Form builder customization

For a basic usage example see form builder usage.

Custom form submission model

If you need to save additional data, you can use a custom form submission model. To do this, you need to:

  • Define a model that extends wagtail.contrib.forms.models.AbstractFormSubmission.

  • Override the get_submission_class and process_form_submission methods in your page model.

Example:

import json

from django.conf import settings
from django.db import models
from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey
from wagtail.admin.panels import (
    FieldPanel, FieldRowPanel,
    InlinePanel, MultiFieldPanel
)
from wagtail.fields import RichTextField
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField, AbstractFormSubmission


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='form_fields')


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    thank_you_text = RichTextField(blank=True)

    content_panels = AbstractEmailForm.content_panels + [
        FieldPanel('intro'),
        InlinePanel('form_fields', label="Form fields"),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_text'),
        MultiFieldPanel([
            FieldRowPanel([
                FieldPanel('from_address', classname="col6"),
                FieldPanel('to_address', classname="col6"),
            ]),
            FieldPanel('subject'),
        ], "Email"),
    ]

    def get_submission_class(self):
        return CustomFormSubmission

    def process_form_submission(self, form):
        return self.get_submission_class().objects.create(
            form_data=form.cleaned_data,
            page=self, user=form.user
        )


class CustomFormSubmission(AbstractFormSubmission):
    user = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, on_delete=models.CASCADE)

Add custom data to CSV export

If you want to add custom data to the CSV export, you will need to:

  • Override the get_data_fields method in page model.

  • Override get_data in the submission model.

The example below shows how to add a username to the CSV export. Note that this code also changes the submissions list view.

import json

from django.conf import settings
from django.db import models
from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey
from wagtail.admin.panels import (
    FieldPanel, FieldRowPanel,
    InlinePanel, MultiFieldPanel
)
from wagtail.fields import RichTextField
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField, AbstractFormSubmission


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='form_fields')


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    thank_you_text = RichTextField(blank=True)

    content_panels = AbstractEmailForm.content_panels + [
        FieldPanel('intro'),
        InlinePanel('form_fields', label="Form fields"),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_text'),
        MultiFieldPanel([
            FieldRowPanel([
                FieldPanel('from_address', classname="col6"),
                FieldPanel('to_address', classname="col6"),
            ]),
            FieldPanel('subject'),
        ], "Email"),
    ]

    def get_data_fields(self):
        data_fields = [
            ('username', 'Username'),
        ]
        data_fields += super().get_data_fields()

        return data_fields

    def get_submission_class(self):
        return CustomFormSubmission

    def process_form_submission(self, form):
        return self.get_submission_class().objects.create(
            form_data=form.cleaned_data,
            page=self, user=form.user
        )


class CustomFormSubmission(AbstractFormSubmission):
    user = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, on_delete=models.CASCADE)

    def get_data(self):
        form_data = super().get_data()
        form_data.update({
            'username': self.user.username,
        })

        return form_data

Check that a submission already exists for a user

If you want to prevent users from filling in a form more than once, you need to override the serve method in your page model.

Example:

import json

from django.conf import settings
from django.db import models
from django.shortcuts import render
from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey
from wagtail.admin.panels import (
    FieldPanel, FieldRowPanel,
    InlinePanel, MultiFieldPanel
)
from wagtail.fields import RichTextField
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField, AbstractFormSubmission


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='form_fields')


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    thank_you_text = RichTextField(blank=True)

    content_panels = AbstractEmailForm.content_panels + [
        FieldPanel('intro'),
        InlinePanel('form_fields', label="Form fields"),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_text'),
        MultiFieldPanel([
            FieldRowPanel([
                FieldPanel('from_address', classname="col6"),
                FieldPanel('to_address', classname="col6"),
            ]),
            FieldPanel('subject'),
        ], "Email"),
    ]

    def serve(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        if self.get_submission_class().objects.filter(page=self, user__pk=request.user.pk).exists():
            return render(
                request,
                self.template,
                self.get_context(request)
            )

        return super().serve(request, *args, **kwargs)

    def get_submission_class(self):
        return CustomFormSubmission

    def process_form_submission(self, form):
        return self.get_submission_class().objects.create(
            form_data=form.cleaned_data,
            page=self, user=form.user
        )


class CustomFormSubmission(AbstractFormSubmission):
    user = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, on_delete=models.CASCADE)

    class Meta:
        unique_together = ('page', 'user')

