Fixed #6042 -- ModelForms implementation from Joseph Kocherhans. Still might

need a little tweaking as people start to use it, but this is mostly complete.


git-svn-id: http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk@6844 bcc190cf-cafb-0310-a4f2-bffc1f526a37

3 files changed, 734 insertions, 415 deletions

diff --git a/docs/form_for_model.txt b/docs/form_for_model.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6761c15331
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/form_for_model.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,418 @@
+Generating forms for models
+===========================
+
+If you're building a database-driven app, chances are you'll have forms that
+map closely to Django models. For instance, you might have a ``BlogComment``
+model, and you want to create a form that lets people submit comments. In this
+case, it would be redundant to define the field types in your form, because
+you've already defined the fields in your model.
+
+For this reason, Django provides a few helper functions that let you create a
+``Form`` class from a Django model.
+
+``form_for_model()``
+--------------------
+
+The method ``django.newforms.form_for_model()`` creates a form based on the
+definition of a specific model. Pass it the model class, and it will return a
+``Form`` class that contains a form field for each model field.
+
+For example::
+
+    >>> from django.newforms import form_for_model
+
+    # Create the form class.
+    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article)
+
+    # Create an empty form instance.
+    >>> f = ArticleForm()
+
+It bears repeating that ``form_for_model()`` takes the model *class*, not a
+model instance, and it returns a ``Form`` *class*, not a ``Form`` instance.
+
+Field types
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The generated ``Form`` class will have a form field for every model field. Each
+model field has a corresponding default form field. For example, a
+``CharField`` on a model is represented as a ``CharField`` on a form. A
+model ``ManyToManyField`` is represented as a ``MultipleChoiceField``. Here is
+the full list of conversions:
+
+    ===============================  ========================================
+    Model field                      Form field
+    ===============================  ========================================
+    ``AutoField``                    Not represented in the form
+    ``BooleanField``                 ``BooleanField``
+    ``CharField``                    ``CharField`` with ``max_length`` set to
+                                     the model field's ``max_length``
+    ``CommaSeparatedIntegerField``   ``CharField``
+    ``DateField``                    ``DateField``
+    ``DateTimeField``                ``DateTimeField``
+    ``DecimalField``                 ``DecimalField``
+    ``EmailField``                   ``EmailField``
+    ``FileField``                    ``FileField``
+    ``FilePathField``                ``CharField``
+    ``FloatField``                   ``FloatField``
+    ``ForeignKey``                   ``ModelChoiceField`` (see below)
+    ``ImageField``                   ``ImageField``
+    ``IntegerField``                 ``IntegerField``
+    ``IPAddressField``               ``IPAddressField``
+    ``ManyToManyField``              ``ModelMultipleChoiceField`` (see
+                                     below)
+    ``NullBooleanField``             ``CharField``
+    ``PhoneNumberField``             ``USPhoneNumberField``
+                                     (from ``django.contrib.localflavor.us``)
+    ``PositiveIntegerField``         ``IntegerField``
+    ``PositiveSmallIntegerField``    ``IntegerField``
+    ``SlugField``                    ``CharField``
+    ``SmallIntegerField``            ``IntegerField``
+    ``TextField``                    ``CharField`` with ``widget=Textarea``
+    ``TimeField``                    ``TimeField``
+    ``URLField``                     ``URLField`` with ``verify_exists`` set
+                                     to the model field's ``verify_exists``
+    ``USStateField``                 ``CharField`` with
+                                     ``widget=USStateSelect``
+                                     (``USStateSelect`` is from
+                                     ``django.contrib.localflavor.us``)
+    ``XMLField``                     ``CharField`` with ``widget=Textarea``
+    ===============================  ========================================
+
+
+.. note::
+    The ``FloatField`` form field and ``DecimalField`` model and form fields
+    are new in the development version.
+
+As you might expect, the ``ForeignKey`` and ``ManyToManyField`` model field
+types are special cases:
+
+    * ``ForeignKey`` is represented by ``django.newforms.ModelChoiceField``,
+      which is a ``ChoiceField`` whose choices are a model ``QuerySet``.
+
+    * ``ManyToManyField`` is represented by
+      ``django.newforms.ModelMultipleChoiceField``, which is a
+      ``MultipleChoiceField`` whose choices are a model ``QuerySet``.
+
+In addition, each generated form field has attributes set as follows:
+
+    * If the model field has ``blank=True``, then ``required`` is set to
+      ``False`` on the form field. Otherwise, ``required=True``.
+
+    * The form field's ``label`` is set to the ``verbose_name`` of the model
+      field, with the first character capitalized.
+
+    * The form field's ``help_text`` is set to the ``help_text`` of the model
+      field.
+
+    * If the model field has ``choices`` set, then the form field's ``widget``
+      will be set to ``Select``, with choices coming from the model field's
+      ``choices``. The choices will normally include the blank choice which is
+      selected by default. If the field is required, this forces the user to
+      make a selection. The blank choice will not be included if the model
+      field has ``blank=False`` and an explicit ``default`` value (the
+      ``default`` value will be initially selected instead).
+
+Finally, note that you can override the form field used for a given model
+field. See "Overriding the default field types" below.
