API Reference

Accessor (A)

class django_tables2.utils.Accessor[source]

A string describing a path from one object to another via attribute/index accesses. For convenience, the class has an alias A to allow for more concise code.

Relations are separated by a . character.

RequestConfig

class django_tables2.config.RequestConfig(request, paginate=True)[source]

A configurator that uses request data to setup a table.

Parameters:paginate (dict or bool) –

indicates whether to paginate, and if so, what default values to use. If the value evaluates to False, pagination will be disabled. A dict can be used to specify default values for the call to paginate (e.g. to define a default per_page value).

A special silent item can be used to enable automatic handling of pagination exceptions using the following algorithm:

  • If PageNotAnInteger` is raised, show the first page.
  • If EmptyPage is raised, show the last page.

Table

class django_tables2.tables.Table(data, order_by=None, orderable=None, empty_text=None, exclude=None, attrs=None, sequence=None, prefix=None, order_by_field=None, page_field=None, per_page_field=None, template=None, default=None, request=None, show_header=None)
as_html(request)

Render the table to a simple HTML table, adding request to the context.

paginate(klass=<class 'django.core.paginator.Paginator'>, per_page=None, page=1, *args, **kwargs)

Paginates the table using a paginator and creates a page property containing information for the current page.

Parameters:
  • klass (Paginator class) – a paginator class to paginate the results
  • per_page (int) – how many records are displayed on each page
  • page (int) – which page should be displayed.

Extra arguments are passed to the paginator.

Pagination exceptions (EmptyPage and PageNotAnInteger) may be raised from this method and should be handled by the caller.

Table.Meta

class Table.Meta

Provides a way to define global settings for table, as opposed to defining them for each instance.

attrs

Allows custom HTML attributes to be specified which will be added to the <table> tag of any table rendered via Table.as_html() or the render_table template tag.

Type:dict
Default:{}

This is typically used to enable a theme for a table (which is done by adding a CSS class to the <table> element). i.e.:

class SimpleTable(tables.Table):
    name = tables.Column()

    class Meta:
        attrs = {"class": "paleblue"}

New in version 0.15.0.

It’s possible to use callables to create dynamic values. A few caveats:

  • It’s not supported for dict keys, i.e. only values.
  • All values will be resolved on table instantiation.

Consider this example where a unique id is given to each instance of the table:

import itertools
counter = itertools.count()

class UniqueIdTable(tables.Table):
    name = tables.Column()

    class Meta:
        attrs = {"id": lambda: "table_%d" % next(counter)}

Note

This functionality is also available via the attrs keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

empty_text

Defines the text to display when the table has no rows.

Type:unicode
Default:None

If the table is empty and bool(empty_text) is True, a row is displayed containing empty_text. This is allows a message such as There are currently no FOO. to be displayed.

Note

This functionality is also available via the empty_text keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

show_header

Defines whether the table header (<thead>) should be displayed or not.

Type:bool
Default:True

Note

This functionality is also available via the show_header keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

exclude

Defines which columns should be excluded from the table. This is useful in subclasses to exclude columns in a parent.

Type:tuple of unicode
Default:()

Example:

>>> class Person(tables.Table):
...     first_name = tables.Column()
...     last_name = tables.Column()
...
>>> Person.base_columns
{'first_name': <django_tables2.columns.Column object at 0x10046df10>,
'last_name': <django_tables2.columns.Column object at 0x10046d8d0>}
>>> class ForgetfulPerson(Person):
...     class Meta:
...         exclude = ("last_name", )
...
>>> ForgetfulPerson.base_columns
{'first_name': <django_tables2.columns.Column object at 0x10046df10>}

Note

This functionality is also available via the exclude keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

However, unlike some of the other Table.Meta options, providing the exclude keyword to a table’s constructor won’t override the Meta.exclude. Instead, it will be effectively be added to it. i.e. you can’t use the constructor’s exclude argument to undo an exclusion.

fields

Used in conjunction with model, specifies which fields should have columns in the table.

Type:tuple of unicode or None
Default:None

If None, all fields are used, otherwise only those named.

Example:

# models.py
class Person(models.Model):
    first_name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    last_name = models.CharField(max_length=200)

# tables.py
class PersonTable(tables.Table):
    class Meta:
        model = Person
        fields = ("first_name", )
model

A model to inspect and automatically create corresponding columns.

Type:Django model
Default:None

This option allows a Django model to be specified to cause the table to automatically generate columns that correspond to the fields in a model.

order_by

The default ordering. e.g. ('name', '-age'). A hyphen - can be used to prefix a column name to indicate descending order.

Type:tuple
Default:()

Note

This functionality is also available via the order_by keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

sequence

The sequence of the table columns. This allows the default order of columns (the order they were defined in the Table) to be overridden.

Type:any iterable (e.g. tuple or list)
Default:()

The special item "..." can be used as a placeholder that will be replaced with all the columns that weren’t explicitly listed. This allows you to add columns to the front or back when using inheritence.

