GeoDjango provides some specialized form fields and widgets in order to visually display and edit geolocalized data on a map. By default, they use OpenLayers-powered maps, with a base WMS layer provided by NASA.
In addition to the regular form field arguments, GeoDjango form fields take the following optional arguments.
srid¶This is the SRID code that the field value should be transformed to. For example, if the map widget SRID is different from the SRID more generally used by your application or database, the field will automatically convert input values into that SRID.
geom_type¶You generally shouldn’t have to set or change that attribute which should be set up depending on the field class. It matches the OpenGIS standard geometry name.
GeometryField¶PointField¶LineStringField¶PolygonField¶MultiPointField¶MultiLineStringField¶MultiPolygonField¶GeometryCollectionField¶GeoDjango form widgets allow you to display and edit geographic data on a
visual map.
Note that none of the currently available widgets supports 3D geometries, hence
geometry fields will fallback using a Textarea widget for such data.
GeoDjango widgets are template-based, so their attributes are mostly different from other Django widget attributes.
A string that specifies the identifier for the default base map layer to be
used by the corresponding JavaScript map widget. It is passed as part of
the widget options when rendering, allowing the MapWidget to determine
which map tile provider or base layer to initialize (default is None).
The OpenGIS geometry type, generally set by the form field.
SRID code used by the map (default is 4326).
Boolean value specifying if a textarea input showing the serialized
representation of the current geometry is visible, mainly for debugging
purposes (default is False).
Indicates if the widget supports edition of 3D data (default is False).
The template used to render the map widget.
You can pass widget attributes in the same manner that for any other Django widget. For example:
from django.contrib.gis import forms
class MyGeoForm(forms.Form):
point = forms.PointField(widget=forms.OSMWidget(attrs={"display_raw": True}))
BaseGeometryWidget
This is an abstract base widget containing the logic needed by subclasses.
You cannot directly use this widget for a geometry field.
Note that the rendering of GeoDjango widgets is based on a base layer name,
identified by the base_layer class attribute.
OpenLayersWidget
This is the default widget used by all GeoDjango form fields. Attributes are:
nasaWorldview
gis/openlayers.html.
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OpenLayersWidget and OSMWidget include the ol.js and
ol.css files hosted on the cdn.jsdelivr.net content-delivery
network. These files can be overridden by subclassing the widget and
setting the js and css properties of the inner Media class (see
Assets as a static definition).
External assets with CSP
When ContentSecurityPolicyMiddleware is
enabled, the default OpenLayers CDN assets (ol.js and ol.css)
will be blocked unless explicitly allowed. This can be addressed in one
of two ways: serve assets locally by subclassing the widget and
provide local copies of the JavaScript and CSS files, or
allow the CDN in the CSP policy.
For example, to allow the default NASA Worldview base layer (replace
x.y.z with the actual version):
from django.utils.csp import CSP
SECURE_CSP = {
"default-src": [CSP.SELF],
"script-src": [CSP.SELF, "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol@x.y.z/dist/ol.js"],
"style-src": [CSP.SELF, "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ol@x.y.z/ol.css"],
"img-src": [CSP.SELF, "https://*.earthdata.nasa.gov"],
}
OSMWidget
This widget specialized OpenLayersWidget and uses an OpenStreetMap
base layer to display geographic objects on. Attributes are:
osm
The default center latitude and longitude are 47 and 5,
respectively, which is a location in eastern France.
The default map zoom is 12.
The OpenLayersWidget note about using external assets also applies
here. See also this FAQ answer about https access to map tiles.
OpenStreetMap tiles with CSP
This widget uses OpenStreetMap tiles instead of NASA Worldview. If
Content Security Policy enabled, both the OpenLayers CDN resources (as
required by OpenLayersWidget) and the OpenStreetMap tile
servers must be allowed:
from django.utils.csp import CSP
SECURE_CSP = {
# other directives
"img-src": [CSP.SELF, "https://tile.openstreetmap.org"],
}
The OSMWidget no longer uses a custom template. Consequently, the
gis/openlayers-osm.html template was removed.
To customize the base layer displayed in OpenLayers-based geometry widgets, define a new layer builder in a custom JavaScript file. For example:
path-to-file.js¶ MapWidget.layerBuilder.custom_layer_name = function () {
// Return an OpenLayers layer instance.
return new ol.layer.Tile({source: new ol.source.<ChosenSource>()});
};
Then, subclass a standard geometry widget and set the base_layer:
from django.contrib.gis.forms.widgets import OpenLayersWidget
class YourCustomWidget(OpenLayersWidget):
base_layer = "custom_layer_name"
class Media:
js = ["path-to-file.js"]
Dec 22, 2025