+
+A full example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Consider this set of models::
+
+    from django.db import models
+
+    TITLE_CHOICES = (
+        ('MR', 'Mr.'),
+        ('MRS', 'Mrs.'),
+        ('MS', 'Ms.'),
+    )
+
+    class Author(models.Model):
+        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
+        title = models.CharField(max_length=3, choices=TITLE_CHOICES)
+        birth_date = models.DateField(blank=True, null=True)
+
+        def __unicode__(self):
+            return self.name
+
+    class Book(models.Model):
+        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
+        authors = models.ManyToManyField(Author)
+
+With these models, a call to ``form_for_model(Author)`` would return a ``Form``
+class equivalent to this::
+
+    class AuthorForm(forms.Form):
+        name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
+        title = forms.CharField(max_length=3,
+                    widget=forms.Select(choices=TITLE_CHOICES))
+        birth_date = forms.DateField(required=False)
+
+A call to ``form_for_model(Book)`` would return a ``Form`` class equivalent to
+this::
+
+    class BookForm(forms.Form):
+        name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
+        authors = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(queryset=Author.objects.all())
+
+The ``save()`` method
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Every form produced by ``form_for_model()`` also has a ``save()`` method. This
+method creates and saves a database object from the data bound to the form. For
+example::
+
+    # Create a form instance from POST data.
+    >>> f = ArticleForm(request.POST)
+
+    # Save a new Article object from the form's data.
+    >>> new_article = f.save()
+
+Note that ``save()`` will raise a ``ValueError`` if the data in the form
+doesn't validate -- i.e., ``if form.errors``.
+
+This ``save()`` method accepts an optional ``commit`` keyword argument, which
+accepts either ``True`` or ``False``. If you call ``save()`` with
+``commit=False``, then it will return an object that hasn't yet been saved to
+the database. In this case, it's up to you to call ``save()`` on the resulting
+model instance. This is useful if you want to do custom processing on the
+object before saving it. ``commit`` is ``True`` by default.
+
+Another side effect of using ``commit=False`` is seen when your model has
+a many-to-many relation with another model. If your model has a many-to-many
+relation and you specify ``commit=False`` when you save a form, Django cannot
+immediately save the form data for the many-to-many relation. This is because
+it isn't possible to save many-to-many data for an instance until the instance
+exists in the database.
+
+To work around this problem, every time you save a form using ``commit=False``,
+Django adds a ``save_m2m()`` method to the form created by ``form_for_model``.
+After you've manually saved the instance produced by the form, you can invoke
+``save_m2m()`` to save the many-to-many form data. For example::
+
+    # Create a form instance with POST data.
+    >>> f = AuthorForm(request.POST)
+
+    # Create, but don't save the new author instance.
+    >>> new_author = f.save(commit=False)
+
+    # Modify the author in some way.
+    >>> new_author.some_field = 'some_value'
+
+    # Save the new instance.
+    >>> new_author.save()
+
+    # Now, save the many-to-many data for the form.
+    >>> f.save_m2m()
+
+Calling ``save_m2m()`` is only required if you use ``save(commit=False)``.
+When you use a simple ``save()`` on a form, all data -- including
+many-to-many data -- is saved without the need for any additional method calls.
+For example::
+
+    # Create a form instance with POST data.
+    >>> f = AuthorForm(request.POST)
+
+    # Create and save the new author instance. There's no need to do anything else.
+    >>> new_author = f.save()
+
+Using an alternate base class
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If you want to add custom methods to the form generated by
+``form_for_model()``, write a class that extends ``django.newforms.BaseForm``
+and contains your custom methods. Then, use the ``form`` argument to
+``form_for_model()`` to tell it to use your custom form as its base class.
+For example::
+
+    # Create the new base class.
+    >>> class MyBase(BaseForm):
+    ...     def my_method(self):
+    ...         # Do whatever the method does
+
+    # Create the form class with a different base class.
+    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article, form=MyBase)
+
+    # Instantiate the form.
+    >>> f = ArticleForm()
+
+    # Use the base class method.
+    >>> f.my_method()
+
+Using a subset of fields on the form
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+**New in Django development version**
+
+In some cases, you may not want all the model fields to appear on the generated
+form. There are two ways of telling ``form_for_model()`` to use only a subset
+of the model fields:
+
+    1. Set ``editable=False`` on the model field. As a result, *any* form
+       created from the model via ``form_for_model()`` will not include that
+       field.
+
+    2. Use the ``fields`` argument to ``form_for_model()``. This argument, if
+       given, should be a list of field names to include in the form.
+
+       For example, if you want a form for the ``Author`` model (defined above)
+       that includes only the ``name`` and ``title`` fields, you would specify
+       ``fields`` like this::
+
+           PartialArticleForm = form_for_model(Author, fields=('name', 'title'))
+
+.. note::
+
+    If you specify ``fields`` when creating a form with ``form_for_model()``,
+    then the fields that are *not* specified will not be set by the form's
+    ``save()`` method. Django will prevent any attempt to save an incomplete
+    model, so if the model does not allow the missing fields to be empty, and
+    does not provide a default value for the missing fields, any attempt to
+    ``save()`` a ``form_for_model`` with missing fields will fail. To avoid
+    this failure, you must use ``save(commit=False)`` and manually set any
+    extra required fields::
+
+        instance = form.save(commit=False)
+        instance.required_field = 'new value'
+        instance.save()
+
+    See the `section on saving forms`_ for more details on using
+    ``save(commit=False)``.
