Cannot pass Helper to django Crispy Formset in template - django

Question

I'm trying to set up crispy form on a form and a formset (Visit and VisitService).
I'm having trouble attaching the helper to the formset, no matter how I do it.
I added helper as an attribute to the Formset and added the helper to view and context but it keeps giving me the following error:
VariableDoesNotExist - Failed lookup for key [helper]
(also tried [helper_attribute])
here is what I'm using:
forms.py:
class VisitForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = models.Visit
fields = [
[...all visit fields go here...]
]
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(VisitForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.helper = FormHelper(self)
self.helper.layout = Layout(
[...fields go here...]
),
ButtonHolder(
Submit('submit', 'Submit', css_class='button white btn-wide')
)
)
class VisitServiceForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = models.VisitService
fields = [
'service',
'unit',
]
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(VisitServiceForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.helper = FormHelper()
self.helper.layout = Layout(
Row(
Div(Field('service'),css_class='col-sm-4'),
Div(Field('unit'),css_class='col-sm-4'),
)
VisitServiceFormSet = forms.modelformset_factory(
models.VisitService,
form=VisitServiceForm,
extra=2,
)
VisitServiceInlineFormSet = forms.inlineformset_factory(
models.Visit,
models.VisitService,
extra=5,
fields=('service', 'unit'),
formset=VisitServiceFormSet,
min_num=1,
)
views.py:
def create_visit(request, patient_pk):
patient = get_object_or_404(models.Patient, pk=patient_pk)
form_class = forms.VisitForm
form = form_class()
visitservice_forms = forms.VisitServiceInlineFormSet(
queryset=models.VisitService.objects.none()
)
helper = forms.VisitServiceForm()
if request.method == 'POST':
form = form_class(request.POST)
visitservice_forms = forms.VisitServiceInlineFormSet(
request.POST,
queryset=models.VisitService.objects.none()
)
if form.is_valid() and visitservice_forms.is_valid():
visit = form.save(commit=False)
visit.patient = patient
visit.save()
visitservices = visitservice_forms.save(commit=False)
for visitservice in visitservices:
visitservice.visit = visit
visitservice.save()
messages.success(request, "Added visit")
return HttpResponseRedirect(visit.get_absolute_url())
return render(request, 'fpform/visit_form.html', {
'patient': patient,
'form': form,
'formset': visitservice_forms,
'helper': helper,
})
template:
<div class="container">
<form method="POST" action="">
{% crispy form %}
{% crispy formset formset.form.helper_attribute %}
</div>
</form>
in my template I've also used each one of these separately with no luck:
{% crispy formset formset.form.helper %}
{% crispy formset helper_attribute %}
{% crispy formset helper %}
{% crispy formset form.helper_attribute %}
{% crispy formset form.helper %}
I looked at the crispy documentation but couldn't find the answer there.
A whole day spent on this but it hasn't gone anywhere. Also feel free to let me know if there is a better way to achieve this.

Answer 1

To define the layout of formsets you need to create an independent FormHelper class and pass it to the form.
http://django-crispy-forms.readthedocs.io/en/latest/crispy_tag_formsets.html
# forms.py
class VisitServiceFormHelper(FormHelper):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(VisitServiceFormHelper, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.layout = Layout(
Div(Field('service'),css_class='col-sm-4'),
Div(Field('unit'),css_class='col-sm-4'),
)
#views.py
formset = VisitServiceInlineFormSet(queryset=VisitService.objects.none())
helper = VisitServiceFormHelper()
return render(request, 'template.html', {'formset': formset, 'helper': helper})
#template
{% crispy formset helper %}