Your template should look like this:

{% load wagtailcore_tags %}
<html>
    <head>
        <title>{{ page.title }}</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>{{ page.title }}</h1>

        {% if user.is_authenticated and user.is_active or request.is_preview %}
            {% if form %}
                <div>{{ page.intro|richtext }}</div>
                <form action="{% pageurl page %}" method="POST">
                    {% csrf_token %}
                    {{ form.as_p }}
                    <input type="submit">
                </form>
            {% else %}
                <div>You can fill in the form only one time.</div>
            {% endif %}
        {% else %}
            <div>To fill in the form, you must log in.</div>
        {% endif %}
    </body>
</html>

Multi-step form

The following example shows how to create a multi-step form.

from django.core.paginator import Paginator, PageNotAnInteger, EmptyPage
from django.shortcuts import render
from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey
from wagtail.admin.panels import (
    FieldPanel, FieldRowPanel,
    InlinePanel, MultiFieldPanel
)
from wagtail.fields import RichTextField
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='form_fields')


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    thank_you_text = RichTextField(blank=True)

    content_panels = AbstractEmailForm.content_panels + [
        FieldPanel('intro'),
        InlinePanel('form_fields', label="Form fields"),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_text'),
        MultiFieldPanel([
            FieldRowPanel([
                FieldPanel('from_address', classname="col6"),
                FieldPanel('to_address', classname="col6"),
            ]),
            FieldPanel('subject'),
        ], "Email"),
    ]

    def get_form_class_for_step(self, step):
        return self.form_builder(step.object_list).get_form_class()

    def serve(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        """
        Implements a simple multi-step form.

        Stores each step into a session.
        When the last step is submitted correctly, saves the whole form into a DB.
        """

        session_key_data = 'form_data-%s' % self.pk
        is_last_step = False
        step_number = request.GET.get('p', 1)

        paginator = Paginator(self.get_form_fields(), per_page=1)
        try:
            step = paginator.page(step_number)
        except PageNotAnInteger:
            step = paginator.page(1)
        except EmptyPage:
            step = paginator.page(paginator.num_pages)
            is_last_step = True

        if request.method == 'POST':
            # The first step will be submitted with step_number == 2,
            # so we need to get a form from the previous step
            # Edge case - submission of the last step
            prev_step = step if is_last_step else paginator.page(step.previous_page_number())

            # Create a form only for submitted step
            prev_form_class = self.get_form_class_for_step(prev_step)
            prev_form = prev_form_class(request.POST, page=self, user=request.user)
            if prev_form.is_valid():
                # If data for step is valid, update the session
                form_data = request.session.get(session_key_data, {})
                form_data.update(prev_form.cleaned_data)
                request.session[session_key_data] = form_data

                if prev_step.has_next():
                    # Create a new form for a following step, if the following step is present
                    form_class = self.get_form_class_for_step(step)
                    form = form_class(page=self, user=request.user)
                else:
                    # If there is no next step, create form for all fields
                    form = self.get_form(
                        request.session[session_key_data],
                        page=self, user=request.user
                    )

                    if form.is_valid():
                        # Perform validation again for whole form.
                        # After successful validation, save data into DB,
                        # and remove from the session.
                        form_submission = self.process_form_submission(form)
                        del request.session[session_key_data]
                        # render the landing page
                        return self.render_landing_page(request, form_submission, *args, **kwargs)
            else:
                # If data for step is invalid
                # we will need to display form again with errors,
                # so restore previous state.
                form = prev_form
                step = prev_step
        else:
            # Create empty form for non-POST requests
            form_class = self.get_form_class_for_step(step)
            form = form_class(page=self, user=request.user)

        context = self.get_context(request)
        context['form'] = form
        context['fields_step'] = step
        return render(
            request,
            self.template,
            context
        )