+
+.. _section on saving forms: `The save() method`_
+
+Overriding the default field types
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The default field types, as described in the "Field types" table above, are
+sensible defaults; if you have a ``DateField`` in your model, chances are you'd
+want that to be represented as a ``DateField`` in your form. But
+``form_for_model()`` gives you the flexibility of changing the form field type
+for a given model field. You do this by specifying a **formfield callback**.
+
+A formfield callback is a function that, when provided with a model field,
+returns a form field instance. When constructing a form, ``form_for_model()``
+asks the formfield callback to provide form field types.
+
+By default, ``form_for_model()`` calls the ``formfield()`` method on the model
+field::
+
+    def default_callback(field, **kwargs):
+        return field.formfield(**kwargs)
+
+The ``kwargs`` are any keyword arguments that might be passed to the form
+field, such as ``required=True`` or ``label='Foo'``.
+
+For example, if you wanted to use ``MyDateFormField`` for any ``DateField``
+field on the model, you could define the callback::
+
+    >>> def my_callback(field, **kwargs):
+    ...     if isinstance(field, models.DateField):
+    ...         return MyDateFormField(**kwargs)
+    ...     else:
+    ...         return field.formfield(**kwargs)
+
+    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article, formfield_callback=my_callback)
+
+Note that your callback needs to handle *all* possible model field types, not
+just the ones that you want to behave differently to the default. That's why
+this example has an ``else`` clause that implements the default behavior.
+
+.. warning::
+    The field that is passed into the ``formfield_callback`` function in
+    ``form_for_model()`` and ``form_for_instance`` is the field instance from
+    your model's class. You **must not** alter that object at all; treat it
+    as read-only!
+
+    If you make any alterations to that object, it will affect any future
+    users of the model class, because you will have changed the field object
+    used to construct the class. This is almost certainly what you don't want
+    to have happen.
+
+Finding the model associated with a form
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The model class that was used to construct the form is available
+using the ``_model`` property of the generated form::
+
+    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article)
+    >>> ArticleForm._model
+    <class 'myapp.models.Article'>
+
+``form_for_instance()``
+-----------------------
+
+``form_for_instance()`` is like ``form_for_model()``, but it takes a model
+instance instead of a model class::
+
+    # Create an Author.
+    >>> a = Author(name='Joe Smith', title='MR', birth_date=None)
+    >>> a.save()
+
+    # Create a form for this particular Author.
+    >>> AuthorForm = form_for_instance(a)
+
+    # Instantiate the form.
+    >>> f = AuthorForm()
+
+When a form created by ``form_for_instance()`` is created, the initial data
+values for the form fields are drawn from the instance. However, this data is
+not bound to the form. You will need to bind data to the form before the form
+can be saved.
+
+Unlike ``form_for_model()``, a choice field in form created by
+``form_for_instance()`` will not include the blank choice if the respective
+model field has ``blank=False``. The initial choice is drawn from the instance.
+
+When you call ``save()`` on a form created by ``form_for_instance()``,
+the database instance will be updated. As in ``form_for_model()``, ``save()``
+will raise ``ValueError`` if the data doesn't validate.
+
+``form_for_instance()`` has ``form``, ``fields`` and ``formfield_callback``
+arguments that behave the same way as they do for ``form_for_model()``.
+
+Let's modify the earlier `contact form`_ view example a little bit. Suppose we
+have a ``Message`` model that holds each contact submission. Something like::
+
+    class Message(models.Model):
+        subject = models.CharField(max_length=100)
+        message = models.TextField()
+        sender = models.EmailField()
+        cc_myself = models.BooleanField(required=False)
+
+You could use this model to create a form (using ``form_for_model()``). You
+could also use existing ``Message`` instances to create a form for editing
+messages. The `simple example view`_ can be changed slightly to accept the ``id`` value
+of an existing ``Message`` and present it for editing::
+
+    def contact_edit(request, msg_id):
+        # Create the form from the message id.
+        message = get_object_or_404(Message, id=msg_id)
+        ContactForm = form_for_instance(message)
+
+        if request.method == 'POST':
+            form = ContactForm(request.POST)
+            if form.is_valid():
+                form.save()
+                return HttpResponseRedirect('/url/on_success/')
+        else:
+            form = ContactForm()
+        return render_to_response('contact.html', {'form': form})
+
+Aside from how we create the ``ContactForm`` class here, the main point to
+note is that the form display in the ``GET`` branch of the function
+will use the values from the ``message`` instance as initial values for the
+form field.
+
+.. _contact form: ../newforms/#simple-view-example
+.. _`simple example view`: ../newforms/#simple-view-example
+
+When should you use ``form_for_model()`` and ``form_for_instance()``?
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The ``form_for_model()`` and ``form_for_instance()`` functions are meant to be
+shortcuts for the common case. If you want to create a form whose fields map to
+more than one model, or a form that contains fields that *aren't* on a model,
+you shouldn't use these shortcuts. Creating a ``Form`` class the "long" way
+isn't that difficult, after all.
diff --git a/docs/modelforms.txt b/docs/modelforms.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5e94128ba3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/modelforms.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,310 @@
+==========================
+Using newforms with models
+==========================
+
+``ModelForm``
+=============
+
+If you're building a database-driven app, chances are you'll have forms that
+map closely to Django models. For instance, you might have a ``BlogComment``
+model, and you want to create a form that lets people submit comments. In this
+case, it would be redundant to define the field types in your form, because
+you've already defined the fields in your model.
+
+For this reason, Django provides a helper class that let you create a ``Form``
+class from a Django model.
