django-components/docs/getting_started/parametrising_components.md

So far, our Calendar component will always render the date 1970-01-01. Let's make it more useful and flexible by being able to pass in custom date.

What we want is to be able to use the Calendar component within the template like so:

{% component "calendar" date="2024-12-13" extra_class="text-red" / %}

1. Understading component inputs

In section Create your first component, we defined the get_template_data() method that defines what variables will be available within the template:

from django_components import Component, register

@register("calendar")
class Calendar(Component):
    template_file = "calendar.html"
    ...
    def get_template_data(self, args, kwargs, slots, context):
        return {
            "date": "1970-01-01",
        }

What we didn't say is that get_template_data() actually receives the args and kwargs that were passed to a component.

So if we call a component with a date and extra_class keywords:

{% component "calendar" date="2024-12-13" extra_class="text-red" / %}

This is the same as calling:

Calendar.get_template_data(
    args=[],
    kwargs={"date": "2024-12-13", "extra_class": "text-red"},
)

And same applies to positional arguments, or mixing args and kwargs, where:

{% component "calendar" "2024-12-13" extra_class="text-red" / %}

is same as

Calendar.get_template_data(
    args=["2024-12-13"],
    kwargs={"extra_class": "text-red"},
)

2. Define inputs

Let's put this to test. We want to pass date and extra_class kwargs to the component. And so, we can write the get_template_data() method such that it expects those parameters:

from datetime import date

from django_components import Component, register

@register("calendar")
class Calendar(Component):
    template_file = "calendar.html"
    ...
    def get_template_data(self, args, kwargs, slots, context):
        return {
            "date": kwargs["date"],
            "extra_class": kwargs.get("extra_class", "text-blue"),
        }

Since extra_class is optional in the function signature, it's optional also in the template. So both following calls are valid:

{% component "calendar" date="2024-12-13" / %}
{% component "calendar" date="2024-12-13" extra_class="text-red" / %}

!!! warning

[`get_template_data()`](../../reference/api#django_components.Component.get_template_data)
differentiates between positional and keyword arguments,
so you have to make sure to pass the arguments correctly.

Since `date` is expected to be a keyword argument, it MUST be provided as such:

```htmldjango
✅ `date` is kwarg
{% component "calendar" date="2024-12-13" / %}

❌ `date` is arg
{% component "calendar" "2024-12-13" / %}
```

3. Process inputs

The get_template_data() method is powerful, because it allows us to decouple component inputs from the template variables. In other words, we can pre-process the component inputs, and massage them into a shape that's most appropriate for what the template needs. And it also allows us to pass in static data into the template.

Imagine our component receives data from the database that looks like below (taken from Django).

cities = [
    {"name": "Mumbai", "population": "19,000,000", "country": "India"},
    {"name": "Calcutta", "population": "15,000,000", "country": "India"},
    {"name": "New York", "population": "20,000,000", "country": "USA"},
    {"name": "Chicago", "population": "7,000,000", "country": "USA"},
    {"name": "Tokyo", "population": "33,000,000", "country": "Japan"},
]

We need to group the list items by size into following buckets by population:

• 0-10,000,000
• 10,000,001-20,000,000
• 20,000,001-30,000,000
• +30,000,001

So we want to end up with following data:

cities_by_pop = [
    {
      "name": "0-10,000,000",
      "items": [
          {"name": "Chicago", "population": "7,000,000", "country": "USA"},
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "10,000,001-20,000,000",
      "items": [
          {"name": "Calcutta", "population": "15,000,000", "country": "India"},
          {"name": "Mumbai", "population": "19,000,000", "country": "India"},
          {"name": "New York", "population": "20,000,000", "country": "USA"},
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "30,000,001-40,000,000",
      "items": [
          {"name": "Tokyo", "population": "33,000,000", "country": "Japan"},
      ]
    },
]

Without the get_template_data() method, we'd have to either:

1. Pre-process the data in Python before passing it to the components.
2. Define a Django filter or template tag to take the data and process it on the spot.

Instead, with get_template_data(), we can keep this transformation private to this component, and keep the rest of the codebase clean.

def group_by_pop(data):
    ...

@register("population_table")
class PopulationTable(Component):
    template_file = "population_table.html"

    def get_template_data(self, args, kwargs, slots, context):
        return {
            "data": group_by_pop(kwargs["data"]),
        }

Similarly we can make use of get_template_data() to pre-process the date that was given to the component:

from datetime import date

from django_components import Component, register

# If date is Sat or Sun, shift it to next Mon, so the date is always workweek.
def to_workweek_date(d: date):
    ...

@register("calendar")
class Calendar(Component):
    template_file = "calendar.html"
    ...
    def get_template_data(self, args, kwargs, slots, context):
        workweek_date = to_workweek_date(kwargs["date"])  # <--- new
        return {
            "date": workweek_date,  # <--- changed
            "extra_class": kwargs.get("extra_class", "text-blue"),
        }

4. Pass inputs to components

Once we're happy with Calendar.get_template_data(), we can update our templates to use the parametrized version of the component:

<div>
  {% component "calendar" date="2024-12-13" / %}
  {% component "calendar" date="1970-01-01" / %}
</div>

5. Add defaults

In our example, we've set the extra_class to default to "text-blue" by setting it in the get_template_data() method.

However, you may want to use the same default value in multiple methods, like get_js_data() or get_css_data().

To make things easier, Components can specify their defaults. Defaults are used when no value is provided, or when the value is set to None for a particular input.

To define defaults for a component, you create a nested Defaults class within your Component class. Each attribute in the Defaults class represents a default value for a corresponding input.

from django_components import Component, Default, register

@register("calendar")
class Calendar(Component):
    template_file = "calendar.html"

    class Defaults:  # <--- new
        extra_class = "text-blue"

    def get_template_data(self, args, kwargs, slots, context):
        workweek_date = to_workweek_date(kwargs["date"])
        return {
            "date": workweek_date,
            "extra_class": kwargs["extra_class"],  # <--- changed
        }

6. Add input validation

Right now our Calendar component accepts any number of args and kwargs, and we can't see which ones are being used.

This is a maintenance nightmare!

Let's be good colleagues and document the component inputs. As a bonus, we will also get runtime validation of these inputs.

For defining component inputs, there's 3 options:

• Args - For defining positional args passed to the component
• Kwargs - For keyword args
• Slots - For slots

Our calendar component is using only kwargs, so we can ignore Args and Slots. The new Kwargs class defines fields that this component accepts:

from django_components import Component, Default, register

@register("calendar")
class Calendar(Component):
    template_file = "calendar.html"

    class Kwargs:  # <--- changed (replaced Defaults)
        date: Date
        extra_class: str = "text-blue"

    def get_template_data(self, args, kwargs: Kwargs, slots, context):  # <--- changed
        workweek_date = to_workweek_date(kwargs.date)  # <--- changed
        return {
            "date": workweek_date,
            "extra_class": kwargs.extra_class,  # <--- changed
        }

Notice that:

• When we defined Kwargs class, the kwargs parameter to get_template_data changed to an instance of Kwargs. Fields are now accessed as attributes.
• Since kwargs is of class Kwargs, we've added annotation to the kwargs parameter.
• Kwargs replaced Defaults, because defaults can be defined also on Kwargs class.

And that's it! Now you can sleep safe knowing you won't break anything when adding or removing component inputs.

Read more about Component defaults and Typing and validation.

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Next, you will learn how to use slots give your components even more flexibility ➡️