Form, views and templates

The goal of this tutorial is to add data to Invenio v3. We’ll create a form that inserts the data in the database. Also we will touch different part of the development process such as:

  • How to create a new view
  • How to create a form
  • How to add a utility function
  • How to add new templates
  • How to use Jinja2

Flask extensions

It is important to understand that Invenio modules are just regular Flask extensions. The Flask documentation contains extensive documentation on the APIs, design patterns and in general how to develop with Flask, and it is highly recommended that you follow Flask tutorials to understand the basics of Flask.

1. Create the form

First, let’s create a module that contains the forms of our project, we will use Flask-WTF.

in invenio_unicorn/forms.py

"""Forms module."""

from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function

from flask_wtf import FlaskForm
from wtforms import StringField, TextAreaField, validators


class RecordForm(FlaskForm):
    """Custom record form."""

    title = StringField(
        'Title', [validators.DataRequired()]
    )
    description = TextAreaField(
        'Description', [validators.DataRequired()]
    )

2. Create the views

in invenio_unicorn/views.py we’ll create the endpoints for

  • create: Form template
  • success: Success template

The views.py registers all the views of our application

"""Invenio module that adds more fun to the platform."""

from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function

from flask import Blueprint, redirect, render_template, request, url_for
from flask_babelex import gettext as _
from invenio_records import Record
from invenio_records.models import RecordMetadata

from .forms import RecordForm
from .utils import create_record

blueprint = Blueprint(
    'invenio_unicorn',
    __name__,
    template_folder='templates',
    static_folder='static',
)


@blueprint.route("/")
def index():
    """Basic view."""
    return render_template(
        "invenio_unicorn/index.html",
        module_name=_('Invenio-Unicorn'))


@blueprint.route('/create', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def create():
    """The create view."""
    form = RecordForm()
    # if the form is valid
    if form.validate_on_submit():
        # create the record
        create_record(
          dict(
            title=form.title.data,
            description=form.description.data
          )
        )
        # redirect to the success page
        return redirect(url_for('invenio_unicorn.success'))

    records = _get_all()
    return render_template('invenio_unicorn/create.html', form=form, records=records)


def _get_all():
    """Return all records."""
    return [Record(obj.json, model=obj) for obj in RecordMetadata.query.all()]


@blueprint.route("/success")
def success():
    """The success view."""
    return render_template('invenio_unicorn/success.html')

3. Create the templates

And now, let’s create the templates

in invenio_unicorn/templates/invenio_unicorn/create.html we override two blocks from the invenio BASE_TEMPLATE and those are:

  • javascript
  • page_body

In the javascript block we will right a small fetcher, to get the created records from the API, and in the page_body we will add the form and the placeholder for the records list.

{%- extends config.BASE_TEMPLATE %}

{% macro errors(field) %}
  {% if field.errors %}
  <span class="help-block">
    <ul class=errors>
    {% for error in field.errors %}
      <li>{{ error }}</li>
    {% endfor %}
    </ul>
  {% endif %}
  </span>
{% endmacro %}

{% block page_body %}
  <div class="container">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-12">
        <div class="alert alert-warning">
          <b>Heads up!</b> This example is for demo proposes only
        </div>
        <h2>Create record</h2>
      </div>
      <div class="col-md-offset-3 col-md-6 well">
        <form action="{{ url_for('invenio_unicorn.create') }}" method="POST">
            <div class="form-group {{ 'has-error' if form.title.errors }}">
              <label for="title">{{ form.title.label }}</label>
              {{ form.title(class_="form-control")|safe }}
              {{ errors(form.title) }}
            </div>
            <div class="form-group {{ 'has-error' if form.description.errors }}">
              <label for="description">{{ form.description.label }}</label>
              {{ form.description(class_="form-control")|safe }}
              {{ errors(form.description) }}
            </div>
            {{ form.csrf_token }}
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Submit</button>
        </form>
      </div>
    </div>
    <hr />
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-12">
        {% if records %}
        <h2>Records created</h2>
        <ol id="custom-records">
            {% for record in records %}
            <li>{{record.title}}</li>
            {% endfor %}
        </ol>
        {% endif %}
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
{% endblock page_body %}

in invenio_unicorn/templates/invenio_unicorn/success.html

{%- extends config.BASE_TEMPLATE %}

{% block page_body %}
  <div class="container">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-12">
        <div class="alert alert-success">
          <b>Success!</b>
        </div>
        <a href="{{ url_for('invenio_unicorn.create') }}" class="btn btn-warning">Create more</a>
        <hr />
        <center>
          <iframe src="//giphy.com/embed/WZmgVLMt7mp44" width="480" height="480" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/kawaii-colorful-unicorn-WZmgVLMt7mp44">via GIPHY</a></p>
        </center>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
{% endblock page_body %}

4. Create the record creation function

in invenio_unicorn/utils.py

On the utils.py module will create a helper function that creates a record.

"""Utils module."""

from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function

import uuid

from flask import current_app

from invenio_db import db
from invenio_indexer.api import RecordIndexer
from invenio_pidstore import current_pidstore
from invenio_records.api import Record


def create_record(data):
    """Create a record.

    :param dict data: The record data.
    """
    indexer = RecordIndexer()
    # create uuid
    rec_uuid = uuid.uuid4()
    # add the schema
    host = current_app.config.get('JSONSCHEMAS_HOST')
    data["$schema"] = \
        current_app.extensions['invenio-jsonschemas'].path_to_url(
        'custom_record/custom-record-v1.0.0.json')
    # create PID
    current_pidstore.minters['custid'](
      rec_uuid, data, pid_value='custom_pid_{}'.format(rec_uuid)
    )
    # create record
    created_record = Record.create(data, id_=rec_uuid)
    db.session.commit()

    # index the record
    indexer.index(created_record)

Demo time

Let’s start our server again.

vagrant> invenio run -h 0.0.0.0

Then go to http://192.168.50.10/create and you will see the form we just created. There are two fields Title and Description.

Let’s try the form, add something to the Title and click submit, you will see the validation errors on the form, fill in the Description and click submit. The form is now valid and it navigates you to the /success page.