django-form-matrix

A Django form field to fill a table: one row per item, one column per property and, in every cell, a form field of its own — a checkbox, a number, a choice, text. Rows can be grouped in collapsible sections, and checkbox columns get shortcuts to check a row, a column or a whole section.

It works in any Django form and in the admin. A ready-made permission matrix (apps → models → add/view/change/delete) is included as a use case.

Installation

pip install django-form-matrix

Add django_form_matrix to INSTALLED_APPS (it ships a template, a script and a stylesheet):

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    "django_form_matrix",
]

Quick start

from django import forms
from django_form_matrix import Column, MatrixField, Row


class PlanForm(forms.Form):
    features = MatrixField(
        rows=[
            Row("invoices", "Invoices", section="Billing"),
            Row("quotes", "Quotes", section="Billing"),
            Row("exports", "Exports", section="Analytics", columns=["enabled"]),
        ],
        columns=[
            Column("enabled", "Enabled"),  # a checkbox unless said otherwise
            Column(
                "limit",
                "Monthly limit",
                forms.IntegerField(min_value=0, required=False),
            ),
        ],
    )

Render the form as usual and add {{ form.media }} (the admin does it for you). The cleaned value has one entry per row with the cells that exist:

form.cleaned_data["features"]
# {"invoices": {"enabled": True, "limit": 50},
#  "quotes": {"enabled": False, "limit": None},
#  "exports": {"enabled": False}}

That is what a JSONField stores, so a ModelForm can save it directly.

Rows and columns

• Column(key, label, field=BooleanField(required=False)): the form field of the column. Its validation and its widget are Django's own, and a failing cell is reported with its row and column ("Invoices, Monthly limit: …").
• Row(key, label, section=None, columns=None): section groups rows under a collapsible heading (rows without one go in a plain table); columns are the keys of the columns that have a cell in this row, the rest show a dash.
• MatrixField(rows=…, columns=…) is not required by default; with required=True at least one cell needs a value. rows and columns can be reassigned in a form's __init__ to build the matrix dynamically.

Each cell is submitted as <name>__<row key>__<column key>, so it reads like any other widget.

Shortcuts

Checkbox columns get a checkbox in their heading, every row with checkboxes gets one at its start, and each section gets an "All". They show whether their cells are all, some or none checked, and the heading of a section counts the checked ones. A section opens by itself when something in it is filled.

Permissions

from django_form_matrix.contrib.permissions import PermissionMultipleChoiceField


class RoleAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    def formfield_for_manytomany(self, db_field, request, **kwargs):
        if db_field.name == "permissions":
            kwargs["form_class"] = PermissionMultipleChoiceField
        return super().formfield_for_manytomany(db_field, request, **kwargs)

One section per app, one row per model and a column per action; the other permissions of a model go in an "Others" column. It submits like a CheckboxSelectMultiple, so validation and saving do not change, and the names of the permissions are shown translated. Needs django.contrib.auth. docs/examples/permissions.md shows how to build the same matrix by hand with MatrixField, with rows that come from the database, for when you need more control.

Customizing the HTML

Both templates are split in blocks, so a template of yours can extend one and change only a piece, without copying the rest:

{% extends "django_form_matrix/matrix.html" %}
{% block section_summary %}<strong>{{ section.name }}</strong>{% endblock %}
{% block cell %}<div class="my-cell">{{ cell.html }}</div>{% endblock %}

Point a widget to it with template_name:

class MyMatrixWidget(MatrixWidget):
    template_name = "myapp/my_matrix.html"

Block	matrix.html	permissions.html	What it is
section_summary	✓	✓	The heading of a section (its name and count)
section_toggle	✓	✓	The "All" checkbox of a section
column_heading	✓	✓	The heading of a column
others_heading		✓	The heading of the "Others" column
row_heading	✓	✓	The heading of a row
cell	✓		The widget of a cell ({{ cell.html }})
permission		✓	The checkbox of a permission
other_permission		✓	A permission of the "Others" column
missing_cell	✓	✓	A cell a row does not have
empty	✓	✓	What shows when there is nothing to fill

{{ block.super }} keeps the original of a block. The classes (.form-matrix-*) and the data-form-matrix-* attributes are what the stylesheet and the script look for: keep them in your blocks and the shortcuts keep working.

Django looks for the widget templates of a form in the templates/ of the installed apps, not in the DIRS of your project. To override django_form_matrix/matrix.html itself by name from the project's templates, set FORM_RENDERER = "django.forms.renderers.TemplatesSetting", or put the template in an app listed before django_form_matrix in INSTALLED_APPS. Extending it with your own template_name, as above, needs neither.

Styling

The stylesheet uses the colours of the Django admin when it is there. Anywhere else, set --form-matrix-border, --form-matrix-heading-bg and --form-matrix-quiet on .form-matrix.

Unfold

django-unfold does not define the variables of Django's admin, so add UnfoldMatrixMixin to the admin: it puts the matrix on Unfold's palette, light and dark, and styles the number, text and select cells like Unfold's own inputs.

from unfold.admin import ModelAdmin
from django_form_matrix.contrib.unfold import UnfoldMatrixMixin


@admin.register(Plan)
class PlanAdmin(UnfoldMatrixMixin, ModelAdmin):
    form = PlanForm

The permission matrix, the use case this library started from, in Unfold:

And in Unfold's dark mode:

Translations

Ships a Spanish (es) translation: the matrix's headings ("Add", "View", "Change", "Delete", "Others"), the permissions' names ("Can view plan") and its messages follow the active language, like the rest of the admin.

Development

uv sync && npm install
uv run pytest            # Python + end-to-end (needs `uv run playwright install chromium`)
npm test                 # JS
cd example && uv run python manage.py runserver   # demo: Plans and Roles in the admin
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=example.settings_unfold uv run python manage.py runserver   # the same, in Unfold