Example:

>>> class Person(tables.Table):
...     first_name = tables.Column()
...     last_name = tables.Column()
...
...     class Meta:
...         sequence = ("last_name", "...")
...
>>> Person.base_columns.keys()
['last_name', 'first_name']

The "..." item can be used at most once in the sequence value. If it’s not used, every column must be explicitly included. e.g. in the above example, sequence = ("last_name", ) would be invalid because neither "..." or "first_name" were included.

Note

This functionality is also available via the sequence keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

orderable

Default value for column’s orderable attribute.

Type:bool
Default:True

If the table and column don’t specify a value, a column’s orderable value will fallback to this. object specify. This provides an easy mechanism to disable ordering on an entire table, without adding orderable=False to each column in a table.

Note

This functionality is also available via the orderable keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

template

The default template to use when rendering the table.

Type:unicode
Default:"django_tables2/table.html"

Note

This functionality is also available via the template keyword argument to a table’s constructor.

localize

Specifies which fields should be localized in the table. Read Controlling localization for more information.

Type:tuple of unicode
Default:empty tuple
unlocalize

Specifies which fields should be unlocalized in the table. Read Controlling localization for more information.

Type:tuple of unicode
Default:empty tuple

BooleanColumn

class django_tables2.columns.BooleanColumn(null=False, yesno=u'u2714, u2718', **kwargs)[source]

A column suitable for rendering boolean data.

Parameters:
  • null (bool) – is None different from False?
  • yesno (iterable or string) – text to display for True/False values, comma separated

Rendered values are wrapped in a <span> to allow customisation by themes. By default the span is given the class true, false.

In addition to attrs keys supported by Column, the following are available:

  • span – adds attributes to the <span> tag

Column

class django_tables2.columns.Column(verbose_name=None, accessor=None, default=None, visible=True, orderable=None, attrs=None, order_by=None, empty_values=None, localize=None)[source]

Represents a single column of a table.

Column objects control the way a column (including the cells that fall within it) are rendered.

attrs

HTML attributes for elements that make up the column.

Type:dict

This API is extended by subclasses to allow arbitrary HTML attributes to be added to the output.

By default Column supports:

  • thtable/thead/th elements
  • tdtable/tbody/tr/td elements
  • cell – fallback if th or td isn’t defined
accessor

An accessor that describes how to extract values for this column from the table data.

Type:string or Accessor
default

The default value for the column. This can be a value or a callable object [1]. If an object in the data provides None for a column, the default will be used instead.

The default value may affect ordering, depending on the type of data the table is using. The only case where ordering is not affected is when a QuerySet is used as the table data (since sorting is performed by the database).

[1]The provided callable object must not expect to receive any arguments.
order_by

Allows one or more accessors to be used for ordering rather than accessor.

Type:unicode, tuple, Accessor
orderable

If False, this column will not be allowed to influence row ordering/sorting.

Type:bool
verbose_name

A human readable version of the column name.

Type:unicode
visible

If True, this column will be included in the HTML output.

Type:bool
localize
  • If True, cells of this column will be localized in the HTML output by the localize filter.
  • If False, cells of this column will be unlocalized in the HTML output by the unlocalize filter.
  • If None (the default), cell will be rendered as is and localization will depend on USE_L10N setting.
Type:bool

CheckBoxColumn

class django_tables2.columns.CheckBoxColumn(attrs=None, checked=None, **extra)[source]

A subclass of Column that renders as a checkbox form input.

This column allows a user to select a set of rows. The selection information can then be used to apply some operation (e.g. “delete”) onto the set of objects that correspond to the selected rows.

The value that is extracted from the table data for this column is used as the value for the checkbox, i.e. <input type="checkbox" value="..." />

This class implements some sensible defaults:

  • HTML input’s name attribute is the column name (can override via attrs argument).
  • orderable defaults to False.

Note

You’d expect that you could select multiple checkboxes in the rendered table and then do something with that. This functionality isn’t implemented. If you want something to actually happen, you’ll need to implement that yourself.

In addition to attrs keys supported by Column, the following are available:

  • input<input> elements in both <td> and <th>.
  • th__input – Replaces input attrs in header cells.
  • td__input – Replaces input attrs in body cells.

To render the checkbox as checked, use the checked argument with a accessor, boolean or callable returning boolean. If it resolves to a truthy value, the checkbox will be rendered as checked.

is_checked(value, record)[source]

Determine if the checkbox should be checked

DateColumn

class django_tables2.columns.DateColumn(format=None, short=True, *args, **kwargs)[source]

A column that renders dates in the local timezone.

Parameters:
  • format (unicode) – format string in same format as Django’s date template filter (optional)
  • short (bool) – if format is not specified, use Django’s SHORT_DATE_FORMAT setting, otherwise use DATE_FORMAT

DateTimeColumn

class django_tables2.columns.DateTimeColumn(format=None, short=True, *args, **kwargs)[source]

A column that renders datetimes in the local timezone.