+
+For example::
+
+    >>> from django.newforms import ModelForm
+    
+    # Create the form class.
+    >>> class ArticleForm(ModelForm):
+    ...     class Meta:
+    ...         model = Article
+
+    # Creating a form to add an article.
+    >>> article\ = Article()
+    >>> form = ArticleForm(article)
+
+    # Creating a form to change an existing article.
+    >>> article = Article.objects.get(pk=1)
+    >>> form = ArticleForm(article)
+
+Field types
+-----------
+
+The generated ``Form`` class will have a form field for every model field. Each
+model field has a corresponding default form field. For example, a
+``CharField`` on a model is represented as a ``CharField`` on a form. A
+model ``ManyToManyField`` is represented as a ``MultipleChoiceField``. Here is
+the full list of conversions:
+
+    ===============================  ========================================
+    Model field                      Form field
+    ===============================  ========================================
+    ``AutoField``                    Not represented in the form
+    ``BooleanField``                 ``BooleanField``
+    ``CharField``                    ``CharField`` with ``max_length`` set to
+                                     the model field's ``max_length``
+    ``CommaSeparatedIntegerField``   ``CharField``
+    ``DateField``                    ``DateField``
+    ``DateTimeField``                ``DateTimeField``
+    ``DecimalField``                 ``DecimalField``
+    ``EmailField``                   ``EmailField``
+    ``FileField``                    ``FileField``
+    ``FilePathField``                ``CharField``
+    ``FloatField``                   ``FloatField``
+    ``ForeignKey``                   ``ModelChoiceField`` (see below)
+    ``ImageField``                   ``ImageField``
+    ``IntegerField``                 ``IntegerField``
+    ``IPAddressField``               ``IPAddressField``
+    ``ManyToManyField``              ``ModelMultipleChoiceField`` (see
+                                     below)
+    ``NullBooleanField``             ``CharField``
+    ``PhoneNumberField``             ``USPhoneNumberField``
+                                     (from ``django.contrib.localflavor.us``)
+    ``PositiveIntegerField``         ``IntegerField``
+    ``PositiveSmallIntegerField``    ``IntegerField``
+    ``SlugField``                    ``CharField``
+    ``SmallIntegerField``            ``IntegerField``
+    ``TextField``                    ``CharField`` with ``widget=Textarea``
+    ``TimeField``                    ``TimeField``
+    ``URLField``                     ``URLField`` with ``verify_exists`` set
+                                     to the model field's ``verify_exists``
+    ``USStateField``                 ``CharField`` with
+                                     ``widget=USStateSelect``
+                                     (``USStateSelect`` is from
+                                     ``django.contrib.localflavor.us``)
+    ``XMLField``                     ``CharField`` with ``widget=Textarea``
+    ===============================  ========================================
+
+
+.. note::
+    The ``FloatField`` form field and ``DecimalField`` model and form fields
+    are new in the development version.
+
+As you might expect, the ``ForeignKey`` and ``ManyToManyField`` model field
+types are special cases:
+
+    * ``ForeignKey`` is represented by ``django.newforms.ModelChoiceField``,
+      which is a ``ChoiceField`` whose choices are a model ``QuerySet``.
+
+    * ``ManyToManyField`` is represented by
+      ``django.newforms.ModelMultipleChoiceField``, which is a
+      ``MultipleChoiceField`` whose choices are a model ``QuerySet``.
+
+In addition, each generated form field has attributes set as follows:
+
+    * If the model field has ``blank=True``, then ``required`` is set to
+      ``False`` on the form field. Otherwise, ``required=True``.
+
+    * The form field's ``label`` is set to the ``verbose_name`` of the model
+      field, with the first character capitalized.
+
+    * The form field's ``help_text`` is set to the ``help_text`` of the model
+      field.
+
+    * If the model field has ``choices`` set, then the form field's ``widget``
+      will be set to ``Select``, with choices coming from the model field's
+      ``choices``. The choices will normally include the blank choice which is
+      selected by default. If the field is required, this forces the user to
+      make a selection. The blank choice will not be included if the model
+      field has ``blank=False`` and an explicit ``default`` value (the
+      ``default`` value will be initially selected instead).
+
+Finally, note that you can override the form field used for a given model
+field. See "Overriding the default field types" below.
+
+A full example
+--------------
+
+Consider this set of models::
+
+    from django.db import models
+
+    TITLE_CHOICES = (
+        ('MR', 'Mr.'),
+        ('MRS', 'Mrs.'),
+        ('MS', 'Ms.'),
+    )
+
+    class Author(models.Model):
+        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
+        title = models.CharField(max_length=3, choices=TITLE_CHOICES)
+        birth_date = models.DateField(blank=True, null=True)
+
+        def __unicode__(self):
+            return self.name
+
+    class Book(models.Model):
+        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
+        authors = models.ManyToManyField(Author)
+
+    class AuthorForm(ModelForm):
+        class Meta:
+            model = Author
+
+    class BookForm(ModelForm):
+        class Meta:
+            model = Book
+
+With these models, the ``ModelForm`` subclasses above would be roughly
+equivalent to this (the only difference being the ``save()`` method, which
+we'll discuss in a moment.)::
+
+    class AuthorForm(forms.Form):
+        name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
+        title = forms.CharField(max_length=3,
+                    widget=forms.Select(choices=TITLE_CHOICES))
+        birth_date = forms.DateField(required=False)
+
+    class BookForm(forms.Form):
+        name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
+        authors = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(queryset=Author.objects.all())
+
+The ``save()`` method
+---------------------
+
+Every form produced by ``ModelForm`` also has a ``save()`` method. This
+method creates and saves a database object from the data bound to the form.
