access django model fields label and help_text

Question

I have something like this:

class ContactData(models.Model):
    name  = models.CharField(max_length=300, verbose_name=u"Name", help_text=u"Please enter your name...",null=True, blank=False)
    phone = models.CharField(max_length=300, verbose_name=u"Phone number", null=True, blank=False)

I would like to show a field's label and help_text in template (that is - just access it from view). Can this be done?

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 05 '12 at 13:27

44

unicode(ContactData._meta.get_field('name').verbose_name)
unicode(ContactData._meta.get_field('name').help_text)

unicode(ContactData._meta.get_field('phone').verbose_name)
unicode(ContactData._meta.get_field('phone').help_text)

edited Sep 05 '12 at 13:27

j0k

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answered Sep 05 '12 at 13:26

user1649195

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You can't access any of these fields in a template. – Dec 16 '15 at 09:28
What is a language of such texts? – mirek Oct 15 '21 at 15:44

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 17 '17 at 01:23

I know this is old, but it deserves a full answer that can be used in templates.

If you need to use it in a template, the preferred method is to add model methods that get these values, such as:

from django.db import models
from six import text_type

class ContactData(models.Model):
    name  = models.CharField(max_length=300, verbose_name=u"Name", help_text=u"Please enter your name...",null=True, blank=False)
    phone = models.CharField(max_length=300, verbose_name=u"Phone number", null=True, blank=False)

    def __get_label(self, field):
        return text_type(self._meta.get_field(field).verbose_name)

    def __get_help_text(self, field)
        return text_type(self._meta.get_field(field).help_text)

    @property
    def name_label(self):
        return self.__get_label('name')

    @property
    def name_help_text(self):
        return self.__get_help_text('name')

    @property
    def phone_label(self):
        return self.__get_label('phone')

    @property
    def phone_help_text(self):
        return self.__get_help_text('phone')

Then, let us say instance is your object in a template, this is your label

<label for="id_phone">{{ instance.phone_label }}</label>
<div id="id_phone">{{ instance.phone }}</div>

Alternatively, you could create a template tag to do this, but the model method is clearer and keeps the model self contained.

Oof. You end up doing a method for every field in the model! — mlissner, Jan 28 '19 at 23:55
You could use a generator function that will generate all of these methods with 3 lines, but for this question, it is better to illustrate the process with verbosity. — miigotu, Mar 22 '20 at 12:23
@miigotu You took the words outta my mouth! I was thinking a good use case of this solution would be a mixin, which would add properties for any help text and what I will call "choice" fields, meaning any field where "choices" is passed to its constructor. — MikeyE, Apr 24 '20 at 00:45

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 25 '10 at 22:55

2

Try this.

model_instance.name.field.help_text

answered Nov 25 '10 at 22:55

Fitoria

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I get `AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'field'` for `model_instance.name.field` – frnhr Nov 28 '10 at 11:20
Tried this with Django 2.0 - but in a template, nowadays, this data is not available... – Henning Mar 12 '18 at 12:20

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 22 '14 at 13:07

1

django-etc application has model_field_verbose_name and model_field_help_text template tags to access the data you asked from templates: http://django-etc.rtfd.org/en/latest/models.html#model-field-template-tags

answered Oct 22 '14 at 13:07

idle sign

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 11 '17 at 17:25

Example from a view:

return render(
    request,
    'projects/create_edit_project.html',
    {
        'form': form,
        'model_field_meta_data': 
            extract_model_field_meta_data(form),
    }
)

extract_model_field_meta_data extracts help_text for each model field referenced by the ModelForm form:

def extract_model_field_meta_data(form):
    """ Extract meta-data from the data model fields the form is handling. """
    meta_data = dict()
    for field_name, field_data in form.base_fields.items():
        meta_data[field_name] = {
            'help_text': getattr(field_data, 'help_text', '')
        }
    return meta_data

Then in the template:

<p class="help-block">{{ model_field_meta_data.title.help_text }}</p>

title is a field in the model.

If you have a form you also have the labels already... But this could ab a simple workaround - even if it's not an editing view, you can create a form for an object and put it in the context to provise the verbose name — Henning, Mar 12 '18 at 12:42

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 15 '15 at 15:51

0

You can show this as follows:

>>> ContactData._meta.fields
[<django.db.models.fields.AutoField: id>,
 <django.db.models.fields.CharField: name>,
 <django.db.models.fields.CharField: phone>]
>>> ContactData._meta.fields[1].help_text
u'Please enter your name...'

edited Jul 15 '15 at 15:51

Tony

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answered Apr 07 '12 at 13:02

Borys Borysenko

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The question qwas how to use this in a template - _meta is not accessible in template – Henning Mar 12 '18 at 12:40

access django model fields label and help_text

6 Answers6

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