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diff --git a/parts/django/docs/topics/forms/media.txt b/parts/django/docs/topics/forms/media.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe70894 --- /dev/null +++ b/parts/django/docs/topics/forms/media.txt @@ -0,0 +1,309 @@ +Form Media +========== + +Rendering an attractive and easy-to-use Web form requires more than just +HTML - it also requires CSS stylesheets, and if you want to use fancy +"Web2.0" widgets, you may also need to include some JavaScript on each +page. The exact combination of CSS and JavaScript that is required for +any given page will depend upon the widgets that are in use on that page. + +This is where Django media definitions come in. Django allows you to +associate different media files with the forms and widgets that require +that media. For example, if you want to use a calendar to render DateFields, +you can define a custom Calendar widget. This widget can then be associated +with the CSS and JavaScript that is required to render the calendar. When +the Calendar widget is used on a form, Django is able to identify the CSS and +JavaScript files that are required, and provide the list of file names +in a form suitable for easy inclusion on your Web page. + +.. admonition:: Media and Django Admin + + The Django Admin application defines a number of customized widgets + for calendars, filtered selections, and so on. These widgets define + media requirements, and the Django Admin uses the custom widgets + in place of the Django defaults. The Admin templates will only include + those media files that are required to render the widgets on any + given page. + + If you like the widgets that the Django Admin application uses, + feel free to use them in your own application! They're all stored + in ``django.contrib.admin.widgets``. + +.. admonition:: Which JavaScript toolkit? + + Many JavaScript toolkits exist, and many of them include widgets (such + as calendar widgets) that can be used to enhance your application. + Django has deliberately avoided blessing any one JavaScript toolkit. + Each toolkit has its own relative strengths and weaknesses - use + whichever toolkit suits your requirements. Django is able to integrate + with any JavaScript toolkit. + +Media as a static definition +---------------------------- + +The easiest way to define media is as a static definition. Using this method, +the media declaration is an inner class. The properties of the inner class +define the media requirements. + +Here's a simple example:: + + class CalendarWidget(forms.TextInput): + class Media: + css = { + 'all': ('pretty.css',) + } + js = ('animations.js', 'actions.js') + +This code defines a ``CalendarWidget``, which will be based on ``TextInput``. +Every time the CalendarWidget is used on a form, that form will be directed +to include the CSS file ``pretty.css``, and the JavaScript files +``animations.js`` and ``actions.js``. + +This static media definition is converted at runtime into a widget property +named ``media``. The media for a CalendarWidget instance can be retrieved +through this property:: + + >>> w = CalendarWidget() + >>> print w.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/actions.js"></script> + +Here's a list of all possible ``Media`` options. There are no required options. + +``css`` +~~~~~~~ + +A dictionary describing the CSS files required for various forms of output +media. + +The values in the dictionary should be a tuple/list of file names. See +`the section on media paths`_ for details of how to specify paths to media +files. + +.. _the section on media paths: `Paths in media definitions`_ + +The keys in the dictionary are the output media types. These are the same +types accepted by CSS files in media declarations: 'all', 'aural', 'braille', +'embossed', 'handheld', 'print', 'projection', 'screen', 'tty' and 'tv'. If +you need to have different stylesheets for different media types, provide +a list of CSS files for each output medium. The following example would +provide two CSS options -- one for the screen, and one for print:: + + class Media: + css = { + 'screen': ('pretty.css',), + 'print': ('newspaper.css',) + } + +If a group of CSS files are appropriate for multiple output media types, +the dictionary key can be a comma separated list of output media types. +In the following example, TV's and projectors will have the same media +requirements:: + + class Media: + css = { + 'screen': ('pretty.css',), + 'tv,projector': ('lo_res.css',), + 'print': ('newspaper.css',) + } + +If this last CSS definition were to be rendered, it would become the following HTML:: + + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" /> + <link href="http://media.example.com/lo_res.css" type="text/css" media="tv,projector" rel="stylesheet" /> + <link href="http://media.example.com/newspaper.css" type="text/css" media="print" rel="stylesheet" /> + +``js`` +~~~~~~ + +A tuple describing the required JavaScript files. See +`the section on media paths`_ for details of how to specify paths to media +files. + +``extend`` +~~~~~~~~~~ + +A boolean defining inheritance behavior for media declarations. + +By default, any object using a static media definition will inherit all the +media associated with the parent widget. This occurs regardless of how the +parent defines its media requirements. For example, if we were to extend our +basic Calendar widget from the example above:: + + >>> class FancyCalendarWidget(CalendarWidget): + ... class Media: + ... css = { + ... 'all': ('fancy.css',) + ... } + ... js = ('whizbang.js',) + + >>> w = FancyCalendarWidget() + >>> print w.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <link href="http://media.example.com/fancy.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/actions.