Parameters:
  • format (unicode) – format string for datetime (optional). Note that format uses Django’s date template tag syntax.
  • short (bool) – if format is not specified, use Django’s SHORT_DATETIME_FORMAT, else DATETIME_FORMAT

EmailColumn

class django_tables2.columns.EmailColumn(attrs=None, *args, **kwargs)[source]

A subclass of BaseLinkColumn that renders the cell value as a hyperlink.

It’s common to have a email value in a row hyperlinked to other page.

Parameters:attrs – a dict of HTML attributes that are added to the rendered <a href="...">...</a> tag

Example:

# models.py
class Person(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    email =  models.EmailField()

# tables.py
class PeopleTable(tables.Table):
    name = tables.Column()
    email = tables.EmailColumn()

FileColumn

class django_tables2.columns.FileColumn(verify_exists=True, **kwargs)[source]

Attempts to render FieldFile (or other storage backend File) as a hyperlink.

When the file is accessible via a URL, the file is rendered as a hyperlink. The basename is used as the text:

<a href="/media/path/to/receipt.pdf" title="path/to/receipt.pdf">receipt.pdf</a>

When unable to determine the URL, a span is used instead:

<span title="path/to/receipt.pdf">receipt.pdf</span>

Column.attrs keys a and span can be used to add additional attributes.

Parameters:verify_exists (bool) – attempt to determine if the file exists

If verify_exists, the HTML class exists or missing is added to the element to indicate the integrity of the storage.

LinkColumn

class django_tables2.columns.LinkColumn(viewname=None, urlconf=None, args=None, kwargs=None, current_app=None, attrs=None, text=None, **extra)[source]

Renders a normal value as an internal hyperlink to another page.

It’s common to have the primary value in a row hyperlinked to the page dedicated to that record.

The first arguments are identical to that of reverse and allows an internal URL to be described. If this argument is None, then get_absolute_url. (see Django references) will be used. The last argument attrs allows custom HTML attributes to be added to the rendered <a href="..."> tag.

Parameters:
  • viewname – See reverse. Or use None to use Model’s get_absolute_url
  • urlconf – See reverse.
  • args – See reverse. **
  • kwargs – See reverse. **
  • current_app – See reverse.
  • attrs – a dict of HTML attributes that are added to the rendered <input type="checkbox" .../> tag
  • text – Either static text, or a callable. If set, this value will be used to render the text inside link instead of value (default)

** In order to create a link to a URL that relies on information in the current row, Accessor objects can be used in the args or kwargs arguments. The accessor will be resolved using the row’s record before reverse is called.

Example:

# models.py
class Person(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200)

# urls.py
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url('people/(\d+)/', views.people_detail, name='people_detail')
)

# tables.py
from django_tables2.utils import A  # alias for Accessor

class PeopleTable(tables.Table):
    name = tables.LinkColumn('people_detail', args=[A('pk')])

In order to override the text value (i.e. <a ... >text</a>) consider the following example:

# tables.py
from django_tables2.utils import A  # alias for Accessor

class PeopleTable(tables.Table):
    name = tables.LinkColumn('people_detail', text='static text', args=[A('pk')])
    age  = tables.LinkColumn('people_detail', text=lambda record: record.name, args=[A('pk')])

In the first example, a static text would be rendered (‘static text’) In the second example, you can specify a callable which accepts a record object (and thus can return anything from it)

In addition to attrs keys supported by Column, the following are available:

  • a<a> elements in <td>.
compose_url(record, *args, **kwargs)[source]

Compose the url if the column is constructed with a viewname.

TemplateColumn

class django_tables2.columns.TemplateColumn(template_code=None, template_name=None, **extra)[source]

A subclass of Column that renders some template code to use as the cell value.

Parameters:
  • template_code (unicode) – the template code to render
  • template_name (unicode) – the name of the template to render

A Template object is created from the template_code or template_name and rendered with a context containing:

  • record – data record for the current row
  • value – value from record that corresponds to the current column
  • default – appropriate default value to use as fallback

Example:

class ExampleTable(tables.Table):
    foo = tables.TemplateColumn('{{ record.bar }}')
    # contents of `myapp/bar_column.html` is `{{ value }}`
    bar = tables.TemplateColumn(template_name='myapp/name2_column.html')

Both columns will have the same output.

Important

In order to use template tags or filters that require a RequestContext, the table must be rendered via {% render_table %}.

URLColumn

class django_tables2.columns.URLColumn(attrs=None, *args, **kwargs)[source]

Renders URL values as hyperlinks.

Example:

>>> class CompaniesTable(tables.Table):
...     www = tables.URLColumn()
...
>>> table = CompaniesTable([{"www": "http://google.com"}])
>>> table.rows[0]["www"]
u'<a href="http://google.com">http://google.com</a>'

Additional attributes for the <a> tag can be specified via attrs['a'].

See Internal APIs for internal classes.