At HTML level, a form is a set of fields that gets submitted when a the form submit button is pressed.
However, this is not the case with model forms and inline formsets (e.g. an admin page with inlines) -- inline formsets are disparate from the model form. This creates at least two problems: 1) it's impossible to display inline formsets in between ordinary form fields (although they may logically belong to a particular fieldset and not to the end of the form), 2) it's impossible to create nested (recursive) inlines. There's more to it though. Inline formsets usually represent composition, i.e. the inline objects are inseparable from the main entity. The relation is stronger than a ForeignKey (from the main entity to another entity), yet the latter is displayed as a field of the form and can be easily manipulated -- but inlines are not. What I propose may at first sound odd: adding a *formset field* to forms (keen readers notice the Composite pattern in work here): FormsetField(form=CustomFormClass, << other options inspired by admin inlines and formset factories >>) It would overcome both of the problems mentioned above and, being object-based, would be generally more flexible than the factories currently in use. Nested formsets can be trivially created: class Foo(forms.Form): foo = forms.FormsetField(...) class Bar(forms.Form): foos = forms.FormsetField(form=Foo, ...) # <-- nested formset Rendering --------- In an ideal world, the would-be formset field would support all the niceness present or coming to Django admin: add/delete instances on the fly, collapsing and reordering. That means coupling JS to forms layer, which seems to be frowned upon. Leaving either abstractions/hooks in place to support that functionality and/or document how to bind the JS would probably suffice though. Implications for contrib.admin ------------------------------ FormsetField would be the recommended way for displaying and manipulating inlines. In yet another ideal world, assembling your own contrib.admin would be trivial. All the functionality might be nicely packaged to cohesive components (generic views, Alex's django-filter etc) -- contrib.admin would be just a thin wrapper that binds all reusable bits into a harmonious whole. A rich FormsetField would contribute to that, making working with formsets less onerous. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