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/whizbang.js"></script> + +The FancyCalendar widget inherits all the media from it's parent widget. If +you don't want media to be inherited in this way, add an ``extend=False`` +declaration to the media declaration:: + + >>> class FancyCalendarWidget(CalendarWidget): + ... class Media: + ... extend = False + ... css = { + ... 'all': ('fancy.css',) + ... } + ... js = ('whizbang.js',) + + >>> w = FancyCalendarWidget() + >>> print w.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/fancy.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/whizbang.js"></script> + +If you require even more control over media inheritance, define your media +using a `dynamic property`_. Dynamic properties give you complete control over +which media files are inherited, and which are not. + +.. _dynamic property: `Media as a dynamic property`_ + +Media as a dynamic property +--------------------------- + +If you need to perform some more sophisticated manipulation of media +requirements, you can define the media property directly. This is done +by defining a widget property that returns an instance of ``forms.Media``. +The constructor for ``forms.Media`` accepts ``css`` and ``js`` keyword +arguments in the same format as that used in a static media definition. + +For example, the static media definition for our Calendar Widget could +also be defined in a dynamic fashion:: + + class CalendarWidget(forms.TextInput): + def _media(self): + return forms.Media(css={'all': ('pretty.css',)}, + js=('animations.js', 'actions.js')) + media = property(_media) + +See the section on `Media objects`_ for more details on how to construct +return values for dynamic media properties. + +Paths in media definitions +-------------------------- + +Paths used to specify media can be either relative or absolute. If a path +starts with '/', 'http://' or 'https://', it will be interpreted as an absolute +path, and left as-is. All other paths will be prepended with the value of +``settings.MEDIA_URL``. For example, if the MEDIA_URL for your site was +``http://media.example.com/``:: + + class CalendarWidget(forms.TextInput): + class Media: + css = { + 'all': ('/css/pretty.css',), + } + js = ('animations.js', 'http://othersite.com/actions.js') + + >>> w = CalendarWidget() + >>> print w.media + <link href="/css/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://othersite.com/actions.js"></script> + +Media objects +------------- + +When you interrogate the media attribute of a widget or form, the value that +is returned is a ``forms.Media`` object. As we have already seen, the string +representation of a Media object is the HTML required to include media +in the ``<head>`` block of your HTML page. + +However, Media objects have some other interesting properties. + +Media subsets +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +If you only want media of a particular type, you can use the subscript operator +to filter out a medium of interest. For example:: + + >>> w = CalendarWidget() + >>> print w.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/actions.js"></script> + + >>> print w.media['css'] + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + +When you use the subscript operator, the value that is returned is a new +Media object -- but one that only contains the media of interest. + +Combining media objects +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Media objects can also be added together. When two media objects are added, +the resulting Media object contains the union of the media from both files:: + + >>> class CalendarWidget(forms.TextInput): + ... class Media: + ... css = { + ... 'all': ('pretty.css',) + ... } + ... js = ('animations.js', 'actions.js') + + >>> class OtherWidget(forms.TextInput): + ... class Media: + ... js = ('whizbang.js',) + + >>> w1 = CalendarWidget() + >>> w2 = OtherWidget() + >>> print w1.media + w2.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/actions.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/whizbang.js"></script> + +Media on Forms +-------------- + +Widgets aren't the only objects that can have media definitions -- forms +can also define media. The rules for media definitions on forms are the +same as the rules for widgets: declarations can be static or dynamic; +path and inheritance rules for those declarations are exactly the same. + +Regardless of whether you define a media declaration, *all* Form objects +have a media property. The default value for this property is the result +of adding the media definitions for all widgets that are part of the form:: + + >>> class ContactForm(forms.Form): + ... date = DateField(widget=CalendarWidget) + ... name = CharField(max_length=40, widget=OtherWidget) + + >>> f = ContactForm() + >>> f.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/actions.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/whizbang.js"></script> + +If you want to associate additional media with a form -- for example, CSS for form +layout -- simply add a media declaration to the form:: + + >>> class ContactForm(forms.Form): + ... date = DateField(widget=CalendarWidget) + ... name = CharField(max_length=40, widget=OtherWidget) + ... + ... class Media: + ... css = { + ... 'all': ('layout.css',) + ... } + + >>> f = ContactForm() + >>> f.media + <link href="http://media.example.com/pretty.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <link href="http://media.example.com/layout.css" type="text/css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" /> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/animations.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/actions.js"></script> + <script type="text/javascript" src="http://media.example.com/whizbang.js"></script> |