API References

cms.api

Python APIs for creating CMS content. This is done in cms.api and not on the models and managers, because the direct API via models and managers is slightly counterintuitive for developers. Also the functions defined in this module do sanity checks on arguments.

Warning

None of the functions in this module does any security or permission checks. They verify their input values to be sane wherever possible, however permission checks should be implemented manually before calling any of these functions.

Warning

Due to potential circular dependency issues, it’s recommended to import the api in the functions that uses its function.

e.g. use:

def my_function():
    from cms.api import api_function

    api_function(...)

instead of:

from cms.api import api_function

def my_function():
    api_function(...)

Functions and constants

cms.api.VISIBILITY_ALL

Used for the limit_menu_visibility keyword argument to create_page(). Does not limit menu visibility.

cms.api.VISIBILITY_USERS

Used for the limit_menu_visibility keyword argument to create_page(). Limits menu visibility to authenticated users.

cms.api.VISIBILITY_ANONYMOUS

Used for the limit_menu_visibility keyword argument to create_page(). Limits menu visibility to anonymous (not authenticated) users.

cms.api.create_page(title, template, language, menu_title=None, slug=None, apphook=None, apphook_namespace=None, redirect=None, meta_description=None, created_by='python-api', parent=None, publication_date=None, publication_end_date=None, in_navigation=False, soft_root=False, reverse_id=None, navigation_extenders=None, published=False, site=None, login_required=False, limit_visibility_in_menu=VISIBILITY_ALL, position='last-child')

Creates a cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance and returns it. Also creates a cms.models.titlemodel.Title instance for the specified language.

Parameters

  • title (string) – Title of the page

  • template (string) – Template to use for this page. Must be in CMS_TEMPLATES

  • language (string) – Language code for this page. Must be in LANGUAGES

  • menu_title (string) – Menu title for this page

  • slug (string) – Slug for the page, by default uses a slugified version of title

  • apphook (string or cms.app_base.CMSApp sub-class) – Application to hook on this page, must be a valid apphook

  • apphook_namespace (string) – Name of the apphook namespace

  • redirect (string) – URL redirect

  • meta_description (string) – Description of this page for SEO

  • created_by (string of django.contrib.auth.models.User instance) – User that is creating this page

  • parent (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – Parent page of this page

  • publication_date (datetime) – Date to publish this page

  • publication_end_date (datetime) – Date to unpublish this page

  • in_navigation (bool) – Whether this page should be in the navigation or not

  • soft_root (bool) – Whether this page is a soft root or not

  • reverse_id (string) – Reverse ID of this page (for template tags)

  • navigation_extenders (string) – Menu to attach to this page. Must be a valid menu

  • published (bool) – Whether this page should be published or not

  • site (django.contrib.sites.models.Site instance) – Site to put this page on

  • login_required (bool) – Whether users must be logged in or not to view this page

  • limit_menu_visibility (VISIBILITY_ALL or VISIBILITY_USERS or VISIBILITY_ANONYMOUS) – Limits visibility of this page in the menu

  • position (string) – Where to insert this node if parent is given, must be 'first-child' or 'last-child'

  • overwrite_url (string) – Overwritten path for this page

cms.api.create_title(language, title, page, menu_title=None, slug=None, redirect=None, meta_description=None, parent=None)

Creates a cms.models.titlemodel.Title instance and returns it.

Parameters

  • language (string) – Language code for this page. Must be in LANGUAGES

  • title (string) – Title of the page

  • page (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – The page for which to create this title

  • menu_title (string) – Menu title for this page

  • slug (string) – Slug for the page, by default uses a slugified version of title

  • redirect (string) – URL redirect

  • meta_description (string) – Description of this page for SEO

  • parent (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – Used for automated slug generation

  • overwrite_url (string) – Overwritten path for this page

cms.api.add_plugin(placeholder, plugin_type, language, position='last-child', target=None, **data)

Adds a plugin to a placeholder and returns it.

Parameters

  • placeholder (cms.models.placeholdermodel.Placeholder instance) – Placeholder to add the plugin to

  • plugin_type (string or cms.plugin_base.CMSPluginBase sub-class, must be a valid plugin) – What type of plugin to add

  • language (string) – Language code for this plugin, must be in LANGUAGES

  • position (string) – Position to add this plugin to the placeholder, must be a valid django-mptt position

  • target – Parent plugin. Must be plugin instance

  • data (kwargs) – Data for the plugin type instance

cms.api.create_page_user(created_by, user, can_add_page=True, can_change_page=True, can_delete_page=True, can_recover_page=True, can_add_pageuser=True, can_change_pageuser=True, can_delete_pageuser=True, can_add_pagepermission=True, can_change_pagepermission=True, can_delete_pagepermission=True, grant_all=False)

Creates a page user for the user provided and returns that page user.

