django-dict-form

Lightweight Django Forms extension. Adds as_dict() — serializes form definitions to Python dicts / JSON, making forms easier to integrate with REST APIs, SPA frontends (React/Vue), dynamic UI generators, and low-code systems.

Extends standard Django form rendering (as_p, as_table, as_ul) with machine-readable field metadata, validation rules, and widget configuration.

When is this convenient?

Write adapters to UI/UX components once — forms auto-generate on frontend. Backend edits propagate automatically. No manual frontend form duplication.

Features

• Serialize Django forms to Python dictionaries
• Useful for dynamic frontend rendering
• Simplifies API-driven form generation
• Lightweight and framework-friendly
• Compatible with standard Django Forms

Install

pip install django-dict-form

Quick Start

from django_dict_form.form import DictForm
from django import forms

class ContactForm(DictForm):
    name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
    email = forms.EmailField()
    message = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea)

form = ContactForm()
data = form.as_dict()

Output:

{
  "name": {
    "label": null,
    "required": true,
    "disabled": false,
    "help_text": "",
    "initial": null,
    "show_hidden_initial": false,
    "label_suffix": null,
    "widget": {
      "name": "TextInput",
      "type": "text",
      "is_hidden": false,
      "required": true,
      "choices": [],
      "attrs": {"maxlength": "100"}
    }
  }
}

Mixin Usage

Use RenderableDictFormMixin to add as_dict() to any existing form class:

from django_dict_form.form import RenderableDictFormMixin
from django import forms

class MyForm(forms.Form, RenderableDictFormMixin):
    field = forms.CharField()

as_dict() Output Schema

Each field produces:

Widget dict:

Supported Fields

Custom widgets supported — pass any widget instance, choices and attrs extracted automatically.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.11.15
• Django >= 3.2

License

MIT — Gleb Uvarov