+A subclass of ``ModelForm`` also requires a model instance as the first
+arument to its constructor. For example::
+
+    # Create a form instance from POST data.
+    >>> a = Article()
+    >>> f = ArticleForm(a, request.POST)
+
+    # Save a new Article object from the form's data.
+    >>> new_article = f.save()
+
+Note that ``save()`` will raise a ``ValueError`` if the data in the form
+doesn't validate -- i.e., ``if form.errors``.
+
+This ``save()`` method accepts an optional ``commit`` keyword argument, which
+accepts either ``True`` or ``False``. If you call ``save()`` with
+``commit=False``, then it will return an object that hasn't yet been saved to
+the database. In this case, it's up to you to call ``save()`` on the resulting
+model instance. This is useful if you want to do custom processing on the
+object before saving it. ``commit`` is ``True`` by default.
+
+Another side effect of using ``commit=False`` is seen when your model has
+a many-to-many relation with another model. If your model has a many-to-many
+relation and you specify ``commit=False`` when you save a form, Django cannot
+immediately save the form data for the many-to-many relation. This is because
+it isn't possible to save many-to-many data for an instance until the instance
+exists in the database.
+
+To work around this problem, every time you save a form using ``commit=False``,
+Django adds a ``save_m2m()`` method to your ``ModelForm`` subclass. After
+you've manually saved the instance produced by the form, you can invoke
+``save_m2m()`` to save the many-to-many form data. For example::
+
+    # Create a form instance with POST data.
+    >>> a = Author()
+    >>> f = AuthorForm(a, request.POST)
+
+    # Create, but don't save the new author instance.
+    >>> new_author = f.save(commit=False)
+
+    # Modify the author in some way.
+    >>> new_author.some_field = 'some_value'
+
+    # Save the new instance.
+    >>> new_author.save()
+
+    # Now, save the many-to-many data for the form.
+    >>> f.save_m2m()
+
+Calling ``save_m2m()`` is only required if you use ``save(commit=False)``.
+When you use a simple ``save()`` on a form, all data -- including
+many-to-many data -- is saved without the need for any additional method calls.
+For example::
+
+    # Create a form instance with POST data.
+    >>> a = Author()
+    >>> f = AuthorForm(a, request.POST)
+
+    # Create and save the new author instance. There's no need to do anything else.
+    >>> new_author = f.save()
+
+Using a subset of fields on the form
+------------------------------------
+
+In some cases, you may not want all the model fields to appear on the generated
+form. There are three ways of telling ``ModelForm`` to use only a subset of the
+model fields:
+
+    1. Set ``editable=False`` on the model field. As a result, *any* form
+       created from the model via ``ModelForm`` will not include that
+       field.
+
+    2. Use the ``fields`` attribute of the ``ModelForm``'s inner ``Meta`` class.
+       This attribute, if given, should be a list of field names to include in
+       the form.
+
+    3. Use the ``exclude`` attribute of the ``ModelForm``'s inner ``Meta`` class.
+       This attribute, if given, should be a list of field names to exclude
+       the form.
+
+       For example, if you want a form for the ``Author`` model (defined above)
+       that includes only the ``name`` and ``title`` fields, you would specify
+       ``fields`` or  ``exclude`` like this::
+
+          class PartialAuthorForm(ModelForm):
+              class Meta:
+                  model = Author
+                  fields = ('name', 'title')
+
+          class PartialAuthorForm(ModelForm):
+              class Meta:
+                  model = Author
+                  exclude = ('birth_date',)
+
+        Since the Author model has only 3 fields, 'name', 'title', and
+        'birth_date', the forms above will contain exactly the same fields.
+
+.. note::
+
+    If you specify ``fields`` or ``exclude`` when creating a form with
+    ``ModelForm``, then the fields that are not in the resulting form will not
+    be set by the form's ``save()`` method. Django will prevent any attempt to
+    save an incomplete model, so if the model does not allow the missing fields
+    to be empty, and does not provide a default value for the missing fields,
+    any attempt to ``save()`` a ``ModelForm`` with missing fields will fail.
+    To avoid this failure, you must instantiate your model with initial values
+    for the missing, but required fields, or use ``save(commit=False)`` and
+    manually set anyextra required fields::
+    
+        instance = Instance(requiured_field='value')
+        form = InstanceForm(instance, request.POST)
+        new_instance = form.save()
+
+        instance = form.save(commit=False)
+        instance.required_field = 'new value'
+        new_instance = instance.save()
+
+    See the `section on saving forms`_ for more details on using
+    ``save(commit=False)``.
+
+.. _section on saving forms: `The save() method`_
+
+Overriding the default field types
+----------------------------------
+
+The default field types, as described in the "Field types" table above, are
+sensible defaults; if you have a ``DateField`` in your model, chances are you'd
+want that to be represented as a ``DateField`` in your form. But
+``ModelForm`` gives you the flexibility of changing the form field type
+for a given model field. You do this by declaratively specifying fields like
+you would in a regular ``Form``. Declared fields will override the default
+ones generated by using the ``model`` attribute.