Your template for this form page should look like this:

{% load wagtailcore_tags %}
<html>
    <head>
        <title>{{ page.title }}</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>{{ page.title }}</h1>

        <div>{{ page.intro|richtext }}</div>
        <form action="{% pageurl page %}?p={{ fields_step.number|add:"1" }}" method="POST">
            {% csrf_token %}
            {{ form.as_p }}
            <input type="submit">
        </form>
    </body>
</html>

Note that the example shown before allows the user to return to a previous step, or to open a second step without submitting the first step. Depending on your requirements, you may need to add extra checks.

Show results

If you are implementing polls or surveys, you may want to show results after submission. The following example demonstrates how to do this.

First, you need to collect results as shown below:

from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey
from wagtail.admin.panels import (
    FieldPanel, FieldRowPanel,
    InlinePanel, MultiFieldPanel
)
from wagtail.fields import RichTextField
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='form_fields')


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    thank_you_text = RichTextField(blank=True)

    content_panels = AbstractEmailForm.content_panels + [
        FieldPanel('intro'),
        InlinePanel('form_fields', label="Form fields"),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_text'),
        MultiFieldPanel([
            FieldRowPanel([
                FieldPanel('from_address', classname="col6"),
                FieldPanel('to_address', classname="col6"),
            ]),
            FieldPanel('subject'),
        ], "Email"),
    ]

    def get_context(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        context = super().get_context(request, *args, **kwargs)

        # If you need to show results only on landing page,
        # You may need to check request.method

        results = dict()
        # Get information about form fields
        data_fields = [
            (field.clean_name, field.label)
            for field in self.get_form_fields()
        ]

        # Get all submissions for current page
        submissions = self.get_submission_class().objects.filter(page=self)
        for submission in submissions:
            data = submission.get_data()

            # Count results for each question
            for name, label in data_fields:
                answer = data.get(name)
                if answer is None:
                    # Something wrong with data.
                    # Probably you have changed questions
                    # and now we are receiving answers for old questions.
                    # Just skip them.
                    continue

                if type(answer) is list:
                    # Answer is a list if the field type is 'Checkboxes'
                    answer = u', '.join(answer)

                question_stats = results.get(label, {})
                question_stats[answer] = question_stats.get(answer, 0) + 1
                results[label] = question_stats

        context.update({
            'results': results,
        })
        return context

Next, you need to transform your template to display the results:

{% load wagtailcore_tags %}
<html>
    <head>
        <title>{{ page.title }}</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>{{ page.title }}</h1>

        <h2>Results</h2>
        {% for question, answers in results.items %}
            <h3>{{ question }}</h3>
            {% for answer, count in answers.items %}
                <div>{{ answer }}: {{ count }}</div>
            {% endfor %}
        {% endfor %}

        <div>{{ page.intro|richtext }}</div>
        <form action="{% pageurl page %}" method="POST">
            {% csrf_token %}
            {{ form.as_p }}
            <input type="submit">
        </form>
    </body>
</html>

You can also show the results on the landing page.

Custom landing page redirect

You can override the render_landing_page method on your FormPage to change what is rendered when a form submits.

In the example below we have added a thank_you_page field that enables custom redirects after a form submits to the selected page.

When overriding the render_landing_page method, we check if there is a linked thank_you_page and then redirect to it if it exists.

