Creating a Form Class

A form class is a blueprint that tells Django exactly which boxes a person needs to fill in, like a recipe card listing every ingredient.

In this page:

Defining a Form Class
Required vs Optional Fields
Setting a Default Label

Defining a Form Class

Every field you declare as a class attribute becomes one input on the rendered form, in the order you declare them.

Note: Field order in the class matches the order fields render on the page.

Example: Defining a Form Class

Every field you declare as a class attribute becomes one input on the rendered form, in the order you declare them.

markup

from django import forms


class SignupForm(forms.Form):
    username = forms.CharField(max_length=50)
    age = forms.IntegerField()

{# Django-only code -- models.py/views.py/urls.py/settings.py snippets, or template markup using Django template tags/variables -- can't run standalone via Judge0 or the browser preview, since it needs a real Django project. Only this course's pure-Python examples (example_lang == 'python', no Django imports) are actually runnable, so those still get the button below. #}

Required vs Optional Fields

Fields are required by default; pass required=False to make a field optional.

Example: Required vs Optional Fields

Fields are required by default; pass required=False to make a field optional.

markup

class SignupForm(forms.Form):
    username = forms.CharField(max_length=50)
    bio = forms.CharField(required=False)

Setting a Default Label

Django auto-generates a label from the field name, but you can override it with the label argument.

Example: Setting a Default Label

Django auto-generates a label from the field name, but you can override it with the label argument.

markup

class SignupForm(forms.Form):
    username = forms.CharField(max_length=50, label='Choose a username')

Common Mistakes

Naming form fields differently from how the view later reads them from cleaned_data.
Forgetting to import 'from django import forms' before subclassing forms.Form.
Putting form classes inside views.py instead of a separate forms.py, making the app harder to navigate.

Chapter Summary

A form class subclasses forms.Form and declares one attribute per field.
Each field type (CharField, EmailField, IntegerField) enforces its own validation rules automatically.
Form classes belong in forms.py, imported into views.py where they're used.

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Creating a Form Class

Defining a Form Class

Required vs Optional Fields

Setting a Default Label

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