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<h1 id="html-forms"><a class="toclink" href="#html-forms">HTML & Forms</a></h1>
<p>REST framework is suitable for returning both API style responses, and regular HTML pages. Additionally, serializers can used as HTML forms and rendered in templates.</p>
<h2 id="rendering-html"><a class="toclink" href="#rendering-html">Rendering HTML</a></h2>
<p>In order to return HTML responses you'll need to either <code>TemplateHTMLRenderer</code>, or <code>StaticHTMLRenderer</code>.</p>
<p>The <code>TemplateHTMLRenderer</code> class expects the response to contain a dictionary of context data, and renders an HTML page based on a template that must be specified either in the view or on the response.</p>
<p>The <code>StaticHTMLRender</code> class expects the response to contain a string of the pre-rendered HTML content.</p>
<p>Because static HTML pages typically have different behavior from API responses you'll probably need to write any HTML views explicitly, rather than relying on the built-in generic views.</p>
<p>Here's an example of a view that returns a list of "Profile" instances, rendered in an HTML template:</p>
<p><strong>views.py</strong>:</p>
<pre><code>from my_project.example.models import Profile
from rest_framework.renderers import TemplateHTMLRenderer
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework.views import APIView
class ProfileList(APIView):
renderer_classes = [TemplateHTMLRenderer]
template_name = 'profile_list.html'
def get(self, request):
queryset = Profile.objects.all()
return Response({'profiles': queryset})
</code></pre>
<p><strong>profile_list.html</strong>:</p>
<pre><code><html><body>
<h1>Profiles</h1>
<ul>
{% for profile in profiles %}
<li>{{ profile.name }}</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
</body></html>
</code></pre>
<h2 id="rendering-forms"><a class="toclink" href="#rendering-forms">Rendering Forms</a></h2>
<p>Serializers may be rendered as forms by using the <code>render_form</code> template tag, and including the serializer instance as context to the template.</p>
<p>The following view demonstrates an example of using a serializer in a template for viewing and updating a model instance:</p>
<p><strong>views.py</strong>:</p>
<pre><code>from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404
from my_project.example.models import Profile
from rest_framework.renderers import TemplateHTMLRenderer
from rest_framework.views import APIView
class ProfileDetail(APIView):
renderer_classes = [TemplateHTMLRenderer]
template_name = 'profile_detail.html'
def get(self, request, pk):
profile = get_object_or_404(Profile, pk=pk)
serializer = ProfileSerializer(profile)
return Response({'serializer': serializer, 'profile': profile})
def post(self, request, pk):
profile = get_object_or_404(Profile, pk=pk)
serializer = ProfileSerializer(profile, data=request.data)
if not serializer.is_valid():
return Response({'serializer': serializer, 'profile': profile})
serializer.save()
return redirect('profile-list')
</code></pre>
<p><strong>profile_detail.html</strong>:</p>
<pre><code>{% load rest_framework %}
<html><body>
<h1>Profile - {{ profile.name }}</h1>
<form action="{% url 'profile-detail' pk=profile.pk %}" method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
{% render_form serializer %}
<input type="submit" value="Save">
</form>
</body></html>
</code></pre>
<h3 id="using-template-packs"><a class="toclink" href="#using-template-packs">Using template packs</a></h3>
<p>The <code>render_form</code> tag takes an optional <code>template_pack</code> argument, that specifies which template directory should be used for rendering the form and form fields.</p>
<p>REST framework includes three built-in template packs, all based on Bootstrap 3. The built-in styles are <code>horizontal</code>, <code>vertical</code>, and <code>inline</code>. The default style is <code>horizontal</code>. To use any of these template packs you'll want to also include the Bootstrap 3 CSS.</p>
<p>The following HTML will link to a CDN hosted version of the Bootstrap 3 CSS:</p>
<pre><code><head>
…
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
</code></pre>
<p>Third party packages may include alternate template packs, by bundling a template directory containing the necessary form and field templates.</p>
<p>Let's take a look at how to render each of the three available template packs. For these examples we'll use a single serializer class to present a "Login" form.</p>
<pre><code>class LoginSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
email = serializers.EmailField(
max_length=100,
style={'placeholder': 'Email'}
)
password = serializers.CharField(
max_length=100,
style={'input_type': 'password', 'placeholder': 'Password'}
)
remember_me = serializers.BooleanField()
</code></pre>
<hr />
<h4 id="rest_frameworkvertical"><a class="toclink" href="#rest_frameworkvertical"><code>rest_framework/vertical</code></a></h4>
<p>Presents form labels above their corresponding control inputs, using the standard Bootstrap layout.</p>
<p><em>This is the default template pack.</em></p>
<pre><code>{% load rest_framework %}
...