Finally, we add a URL param of id based on the form_submission if it exists.

from django.shortcuts import redirect
from wagtail.admin.panels import FieldPanel, FieldRowPanel, InlinePanel, MultiFieldPanel
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm

class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):

    # intro, thank_you_text, ...

    thank_you_page = models.ForeignKey(
        'wagtailcore.Page',
        null=True,
        blank=True,
        on_delete=models.SET_NULL,
        related_name='+',
    )

    def render_landing_page(self, request, form_submission=None, *args, **kwargs):
        if self.thank_you_page:
            url = self.thank_you_page.url
            # if a form_submission instance is available, append the id to URL
            # when previewing landing page, there will not be a form_submission instance
            if form_submission:
                url += '?id=%s' % form_submission.id
            return redirect(url, permanent=False)
        # if no thank_you_page is set, render default landing page
        return super().render_landing_page(request, form_submission, *args, **kwargs)

    content_panels = AbstractEmailForm.content_panels + [
        FieldPanel('intro'),
        InlinePanel('form_fields'),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_text'),
        FieldPanel('thank_you_page'),
        MultiFieldPanel([
            FieldRowPanel([
                FieldPanel('from_address', classname='col6'),
                FieldPanel('to_address', classname='col6'),
            ]),
            FieldPanel('subject'),
        ], 'Email'),
    ]

Customise form submissions listing in Wagtail Admin

The Admin listing of form submissions can be customized by setting the attribute submissions_list_view_class on your FormPage model.

The list view class must be a subclass of SubmissionsListView from wagtail.contrib.forms.views, which is a subclass of wagtail.admin.views.generic.base.BaseListingView and Django’s class based ListView.

Example:

from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField
from wagtail.contrib.forms.views import SubmissionsListView


class CustomSubmissionsListView(SubmissionsListView):
    paginate_by = 50  # show more submissions per page, default is 20
    default_ordering = ('submit_time',)  # order submissions by oldest first, normally newest first
    ordering_csv = ('-submit_time',)  # order csv export by newest first, normally oldest first

    # override the method to generate csv filename
    def get_csv_filename(self):
        """ Returns the filename for CSV file with page slug at start"""
        filename = super().get_csv_filename()
        return self.form_page.slug + '-' + filename


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', related_name='form_fields')


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    """Form Page with customized submissions listing view"""

    # set custom view class as class attribute
    submissions_list_view_class = CustomSubmissionsListView

    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    thank_you_text = RichTextField(blank=True)

    # content_panels = ...

Changed in version 6.1: The SubmissionsListView class is now a subclass of Wagtail’s generic BaseListingView. As a result, the ordering attribute has been renamed to default_ordering.

Adding a custom field type

First, make the new field type available in the page editor by changing your FormField model.

  • Create a new set of choices which includes the original FORM_FIELD_CHOICES along with new field types you want to make available.

  • Each choice must contain a unique key and a human-readable name of the field, for example ('slug', 'URL Slug')

  • Override the field_type field in your FormField model with choices attribute using these choices.

  • You will need to run ./manage.py makemigrations and ./manage.py migrate after this step.

Then, create and use a new form builder class.

  • Define a new form builder class that extends the FormBuilder class.

  • Add a method that will return a created Django form field for the new field type.

  • Its name must be in the format: create_<field_type_key>_field, for example create_slug_field

  • Override the form_builder attribute in your form page model to use your new form builder class.

Example:

from django import forms
from django.db import models
from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey
from wagtail.contrib.forms.forms import FormBuilder
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import (
    AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField, FORM_FIELD_CHOICES)


class FormField(AbstractFormField):
    # extend the built-in field type choices
    # our field type key will be 'ipaddress'
    CHOICES = FORM_FIELD_CHOICES + (('ipaddress', 'IP Address'),)

    page = ParentalKey('FormPage', related_name='form_fields')
    # override the field_type field with extended choices
    field_type = models.CharField(
        verbose_name='field type',
        max_length=16,
        # use the choices tuple defined above
        choices=CHOICES
    )


class CustomFormBuilder(FormBuilder):
    # create a function that returns an instanced Django form field
    # function name must match create_<field_type_key>_field
    def create_ipaddress_field(self, field, options):
        # return `forms.GenericIPAddressField(**options)` not `forms.SlugField`
        # returns created a form field with the options passed in
        return forms.GenericIPAddressField(**options)


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    # intro, thank_you_text, edit_handlers, etc...