Parameters
cms.api.assign_user_to_page(page, user, grant_on=ACCESS_PAGE_AND_DESCENDANTS, can_add=False, can_change=False, can_delete=False, can_change_advanced_settings=False, can_publish=False, can_change_permissions=False, can_move_page=False, grant_all=False)

Assigns a user to a page and gives them some permissions. Returns the cms.models.permissionmodels.PagePermission object that gets created.

Parameters

  • page (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – The page to assign the user to

  • user (django.contrib.auth.models.User instance) – The user to assign to the page

  • grant_on (cms.models.permissionmodels.ACCESS_PAGE, cms.models.permissionmodels.ACCESS_CHILDREN, cms.models.permissionmodels.ACCESS_DESCENDANTS or cms.models.permissionmodels.ACCESS_PAGE_AND_DESCENDANTS) – Controls which pages are affected

  • can_* – Permissions to grant

  • grant_all (bool) – Grant all permissions to the user

cms.api.publish_page(page, user, language)

Publishes a page.

Parameters

  • page (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – The page to publish

  • user (django.contrib.auth.models.User instance) – The user that performs this action

  • language (string) – The target language to publish to

cms.api.publish_pages(include_unpublished=False, language=None, site=None)

Publishes multiple pages defined by parameters.

Parameters

  • include_unpublished (bool) – Set to True to publish all drafts, including unpublished ones; otherwise, only already published pages will be republished

  • language (string) – If given, only pages in this language will be published; otherwise, all languages will be published

  • site (django.contrib.sites.models.Site instance) – Specify a site to publish pages for specified site only; if not specified pages from all sites are published

get_page_draft(page):

Returns the draft version of a page, regardless if the passed in page is a published version or a draft version.

Parameters

page (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – The page to get the draft version

Return page

draft version of the page

copy_plugins_to_language(page, source_language, target_language, only_empty=True):

Copy the plugins to another language in the same page for all the page placeholders.

By default plugins are copied only if placeholder has no plugin for the target language; use only_empty=False to change this.

Warning

This function skips permissions checks

Parameters

  • page (cms.models.pagemodel.Page instance) – the page to copy

  • source_language (string) – The source language code, must be in LANGUAGES

  • target_language (string) – The source language code, must be in LANGUAGES

  • only_empty (bool) – if False, plugin are copied even if plugins exists in the target language (on a placeholder basis).

Return int

number of copied plugins

Example workflows

Create a page called 'My Page using the template 'my_template.html' and add a text plugin with the content 'hello world'. This is done in English:

from cms.api import create_page, add_plugin

page = create_page('My Page', 'my_template.html', 'en')
placeholder = page.placeholders.get(slot='body')
add_plugin(placeholder, 'TextPlugin', 'en', body='hello world')

cms.constants

cms.constants.TEMPLATE_INHERITANCE_MAGIC

The token used to identify when a user selects “inherit” as template for a page.

cms.constants.LEFT

Used as a position indicator in the toolbar.

cms.constants.RIGHT

Used as a position indicator in the toolbar.

cms.constants.REFRESH

Constant used by the toolbar.

cms.plugin_base

class cms.plugin_base.CMSPluginBase

Inherits django.contrib.admin.options.ModelAdmin.

admin_preview

Defaults to False, if True, displays a preview in the admin.

change_form_template

Custom template to use to render the form to edit this plugin.

form

Custom form class to be used to edit this plugin.

get_plugin_urls(instance)

Returns URL patterns for which the plugin wants to register views for. They are included under django CMS PageAdmin in the plugin path (e.g.: /admin/cms/page/plugin/<plugin-name>/ in the default case). Useful if your plugin needs to asynchronously talk to the admin.

model

Is the CMSPlugin model we created earlier. If you don’t need model because you just want to display some template logic, use CMSPlugin from cms.models as the model instead.

module

Will group the plugin in the plugin editor. If module is None, plugin is grouped “Generic” group.

name

Will be displayed in the plugin editor.

render_plugin

If set to False, this plugin will not be rendered at all.

render_template

Will be rendered with the context returned by the render function.

text_enabled

Whether this plugin can be used in text plugins or not.

icon_alt(instance)

Returns the alt text for the icon used in text plugins, see icon_src().

icon_src(instance)

Returns the URL to the icon to be used for the given instance when that instance is used inside a text plugin.

render(context, instance, placeholder)

This method returns the context to be used to render the template specified in render_template.

