Actions

Components can also trigger methods from the templates by listening to any valid event type. The most common events would be click, input, keydown, keyup, and mouseenter, but MDN has a list of all of the browser event types available.

Events

An example action to call the clear_name method on the component.

<!-- clear-name.html -->
<div>
  <input unicorn:model="name" type="text" id="text" />
  Hello {{ name|title }}
  <button unicorn:click="clear_name">Clear Name</button>
</div>

# clear_name.py
from django_unicorn.components import UnicornView

class ClearNameView(UnicornView):
    name = "World"

    def clear_name(self):
        self.name = ""

When the button is clicked, the name property will get set to an empty string. Then, the component will intelligently re-render itself and the text input will update to match the property on the component.

Tip

Instance methods without arguments can be called from the template with or without parenthesis.

Passing arguments

Actions can also pass basic Python types to the backend component.

<!-- passing-args.html -->
<div>
  <input unicorn:model="name" type="text" id="text" />
  Hello {{ name|title }} 👋
  <button unicorn:click="set('Bob')">Set as Bob</button>
  <button unicorn:click="set()">Set default value of name argument</button>
</div>

# passing_args.py
from django_unicorn.components import UnicornView

class PassingArgsView(UnicornView):
    name = "World"

    def set(self, name="Universe"):
        self.name = name

Argument types

Arguments can be most basic Python types, including string, int, float, list, tuple, dictionary, set, datetime, and UUID4.

<!-- argument-types.html -->
<div>
  <button unicorn:click="update(99)">Pass int</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update(1.234)">Pass float</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update({'key': 'value'})">Pass dictionary</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update([1, 2, 3])">Pass list</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update((1, 2, 3))">Pass tuple</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update({1, 2, 3})">Pass set</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update(2020-09-12T01:01:01)">Pass datetime</button>
  <button unicorn:click="update(90144cb9-fc47-476d-b124-d543b0cff091)">
    Pass UUID
  </button>
</div>

Note

Strings will be converted to datetime if they are successfully parsed by Django’s parse_datetime method.

Set shortcut

Actions can also set properties without requiring an explicit method.

<!-- set-shortcut.html -->
<div>
  <input unicorn:model="name" type="text" id="text" />
  Hello {{ name|title }} 👋
  <button unicorn:click="name='Bob'">Set name as Bob</button>
</div>

# set_shortcut.py
from django_unicorn.components import UnicornView

class SetShortcutView(UnicornView):
    name = "World"

Modifiers

Similar to models, actions also have modifiers which change how the method gets called.

prevent

Prevents the default action the browser would use for that element. The same as calling preventDefault.

<!-- prevent-modifier.html -->
<div>
  <button unicorn:click.prevent="name='Bob'">Set name as Bob</button>
</div>

stop

Stops the event from bubbling up the event chain. The same as calling stopPropagation.

<!-- stop-modifier.html -->
<div>
    <button unicorn:click.stop="name='Bob'">Set name as Bob</button>
</div>

discard

Discards any model updates from being saved before calling the specified method on the view. Useful for a cancel button.

<!-- discard-modifier.html -->
<div>
    <input type="text" unicorn:model="name">
    <button unicorn:click.discard="cancel">Cancel</button>
</div>

# discard_modifier.py
from django_unicorn.components import UnicornView

class DiscardModifierView(UnicornView):
    name = None

    def cancel(self):
        pass

Special arguments

$event

A reference to the event that triggered the action.

<!-- event.html -->
<div>
    <input type="text" unicorn:change="update($event.target.value.trim())">Update</input>
</div>

$returnValue

A reference to the last return value from an action method.

<!-- returnValue.html -->
<div>
    <input type="text" unicorn:change="update($returnValue.trim())">Update</input>
</div>

Special methods

$refresh

Refresh and re-render the component from its current state.

<!-- refresh-method.html -->
<div>
  <button unicorn:click="$refresh">Refresh the component</button>
</div>

$reset

Revert the component to its original state.

<!-- reset-method.html -->
<div>
  <button unicorn:click="$reset">Reset the component</button>
</div>

$toggle

Toggle a field on the component. Can only be used for fields that are booleans.

<!-- toggle-method.html -->
<div>
  <button unicorn:click="$toggle('check')">Toggle the check field</button>
</div>

Tip

Multiple fields can be toggled at the same time by passing in multiple fields at a time: unicorn:click="$toggle('check', 'another_check', 'a_third_check')". Nested properties are also supported: unicorn:click="$toggle('nested.check')".

$validate

Validates the component.

<!-- validate-method.html -->
<div>
  <button unicorn:click="$validate">Validate the component</button>
</div>

Calling methods

Sometimes you need to trigger a method on a component from regular JavaScript. That is possible with Unicorn.call(). It can be called from anywhere on the page.

<!-- index.html -->
{% unicorn 'hello-world' %}

<button onclick="Unicorn.call('hello-world', 'set_name');">
  Set the name from outside the component
</button>

Passing arguments is also supported.

<!-- index.html -->
{% unicorn 'hello-world' %}

<button onclick="Unicorn.call('hello-world', 'set_name', 'World');">
  Set the name to "World" from outside the component
</button>

Return values

To retrieve the last action method’s return value, use Unicorn.getReturnValue().

<!-- index.html -->
{% unicorn 'hello-world' %}

<button onclick="alert(Unicorn.getReturnValue('hello-world'));">
  Get the last return value
</button>