To substitute a value from a database into a form field in a Python Django application, you need to follow these general steps:
1. **Create a Model**: Define a Django model that represents the data you want to retrieve from the database. This model should map to a database table.
2. **Create a Form**: Create a Django form to handle user input. You can use Django's built-in `ModelForm` to generate a form based on your model.
3. **Query the Database**: Retrieve the data from the database that you want to substitute into the form field. You can use Django's ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) to perform database queries.
4. **Populate the Form**: Set the initial value of the form field with the data retrieved from the database. You can do this in the view by providing an initial dictionary to the form.
5. **Render the Form**: Render the form in your template, and the form field should be populated with the database value.
Here's a simplified example to illustrate these steps:
Suppose you have a model like this:
```python
# models.py
from django.db import models
class Product(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
```
Create a form based on the model using a `ModelForm`:
```python
# forms.py
from django import forms
from .models import Product
class ProductForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Product
fields = ['name']
```
In your view, retrieve data from the database and populate the form:
```python
# views.py
from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Product
from .forms import ProductForm
def edit_product(request, product_id):
product = Product.objects.get(pk=product_id) # Retrieve the product from the database
form = ProductForm(instance=product) # Populate the form with the data from the database
if request.method == 'POST':
# Handle form submission, if needed
return render(request, 'edit_product.html', {'form': form, 'product': product})
```
Finally, render the form in your template, which will display the product's name in the form field:
```html
<!-- edit_product.html -->
<form method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form.as_p }}
<input type="submit" value="Save">
</form>
```
This way, when you visit the edit_product page, the product's name will be substituted into the form field, and you can edit and save it if needed.