It’s recommended to always populate the context with default values by calling the render method of the super class:

def render(self, context, instance, placeholder):
    context = super(MyPlugin, self).render(context, instance, placeholder)
    ...
    return context
Parameters

  • context – Current template context.

  • instance – Plugin instance that is being rendered.

  • placeholder – Name of the placeholder the plugin is in.

Return type

dict

cms.toolbar

All methods taking a side argument expect either cms.constants.LEFT or cms.constants.RIGHT for that argument.

Methods accepting the position argument can insert items at a specific position. This can be either None to insert at the end, an integer index at which to insert the item, a cms.toolbar.items.ItemSearchResult to insert it before that search result or a cms.toolbar.items.BaseItem instance to insert it before that item.

cms.toolbar.toolbar

class cms.toolbar.toolbar.CMSToolbar

The toolbar class providing a Python API to manipulate the toolbar. Note that some internal attributes are not documented here.

All methods taking a position argument expect either cms.constants.LEFT or cms.constants.RIGHT for that argument.

This class inherits cms.toolbar.items.ToolbarMixin, so please check that reference as well.

is_staff

Whether the current user is a staff user or not.

edit_mode

Whether the toolbar is in edit mode.

build_mode

Whether the toolbar is in build mode.

show_toolbar

Whether the toolbar should be shown or not.

csrf_token

The CSRF token of this request

toolbar_language

Language used by the toolbar.

watch_models

A list of model this toolbar works on; used for redirection after editing (Detecting URL changes).

add_item(item, position=None)

Low level API to add items.

Adds an item, which must be an instance of cms.toolbar.items.BaseItem, to the toolbar.

This method should only be used for custom item classes, as all built-in item classes have higher level APIs.

Read above for information on position.

remove_item(item)

Removes an item from the toolbar or raises a KeyError if it’s not found.

get_or_create_menu(key. verbose_name, side=LEFT, position=NOne)

If a menu with key already exists, this method will return that menu. Otherwise it will create a menu for that key with the given verbose_name on side at position and return it.

add_button(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, extra_wrapper_classes=None, side=LEFT, position=None)

Adds a button to the toolbar. extra_wrapper_classes will be applied to the wrapping div while extra_classes are applied to the <a>.

add_button_list(extra_classes=None, side=LEFT, position=None)

Adds an (empty) button list to the toolbar and returns it. See cms.toolbar.items.ButtonList for further information.

cms.toolbar.items

Important

Overlay and sideframe

Then django CMS sideframe has been replaced with an overlay mechanism. The API still refers to the sideframe, because it is invoked in the same way, and what has changed is merely the behaviour in the user’s browser.

In other words, sideframe and the overlay refer to different versions of the same thing.

class cms.toolbar.items.ItemSearchResult

Used for the find APIs in ToolbarMixin. Supports addition and subtraction of numbers. Can be cast to an integer.

item

The item found.

index

The index of the item.

class cms.toolbar.items.ToolbarMixin

Provides APIs shared between cms.toolbar.toolbar.CMSToolbar and Menu.

The active and disabled flags taken by all methods of this class specify the state of the item added.

extra_classes should be either None or a list of class names as strings.

REFRESH_PAGE

Constant to be used with on_close to refresh the current page when the frame is closed.

LEFT

Constant to be used with side.

RIGHT

Constant to be used with side.

get_item_count()

Returns the number of items in the toolbar or menu.

add_item(item, position=None)

Low level API to add items, adds the item to the toolbar or menu and makes it searchable. item must be an instance of BaseItem. Read above for information about the position argument.

remove_item(item)

Removes item from the toolbar or menu. If the item can’t be found, a KeyError is raised.

find_items(item_type, **attributes)

Returns a list of ItemSearchResult objects matching all items of item_type, which must be a sub-class of BaseItem, where all attributes in attributes match.

find_first(item_type, **attributes)

Returns the first ItemSearchResult that matches the search or None. The search strategy is the same as in find_items(). Since positional insertion allows None, it’s safe to use the return value of this method as the position argument to insertion APIs.

add_sideframe_item(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, on_close=None, side=LEFT, position=None)

Adds an item which opens url in the sideframe and returns it.

on_close can be set to None to do nothing when the sideframe closes, REFRESH_PAGE to refresh the page when it closes or a URL to open once it closes.

add_modal_item(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, on_close=REFRESH_PAGE, side=LEFT, position=None)

The same as add_sideframe_item(), but opens the url in a modal dialog instead of the sideframe.

on_close can be set to None to do nothing when the side modal closes, REFRESH_PAGE to refresh the page when it closes or a URL to open once it closes.

