Wrong way to style forms demonstrated in docs

[Anders Hovmöller]

The docs has the following example:

<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
    {% for field in form.visible_fields %}
        <div class="fieldWrapper">

            {# Include the hidden fields in the form #}
            {% if forloop.first %}
                {% for hidden in form.hidden_fields %}
                {{ hidden }}
                {% endfor %}
            {% endif %}

            {{ field.errors }}
            {{ field.label_tag }}: {{ field }}
        </div>
    {% endfor %}
    <p><input type="submit" value="Send message" /></p>
</form>

This has the nasty side effect of not printing out the hidden variables if there are no non-hidden variables, in addition to making the code needlessly complex. This should be changed to:

<form action="/contact/" method="POST">
    {% for field in form.visible_fields %}
        <div class="fieldWrapper">
            {{ field.errors }}
            {{ field.label_tag }}: {{ field }}
        </div>
    {% endfor %}
    {# Include the hidden fields in the form #}
    {% for hidden in form.hidden_fields %}
        {{ hidden }}
    {% endfor %}

    <p><input type="submit" value="Send message" /></p>
</form>

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

The documentation includes example code for the common cases. If you're doing something unusual, such as a form with no visible variables, then, yes, you'll need to make adjustments. At that level, it's reasonable to expect the developer to know what they're doing. We cannot cover every possible use of features in the example code and it's more important to provide clues for those who are going to need them and not provide incorrect examples.

Your proposed change would be incorrect, as it creates an invalid HTML form: form elements cannot contain input elements directly, the latter must be inside a block element (e.g. the div). That is why it's constructed the way it is.

[Anders Hovmöller]

Invalid HTML because an invisible input element is not inside a div? Now you're just jerking my chain. The proposed change would make the code smaller, easier to read, cover all cases instead of just a subset and be perfectly valid HTML.