+
+For example, if you wanted to use ``MyDateFormField`` for the ``pub_date``
+field, you could do the following::
+
+    >>> class ArticleForm(ModelForm):
+    ...     pub_date = MyDateFormField()
+    ...
+    ...     class Meta:
+    ...         model = Article
diff --git a/docs/newforms.txt b/docs/newforms.txt
index 6635063e3c..ac2cfb1f72 100644
--- a/docs/newforms.txt
+++ b/docs/newforms.txt
@@ -1770,423 +1770,14 @@ You can then use this field whenever you have a form that requires a comment::
 Generating forms for models
 ===========================
 
-If you're building a database-driven app, chances are you'll have forms that
-map closely to Django models. For instance, you might have a ``BlogComment``
-model, and you want to create a form that lets people submit comments. In this
-case, it would be redundant to define the field types in your form, because
-you've already defined the fields in your model.
+The prefered way of generating forms that work with models is explained in the
+`ModelForms documentation`_.
 
-For this reason, Django provides a few helper functions that let you create a
-``Form`` class from a Django model.
+Looking for the ``form_for_model`` and ``form_for_instance`` documentation?
+They've been deprecated, but you can still `view the documentation`_.
 
-``form_for_model()``
---------------------
-
-The method ``django.newforms.form_for_model()`` creates a form based on the
-definition of a specific model. Pass it the model class, and it will return a
-``Form`` class that contains a form field for each model field.
-
-For example::
-
-    >>> from django.newforms import form_for_model
-
-    # Create the form class.
-    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article)
-
-    # Create an empty form instance.
-    >>> f = ArticleForm()
-
-It bears repeating that ``form_for_model()`` takes the model *class*, not a
-model instance, and it returns a ``Form`` *class*, not a ``Form`` instance.
-
-Field types
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-The generated ``Form`` class will have a form field for every model field. Each
-model field has a corresponding default form field. For example, a
-``CharField`` on a model is represented as a ``CharField`` on a form. A
-model ``ManyToManyField`` is represented as a ``MultipleChoiceField``. Here is
-the full list of conversions:
-
-    ===============================  ========================================
-    Model field                      Form field
-    ===============================  ========================================
-    ``AutoField``                    Not represented in the form
-    ``BooleanField``                 ``BooleanField``
-    ``CharField``                    ``CharField`` with ``max_length`` set to
-                                     the model field's ``max_length``
-    ``CommaSeparatedIntegerField``   ``CharField``
-    ``DateField``                    ``DateField``
-    ``DateTimeField``                ``DateTimeField``
-    ``DecimalField``                 ``DecimalField``
-    ``EmailField``                   ``EmailField``
-    ``FileField``                    ``FileField``
-    ``FilePathField``                ``CharField``
-    ``FloatField``                   ``FloatField``
-    ``ForeignKey``                   ``ModelChoiceField`` (see below)
-    ``ImageField``                   ``ImageField``
-    ``IntegerField``                 ``IntegerField``
-    ``IPAddressField``               ``IPAddressField``
-    ``ManyToManyField``              ``ModelMultipleChoiceField`` (see
-                                     below)
-    ``NullBooleanField``             ``CharField``
-    ``PhoneNumberField``             ``USPhoneNumberField``
-                                     (from ``django.contrib.localflavor.us``)
-    ``PositiveIntegerField``         ``IntegerField``
-    ``PositiveSmallIntegerField``    ``IntegerField``
-    ``SlugField``                    ``CharField``
-    ``SmallIntegerField``            ``IntegerField``
-    ``TextField``                    ``CharField`` with ``widget=Textarea``
-    ``TimeField``                    ``TimeField``
-    ``URLField``                     ``URLField`` with ``verify_exists`` set
-                                     to the model field's ``verify_exists``
-    ``USStateField``                 ``CharField`` with
-                                     ``widget=USStateSelect``
-                                     (``USStateSelect`` is from
-                                     ``django.contrib.localflavor.us``)
-    ``XMLField``                     ``CharField`` with ``widget=Textarea``
-    ===============================  ========================================
-
-
-.. note::
-    The ``FloatField`` form field and ``DecimalField`` model and form fields
-    are new in the development version.
-
-As you might expect, the ``ForeignKey`` and ``ManyToManyField`` model field
-types are special cases:
-
-    * ``ForeignKey`` is represented by ``django.newforms.ModelChoiceField``,
-      which is a ``ChoiceField`` whose choices are a model ``QuerySet``.
-
-    * ``ManyToManyField`` is represented by
-      ``django.newforms.ModelMultipleChoiceField``, which is a
-      ``MultipleChoiceField`` whose choices are a model ``QuerySet``.
-
-In addition, each generated form field has attributes set as follows:
-
-    * If the model field has ``blank=True``, then ``required`` is set to
-      ``False`` on the form field. Otherwise, ``required=True``.
-
-    * The form field's ``label`` is set to the ``verbose_name`` of the model
-      field, with the first character capitalized.
-
-    * The form field's ``help_text`` is set to the ``help_text`` of the model
-      field.
-
-    * If the model field has ``choices`` set, then the form field's ``widget``
-      will be set to ``Select``, with choices coming from the model field's
-      ``choices``.
-
-      The choices will include the "blank" choice, which is selected by
-      default. If the field is required, this forces the user to make a
-      selection. The blank choice will not be included if the model
-      field has ``blank=False`` and an explicit ``default`` value, in which
-      case the ``default`` value will be initially selected instead.