Note: The default value for on_close is different in add_sideframe_item() then in add_modal_item()

Adds an item that simply opens url and returns it.

add_ajax_item(name, action, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, data=None, question=None, side=LEFT, position=None)

Adds an item which sends a POST request to action with data. data should be None or a dictionary, the CSRF token will automatically be added to it.

If question is set to a string, it will be asked before the request is sent to confirm the user wants to complete this action.

class cms.toolbar.items.BaseItem(position)

Base item class.

template

Must be set by sub-classes and point to a Django template

side

Must be either cms.constants.LEFT or cms.constants.RIGHT.

render()

Renders the item and returns it as a string. By default calls get_context() and renders template with the context returned.

get_context()

Returns the context (as dictionary) for this item.

class cms.toolbar.items.Menu(name, csrf_token, side=LEFT, position=None)

The menu item class. Inherits ToolbarMixin and provides the APIs documented on it.

The csrf_token must be set as this class provides high level APIs to add items to it.

get_or_create_menu(key, verbose_name, side=LEFT, position=None)

The same as cms.toolbar.toolbar.CMSToolbar.get_or_create_menu() but adds the menu as a sub menu and returns a SubMenu.

add_break(identifier=None, position=None)

Adds a visual break in the menu, useful for grouping items, and returns it. identifier may be used to make this item searchable.

class cms.toolbar.items.SubMenu(name, csrf_token, side=LEFT, position=None)

Same as Menu but without the Menu.get_or_create_menu() method.

class cms.toolbar.items.LinkItem(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, side=LEFT)

Simple link item.

class cms.toolbar.items.SideframeItem(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, on_close=None, side=LEFT)

Item that opens url in sideframe.

class cms.toolbar.items.AjaxItem(name, action, csrf_token, data=None, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, question=None, side=LEFT)

An item which posts data to action.

class cms.toolbar.items.ModalItem(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None, on_close=None, side=LEFT)

Item that opens url in the modal.

class cms.toolbar.items.Break(identifier=None)

A visual break for menus. identifier may be provided to make this item searchable. Since breaks can only be within menus, they have no side attribute.

class cms.toolbar.items.ButtonList(identifier=None, extra_classes=None, side=LEFT)

A list of one or more buttons.

The identifier may be provided to make this item searchable.

add_item(item)

Adds item to the list of buttons. item must be an instance of Button.

add_button(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None)

Adds a Button to the list of buttons and returns it.

class cms.toolbar.items.Button(name, url, active=False, disabled=False, extra_classes=None)

A button to be used with ButtonList. Opens url when selected.

menus.base

A navigation node in a menu tree.

Parameters

  • title (string) – The title to display this menu item with.

  • url (string) – The URL associated with this menu item.

  • id – Unique (for the current tree) ID of this item.

  • parent_id – Optional, ID of the parent item.

  • parent_namespace – Optional, namespace of the parent.

  • attr (dict) – Optional, dictionary of additional information to store on this node.

  • visible (bool) – Optional, defaults to True, whether this item is visible or not.

A dictionary of various additional information describing the node. Nodes that represent CMS pages have the following keys in attr:

  • auth_required (bool) – is authentication required to access this page

  • is_page (bool) – Always True

  • navigation_extenders (list) – navigation extenders connected to this node (including Apphooks)

  • redirect_url (str) – redirect URL of page (if any)

  • reverse_id (str) – unique identifier for the page

  • soft_root (bool) – whether page is a soft root

  • visible_for_authenticated (bool) – visible for authenticated users

  • visible_for_anonymous (bool) – visible for anonymous users

Returns a list of all children beneath the current menu item.

Returns a list of all parent items, excluding the current menu item.

Utility method to return the URL associated with this menu item, primarily to follow naming convention asserted by Django.

Utility method to return the associated title, using the same naming convention used by cms.models.pagemodel.Page.