Can i add help text in django model fields

Question

I have a Student detail page where I have all the student data shown in a log nested format.

Now in the form I know I can add a help text. But now my manager wants that when we show the detail page, there should be help on hovering over each field.

Now I am confused where should I enter 50-100 words help text for each table in 5-6 tables

This is how I used help_text in the forms:

student_number = forms.CharField(
        required=False, max_length=64, label='Student Number',
        help_text='Unique identifier for the student ')

score 59 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 01 '14 at 17:34

59

Yes you can! Just like your form, you can add help_text to your model fields.

edited Aug 01 '14 at 17:34

Alan

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answered Aug 12 '13 at 10:49

nim4n

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1

you can find It here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4279905/access-django-model-fields-label-and-help-text – nim4n Aug 13 '13 at 04:06

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '16 at 10:13

When using model forms you can add labels and help_texts to fields generated by the model. see docs

class PupilForm(forms.ModelForm):

  class Meta:
    model = Pupil

    fields = ['student_number',]
    labels = {'student_number': "Student Number",}
    help_texts = {'student_number': "Unique identifier for the student",}

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 19 '17 at 09:49

6

After add help_texts in form, you should do smth like this in a frontend:

<label title="{{ form.name.help_text }}" for="{{ form.name.id_for_label }}">Your label</label> 
{{ form.name }} {{ form.quantity }}

answered Feb 19 '17 at 09:49

Radren

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 12 '13 at 01:28

4

By 'detail page' you mean a edit form of a single student instance or the list of all student records? Are you using Django admin or do you use your own view and template, custom form definition or as_ul()/as_list() etc? It's hard to answer your question with just seeing your form field definition.

What do you mean by 'for each table'? Would form inheritance help, so that you set the help text of common form fields only in the super form.

If you render a custom template you can render the help_text wherever you like with {{ my_field.help_text }}. If you have a table-like view in your template and want the helptext there, just put an empty instance of the form in your template context so that you have access to the help_texts and put it in your table as tooltip?

answered Aug 12 '13 at 01:28

djangonaut

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By detail page , i mean i have my custom view where i show the ready only information of student with its child models like profiles, parents etc. Now `form` is separate and have no relation with detail page. Form is only for entering information. that was example that how can i use use help text in form but can i define same help_text in model fields s – user26 Aug 12 '13 at 01:52
In that case load the instance into your form just like as you would for editing, so you have access to field names, field values and field help texts. Just that you do not render it as an actual html form with input fields. – djangonaut Aug 12 '13 at 02:05
But on detail page i am showing about 10 different objects and they have 10 different forms. do i need to load them all. or i was thinking just to make a dictionary of all of them in view and then show in template – user26 Aug 12 '13 at 02:12
yes, you might put all your helptexts in a dictionary pass it to the template as well as pointing to it from the field definition like help_text=constants.HELPTEXTS['student_number'], don't define the dictionary in the view though but in a constant file or maybe the forms.py – djangonaut Aug 12 '13 at 02:27

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 08 '16 at 15:37

In case you want to use the standard admin change form with a short help-text for each field but sometimes feel the need to give a longer explanation or even a table with some sample values (without restricting the user to a predefined set of choices) you can do something like this:

my_strange_field = models.FloatField('strange parameter', validators=[MinValueValidator(1.0)],
                                     help_text='corr. factor x >= 1 <img src="/static/admin/img/icon-unknown.gif" '
                                               'width="15" height="15" title="typical values:\n'
                                               'cow:\t2..3\ncat:\t5..7\ndog:\t11..15')

This way you get a short text "corr. factor x >= 1" followed by a nifty question mark which presents a table like tool-tip without the need to modify the change_form template.

Can i add help text in django model fields

5 Answers5