-
-Finally, note that you can override the form field used for a given model
-field. See "Overriding the default field types" below.
-
-A full example
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-Consider this set of models::
-
-    from django.db import models
-
-    TITLE_CHOICES = (
-        ('MR', 'Mr.'),
-        ('MRS', 'Mrs.'),
-        ('MS', 'Ms.'),
-    )
-
-    class Author(models.Model):
-        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
-        title = models.CharField(max_length=3, choices=TITLE_CHOICES)
-        birth_date = models.DateField(blank=True, null=True)
-
-        def __unicode__(self):
-            return self.name
-
-    class Book(models.Model):
-        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
-        authors = models.ManyToManyField(Author)
-
-With these models, a call to ``form_for_model(Author)`` would return a ``Form``
-class equivalent to this::
-
-    class AuthorForm(forms.Form):
-        name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
-        title = forms.CharField(max_length=3,
-                    widget=forms.Select(choices=TITLE_CHOICES))
-        birth_date = forms.DateField(required=False)
-
-A call to ``form_for_model(Book)`` would return a ``Form`` class equivalent to
-this::
-
-    class BookForm(forms.Form):
-        name = forms.CharField(max_length=100)
-        authors = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(queryset=Author.objects.all())
-
-The ``save()`` method
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-Every form produced by ``form_for_model()`` also has a ``save()`` method. This
-method creates and saves a database object from the data bound to the form. For
-example::
-
-    # Create a form instance from POST data.
-    >>> f = ArticleForm(request.POST)
-
-    # Save a new Article object from the form's data.
-    >>> new_article = f.save()
-
-Note that ``save()`` will raise a ``ValueError`` if the data in the form
-doesn't validate -- i.e., ``if form.errors``.
-
-This ``save()`` method accepts an optional ``commit`` keyword argument, which
-accepts either ``True`` or ``False``. If you call ``save()`` with
-``commit=False``, then it will return an object that hasn't yet been saved to
-the database. In this case, it's up to you to call ``save()`` on the resulting
-model instance. This is useful if you want to do custom processing on the
-object before saving it. ``commit`` is ``True`` by default.
-
-Another side effect of using ``commit=False`` is seen when your model has
-a many-to-many relation with another model. If your model has a many-to-many
-relation and you specify ``commit=False`` when you save a form, Django cannot
-immediately save the form data for the many-to-many relation. This is because
-it isn't possible to save many-to-many data for an instance until the instance
-exists in the database.
-
-To work around this problem, every time you save a form using ``commit=False``,
-Django adds a ``save_m2m()`` method to the form created by ``form_for_model``.
-After you've manually saved the instance produced by the form, you can invoke
-``save_m2m()`` to save the many-to-many form data. For example::
-
-    # Create a form instance with POST data.
-    >>> f = AuthorForm(request.POST)
-
-    # Create, but don't save the new author instance.
-    >>> new_author = f.save(commit=False)
-
-    # Modify the author in some way.
-    >>> new_author.some_field = 'some_value'
-
-    # Save the new instance.
-    >>> new_author.save()
-
-    # Now, save the many-to-many data for the form.
-    >>> f.save_m2m()
-
-Calling ``save_m2m()`` is only required if you use ``save(commit=False)``.
-When you use a simple ``save()`` on a form, all data -- including
-many-to-many data -- is saved without the need for any additional method calls.
-For example::
-
-    # Create a form instance with POST data.
-    >>> f = AuthorForm(request.POST)
-
-    # Create and save the new author instance. There's no need to do anything else.
-    >>> new_author = f.save()
-
-Using an alternate base class
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-If you want to add custom methods to the form generated by
-``form_for_model()``, write a class that extends ``django.newforms.BaseForm``
-and contains your custom methods. Then, use the ``form`` argument to
-``form_for_model()`` to tell it to use your custom form as its base class.
-For example::
-
-    # Create the new base class.
-    >>> class MyBase(BaseForm):
-    ...     def my_method(self):
-    ...         # Do whatever the method does
-
-    # Create the form class with a different base class.
-    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article, form=MyBase)
-
-    # Instantiate the form.
-    >>> f = ArticleForm()
-
-    # Use the base class method.
-    >>> f.my_method()
-
-Using a subset of fields on the form
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-**New in Django development version**
-
-In some cases, you may not want all the model fields to appear on the generated
-form. There are two ways of telling ``form_for_model()`` to use only a subset
-of the model fields:
-
-    1. Set ``editable=False`` on the model field. As a result, *any* form
-       created from the model via ``form_for_model()`` will not include that
-       field.
-
-    2. Use the ``fields`` argument to ``form_for_model()``. This argument, if
-       given, should be a list of field names to include in the form.
-
-       For example, if you want a form for the ``Author`` model (defined above)
-       that includes only the ``name`` and ``title`` fields, you would specify
-       ``fields`` like this::
-
-           PartialArticleForm = form_for_model(Author, fields=('name', 'title'))
-
-.. note::
-
-    If you specify ``fields`` when creating a form with ``form_for_model()``,
-    then the fields that are *not* specified will not be set by the form's
-    ``save()`` method. Django will prevent any attempt to save an incomplete
-    model, so if the model does not allow the missing fields to be empty, and
-    does not provide a default value for the missing fields, any attempt to
-    ``save()`` a ``form_for_model`` with missing fields will fail. To avoid
-    this failure, you must use ``save(commit=False)`` and manually set any
-    extra required fields::
-
-        instance = form.save(commit=False)
-        instance.required_field = 'new value'
-        instance.save()
-
-    See the `section on saving forms`_ for more details on using
-    ``save(commit=False)``.
