:date: 2017-12-22

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Friday, December 22, 2017
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Django forms for Lino
=====================

For :ticket:`2227` I started to read the `detailed form API reference
<https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/forms/>`__:

- `The Forms API
  <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/forms/api/>`__

- `Form fields
  <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/forms/fields/>`__.

  Note the `MultiValueField
  <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/forms/fields/#multivaluefield>`__
  (aggregates the logic of multiple fields that together produce a
  single value) and the `ModelChoiceField
  <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/forms/fields/#modelchoicefield>`__.

- `The form rendering API
  <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/forms/renderers/>`__


My thoughts after reading this:

- Continues to sound promising for me. I'd prefer using Django forms
  instead of continuing to override the :meth:`as_plain_html` methods
  of our ExtJS elements.
  
- I'd probably start a new package :mod:`lino.modlib.forms_ui`.

- We don't want application developers to have to write a template
  per form. Lino continues to generate HTML from layouts
  (detail_layout, insert_layout, params_layout).
  
- Layout elements contain additional information: width, height,
  custom label or help_text, custom roles_required.

- Special Lino layout elements are container and slave table

- We would use Django's form fields and widgets with a custom form
  renderer which arranges the fields using a layout (detail_layout,
  insert_layout, params_layout).

Optimization in Amici
=====================

I added the :mod:`lino.modlib.uploads` plugin to :ref:`amici`.