    # use custom form builder defined above
    form_builder = CustomFormBuilder

Custom render_email method

If you want to change the content of the email that is sent when a form submits you can override the render_email method.

To do this, you need to:

  • Ensure you have your form model defined that extends wagtail.contrib.forms.models.AbstractEmailForm.

  • Override the render_email method in your page model.

Example:

from datetime import date
# ... additional wagtail imports
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    # ... fields, content_panels, etc

    def render_email(self, form):
        # Get the original content (string)
        email_content = super().render_email(form)

        # Add a title (not part of the original method)
        title = '{}: {}'.format('Form', self.title)

        content = [title, '', email_content, '']

        # Add a link to the form page
        content.append('{}: {}'.format('Submitted Via', self.full_url))

        # Add the date the form was submitted
        submitted_date_str = date.today().strftime('%x')
        content.append('{}: {}'.format('Submitted on', submitted_date_str))

        # Content is joined with a new line to separate each text line
        content = '\n'.join(content)

        return content

Custom send_mail method

If you want to change the subject or some other part of how an email is sent when a form submits you can override the send_mail method.

To do this, you need to:

  • Ensure you have your form model defined that extends wagtail.contrib.forms.models.AbstractEmailForm.

  • In your models.py file, import the wagtail.admin.mail.send_mail function.

  • Override the send_mail method in your page model.

Example:

from datetime import date
# ... additional wagtail imports
from wagtail.admin.mail import send_mail
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm


class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
    # ... fields, content_panels, etc

    def send_mail(self, form):
        # `self` is the FormPage, `form` is the form's POST data on submit

        # Email addresses are parsed from the FormPage's addresses field
        addresses = [x.strip() for x in self.to_address.split(',')]

        # Subject can be adjusted (adding submitted date), be sure to include the form's defined subject field
        submitted_date_str = date.today().strftime('%x')
        subject = f"{self.subject} - {submitted_date_str}"

        send_mail(subject, self.render_email(form), addresses, self.from_address,)

Custom clean_name generation

  • Each time a new FormField is added a clean_name also gets generated based on the user-entered label.

  • AbstractFormField has a method get_field_clean_name to convert the label into an HTML-valid lower_snake_case ASCII string using the AnyAscii library which can be overridden to generate a custom conversion.

  • The resolved clean_name is also used as the form field name in rendered HTML forms.

  • Ensure that any conversion will be unique enough to not create conflicts within your FormPage instance.

  • This method gets called on the creation of new fields only and as such will not have access to its own Page or pk. This does not get called when labels are edited as modifying the clean_name after any form responses are submitted will mean those field responses will not be retrieved.

  • This method gets called for form previews and also validation of duplicate labels.

    import uuid

    from django.db import models
    from modelcluster.fields import ParentalKey

    # ... other field and edit_handler imports
    from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField


    class FormField(AbstractFormField):
        page = ParentalKey('FormPage', on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='form_fields')

        def get_field_clean_name(self):
            clean_name = super().get_field_clean_name()
            id = str(uuid.uuid4())[:8] # short uuid
            return f"{id}_{clean_name}"


    class FormPage(AbstractEmailForm):
        # ... page definitions

Using FormMixin or EmailFormMixin to use with other Page subclasses

If you need to add form behavior while extending an additional class, you can use the base mixins instead of the abstract models.

from wagtail.models import Page
from wagtail.contrib.forms.models import EmailFormMixin, FormMixin


class BasePage(Page):
    """
    A shared base page used throughout the project.
    """

    # ...

class FormPage(FormMixin, BasePage):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    # ...

class EmailFormPage(EmailFormMixin, FormMixin, BasePage):
    intro = RichTextField(blank=True)
    # ...