Adding classes to form fields

 Adding Classes to Django Forms

When building forms in Django, adding CSS classes is essential to style your forms with frameworks like Bootstrap or custom CSS. Django provides several ways to add classes to form fields — both for regular forms.Form and ModelForm.

Why Add Classes?

• Integrate with CSS frameworks (e.g., form-control in Bootstrap).
• Customize the appearance of individual fields.
• Handle form layout dynamically using frontend tools.

Method 1: Manually Adding Classes in __init__()

You can override the form’s __init__ method to update each field's widget attributes.

from django import forms

class ContactForm(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField()
    email = forms.EmailField()

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        for visible in self.visible_fields():
            visible.field.widget.attrs['class'] = 'form-control'

You can also target specific fields:

self.fields['name'].widget.attrs.update({
    'class': 'form-control',
    'placeholder': 'Your full name'
})

Adding Classes in a ModelForm

ModelForms work exactly the same way, since they inherit from forms.ModelForm.

from django import forms
from .models import Product

class ProductForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Product
        fields = ['title', 'price', 'description']

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        for field in self.fields:
            self.fields[field].widget.attrs.update({'class': 'form-control'})

Tip: Setting Classes in the widgets Dictionary (Meta class)

A more declarative and concise way (but less flexible) is to define classes in the widgets dictionary of the Meta class.

class ProductForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Product
        fields = ['title', 'price']
        widgets = {
            'title': forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
            'price': forms.NumberInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
        }

Use this method if you don’t need dynamic class logic.

Recap

Best Practice

If you're working with Bootstrap or any CSS framework, make sure all your input fields have form-control or equivalent class, or else the form layout might break.

To make this easier across your whole app, consider writing a mixin or using packages like django-crispy-forms.

Want to try out our tools? Visit the Django Tools Hub to explore utilities like the Django Forms Generator.