<form action="{% url 'login' %}" method="post" novalidate>
{% csrf_token %}
{% render_form serializer template_pack='rest_framework/vertical' %}
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Sign in</button>
</form>
</code></pre>
<p><img alt="Vertical form example" src="../../img/vertical.png" /></p>
<hr />
<h4 id="rest_frameworkhorizontal"><a class="toclink" href="#rest_frameworkhorizontal"><code>rest_framework/horizontal</code></a></h4>
<p>Presents labels and controls alongside each other, using a 2/10 column split.</p>
<p><em>This is the form style used in the browsable API and admin renderers.</em></p>
<pre><code>{% load rest_framework %}
...
<form class="form-horizontal" action="{% url 'login' %}" method="post" novalidate>
{% csrf_token %}
{% render_form serializer %}
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-offset-2 col-sm-10">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Sign in</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</code></pre>
<p><img alt="Horizontal form example" src="../../img/horizontal.png" /></p>
<hr />
<h4 id="rest_frameworkinline"><a class="toclink" href="#rest_frameworkinline"><code>rest_framework/inline</code></a></h4>
<p>A compact form style that presents all the controls inline.</p>
<pre><code>{% load rest_framework %}
...
<form class="form-inline" action="{% url 'login' %}" method="post" novalidate>
{% csrf_token %}
{% render_form serializer template_pack='rest_framework/inline' %}
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Sign in</button>
</form>
</code></pre>
<p><img alt="Inline form example" src="../../img/inline.png" /></p>
<h2 id="field-styles"><a class="toclink" href="#field-styles">Field styles</a></h2>
<p>Serializer fields can have their rendering style customized by using the <code>style</code> keyword argument. This argument is a dictionary of options that control the template and layout used.</p>
<p>The most common way to customize the field style is to use the <code>base_template</code> style keyword argument to select which template in the template pack should be use.</p>
<p>For example, to render a <code>CharField</code> as an HTML textarea rather than the default HTML input, you would use something like this:</p>
<pre><code>details = serializers.CharField(
max_length=1000,
style={'base_template': 'textarea.html'}
)
</code></pre>
<p>If you instead want a field to be rendered using a custom template that is <em>not part of an included template pack</em>, you can instead use the <code>template</code> style option, to fully specify a template name:</p>
<pre><code>details = serializers.CharField(
max_length=1000,
style={'template': 'my-field-templates/custom-input.html'}
)
</code></pre>
<p>Field templates can also use additional style properties, depending on their type. For example, the <code>textarea.html</code> template also accepts a <code>rows</code> property that can be used to affect the sizing of the control.</p>
<pre><code>details = serializers.CharField(
max_length=1000,
style={'base_template': 'textarea.html', 'rows': 10}
)
</code></pre>
<p>The complete list of <code>base_template</code> options and their associated style options is listed below.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>base_template</th>
<th>Valid field types</th>
<th>Additional style options</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>input.html</td>
<td>Any string, numeric or date/time field</td>
<td>input_type, placeholder, hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>textarea.html</td>
<td><code>CharField</code></td>
<td>rows, placeholder, hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>select.html</td>
<td><code>ChoiceField</code>or relational field types</td>
<td>hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>radio.html</td>
<td><code>ChoiceField</code>or relational field types</td>
<td>inline, hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>select_multiple.html</td>
<td><code>MultipleChoiceField</code>or relational fields with <code>many=True</code></td>
<td>hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>checkbox_multiple.html</td>
<td><code>MultipleChoiceField</code>or relational fields with <code>many=True</code></td>
<td>inline, hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>checkbox.html</td>
<td><code>BooleanField</code></td>
<td>hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>fieldset.html</td>
<td>Nested serializer</td>
<td>hide_label</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>list_fieldset.html</td>
<td><code>ListField</code>or nested serializer with <code>many=True</code></td>
<td>hide_label</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
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