-
-.. _section on saving forms: `The save() method`_
-
-Overriding the default field types
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-The default field types, as described in the "Field types" table above, are
-sensible defaults; if you have a ``DateField`` in your model, chances are you'd
-want that to be represented as a ``DateField`` in your form. But
-``form_for_model()`` gives you the flexibility of changing the form field type
-for a given model field. You do this by specifying a **formfield callback**.
-
-A formfield callback is a function that, when provided with a model field,
-returns a form field instance. When constructing a form, ``form_for_model()``
-asks the formfield callback to provide form field types.
-
-By default, ``form_for_model()`` calls the ``formfield()`` method on the model
-field::
-
-    def default_callback(field, **kwargs):
-        return field.formfield(**kwargs)
-
-The ``kwargs`` are any keyword arguments that might be passed to the form
-field, such as ``required=True`` or ``label='Foo'``.
-
-For example, if you wanted to use ``MyDateFormField`` for any ``DateField``
-field on the model, you could define the callback::
-
-    >>> def my_callback(field, **kwargs):
-    ...     if isinstance(field, models.DateField):
-    ...         return MyDateFormField(**kwargs)
-    ...     else:
-    ...         return field.formfield(**kwargs)
-
-    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article, formfield_callback=my_callback)
-
-Note that your callback needs to handle *all* possible model field types, not
-just the ones that you want to behave differently to the default. That's why
-this example has an ``else`` clause that implements the default behavior.
-
-.. warning::
-    The field that is passed into the ``formfield_callback`` function in
-    ``form_for_model()`` and ``form_for_instance`` is the field instance from
-    your model's class. You **must not** alter that object at all; treat it
-    as read-only!
-
-    If you make any alterations to that object, it will affect any future
-    users of the model class, because you will have changed the field object
-    used to construct the class. This is almost certainly what you don't want
-    to have happen.
-
-Finding the model associated with a form
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-The model class that was used to construct the form is available
-using the ``_model`` property of the generated form::
-
-    >>> ArticleForm = form_for_model(Article)
-    >>> ArticleForm._model
-    <class 'myapp.models.Article'>
-
-``form_for_instance()``
------------------------
-
-``form_for_instance()`` is like ``form_for_model()``, but it takes a model
-instance instead of a model class::
-
-    # Create an Author.
-    >>> a = Author(name='Joe Smith', title='MR', birth_date=None)
-    >>> a.save()
-
-    # Create a form for this particular Author.
-    >>> AuthorForm = form_for_instance(a)
-
-    # Instantiate the form.
-    >>> f = AuthorForm()
-
-When a form created by ``form_for_instance()`` is created, the initial data
-values for the form fields are drawn from the instance. However, this data is
-not bound to the form. You will need to bind data to the form before the form
-can be saved.
-
-Unlike ``form_for_model()``, a choice field in form created by
-``form_for_instance()`` will not include the blank choice if the respective
-model field has ``blank=False``. The initial choice is drawn from the instance.
-
-When you call ``save()`` on a form created by ``form_for_instance()``,
-the database instance will be updated. As in ``form_for_model()``, ``save()``
-will raise ``ValueError`` if the data doesn't validate.
-
-``form_for_instance()`` has ``form``, ``fields`` and ``formfield_callback``
-arguments that behave the same way as they do for ``form_for_model()``.
-
-Let's modify the earlier `contact form`_ view example a little bit. Suppose we
-have a ``Message`` model that holds each contact submission. Something like::
-
-    class Message(models.Model):
-        subject = models.CharField(max_length=100)
-        message = models.TextField()
-        sender = models.EmailField()
-        cc_myself = models.BooleanField(required=False)
-
-You could use this model to create a form (using ``form_for_model()``). You
-could also use existing ``Message`` instances to create a form for editing
-messages. The earlier_ view can be changed slightly to accept the ``id`` value
-of an existing ``Message`` and present it for editing::
-
-    def contact_edit(request, msg_id):
-        # Create the form from the message id.
-        message = get_object_or_404(Message, id=msg_id)
-        ContactForm = form_for_instance(message)
-
-        if request.method == 'POST':
-            form = ContactForm(request.POST)
-            if form.is_valid():
-                form.save()
-                return HttpResponseRedirect('/url/on_success/')
-        else:
-            form = ContactForm()
-        return render_to_response('contact.html', {'form': form})
-
-Aside from how we create the ``ContactForm`` class here, the main point to
-note is that the form display in the ``GET`` branch of the function
-will use the values from the ``message`` instance as initial values for the
-form field.
-
-.. _contact form: `Simple view example`_
-.. _earlier: `Simple view example`_
-
-When should you use ``form_for_model()`` and ``form_for_instance()``?
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-The ``form_for_model()`` and ``form_for_instance()`` functions are meant to be
-shortcuts for the common case. If you want to create a form whose fields map to
-more than one model, or a form that contains fields that *aren't* on a model,
-you shouldn't use these shortcuts. Creating a ``Form`` class the "long" way
-isn't that difficult, after all.
+.. _ModelForms documentation: ../modelforms/
+.. _view the documentation: ../form_for_model/
 
 More coming soon
 ================