Django crispy forms - Set hidden field value

Question

I've got the following django crispy form:

class ConsultForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:

        model = Consults # Your User model
        fields = [ 'TEMPLATE','EMAIL', 'DATE']
        labels = {

        'EMAIL' : 'Your Email',
        'DATE' : 'Todays date',

        # 'captcha': "Enter captcha"

        }
    helper = FormHelper()

    helper.form_method = 'POST'
    helper.form_action = "/contact/"
    helper.form_id = 'form' # SET THIS OR BOOTSTRAP JS AND VAL.JS WILL NOT WORK


    helper.add_input(Submit('Submit', 'Submit', css_class='btn-primary'))


    helper.layout = Layout(
        Field('TEMPLATE', type="hidden"),
        Field('DATE', type="hidden"))

I want to pass a value with the hidden field TEMPLATE. I've read https://django-crispy-forms.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api_helpers.html , but can't see how to do this. How can I get this done?

Answer 1

You can set Form field initial values like this:

class ConsultForm(forms.ModelForm):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.initial['TEMPLATE'] = 'my_initial_value'

You can also change the value of the field at other places in your code like:

form = ConsultForm(instance=instance)
form.initial['TEMPLATE'] = 'new_value'

With formhelper (with crispy Universal Layout Objects like Field) you set attributes as you already did, like:

Field('TEMPLATE', id="template", value="something" template="my-template.html")

If that's what you were asking for.

Or if the above does not work easy then there is a layout object called Hidden in crispy. You can create hidden input fields with that:

Hidden('name', 'value')

You use it as Hidden('TEMPLATE', 'mysomethingvalue')

Like:

Button('name', 'value')

To make it fully clear:

helper.layout = Layout(
        Hidden('TEMPLATE', 'myvalue'),
        Hidden('DATE', 'anydate'))