_condition',None)
super(MyModelForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
if hide_condition:
self.fields['fieldname'].widget = HiddenInput()
# or alternately: del self.fields['fieldname'] to remove it from the form altogether.
Then in your view:
form = MyModelForm(hide_condition=True)
I prefer this approach to modifying the modelform’s internals in the view, but it’s a matter of taste.
This may also be useful: {{ form.field.as_hidden }}
an option that worked for me, define the field in the original form as:
forms.CharField(widget = forms.HiddenInput(), required = False)
then when you override it in the new Class it will keep it’s place.
For normal form you can do
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
slug = forms.CharField(widget=forms.HiddenInput())
If you have model form you can do the following
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = TagStatus
fields = ('slug', 'ext')
widgets = {'slug': forms.HiddenInput()}
You can also override __init__
method
class Myform(forms.Form):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(Myform, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.fields['slug'].widget = forms.HiddenInput()
You can just use css :
#id_fieldname, label[for="id_fieldname"] {
position: absolute;
display: none
}
This will make the field and its label invisible.
If you want the field to always be hidden, use the following:
class MyForm(forms.Form):
hidden_input = forms.CharField(widget=forms.HiddenInput(), initial="value")
If you want the field to be conditionally hidden, you can do the following:
form = MyForm()
if condition:
form.fields["field_name"].widget = forms.HiddenInput()
form.fields["field_name"].initial = "value"
Example of a model:
models.py
from django.db import models
class YourModel(models.Model):
fieldname = models.CharField(max_length=255, default="default")
In your form, you can add widgets with ModelForm. To make it hidden add 'type': 'hidden'
as shown below
forms.py
from .models import YourModel
from django import forms
class YourForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = YourModel
fields = ('fieldname',)
widgets = {
'fieldname': forms.TextInput(attrs={'type': 'hidden'}),
}
If you don’t know how to add it to your views.py file, here is some videos about it.
If you use Function Based View:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oOHlcHkX2U
If you use Class Based View:
{{ form.field}}
{{ form.field.as_hidden }}
with this jinja format we can have both visible form fields and hidden ones too.
if you want to hide and disable the field to protect the data inside. as others mentioned use the hiddenInput widget and make it disable
in your form init
example:
if not current_user.is_staff:
self.base_fields['pictureValid'].disabled = True
self.base_fields['pictureValid'].widget = forms.HiddenInput()
With render_field is easy
{% render_field form.field hidden=True %}