Issues with TomSelectChoiceField or TomSelectIterablesWidget replacing a django ChoiceField

[shortydutchie]

Using 2026.3.3, python 3.12, django 5

I am trying to set up a simple ChoiceField with either TextChoices or a list of tuples to populate choices. This is to replace

self.fields["assay"] = forms.ChoiceField(choices=choices, required=True)

which gives me a usual dropdown with choices.

The following section with a django ChoiceField and a TomSelectIterablesWidget :

        from django.db.models import TextChoices
        class Status(TextChoices):
            DRAFT = 'D', 'Draft'
            PUBLISHED = 'P', 'Published'
            ARCHIVED = 'A', 'Archived'
        self.fields["assay"] = forms.ChoiceField(
            choices=Status.choices,
            required=True,
            widget=TomSelectIterablesWidget(
                config=TomSelectConfig(
                    plugin_dropdown_header=PluginDropdownHeader(
                        title="Select assay"
                    )
                )
            )
        )

gives rise to an error:

Reverse for 'autocomplete' not found. 'autocomplete' is not a valid view function or pattern name.

I tried setting url=None or url='' in the config, but this does not appear to work.

I also tried the dedicated TomSelectChoiceField, as follows (with and without a config)

        choices = zip(assaynameslist, assaynameslist)
        self.fields["assay"] = TomSelectChoiceField(
            choices=choices,
            required=True,
            #config=TomSelectConfig(
            #    url="",
            #    placeholder="Start typing to select an assay...",
            #),
        )

which gives rise to same error.
Is this a bug? I assumed it would use the supplied choices, rather than require an autocomplete url.

Any help appreciated!

PS - I have used TomSelectModelChoiceField and TomSelectModelMultipleChoiceField successfully, they work great (thank you for these).

[SamuelJennings]

I came across this issue as well. It would be nice to see the widgets working with standard choice fields that don't warrant the extra mechanics of a dedicated endpoint.

[JackAtOmenApps]

@shortydutchie @SamuelJennings

Hi to both of you. Thanks for the kind words, and sorry for what might seem like a rough edge in the project. But this is deliberate design choice.

Every TomSelect-backed field in the package uses the same approach: TomSelectConfig >> widget >> autocomplete view >> JSON response, which helps with the following:

• Keeps things to one mental model and one config design: In the past I used django-autocomplete-light, but over time it has splintered into ~10 form fields and ~15 widgets (each with its own quirks). In this package, we made an explicit decision to try and keep things more consistent.
• Even iterables can benefit from things like [server-side] scoring, highlighting, and consistent search behavior, and lists that with lots of items (e.g.: countries, ISO codes, statuses) still may need real pagination, which AutocompleteIterablesView gives you.
• Plugins like infinite scroll and PluginDropdownFooter work consistently whether it's model-backed or iterables-backed because the response shape is the same. And filter_by / exclude_by operate on iterables the same way they operate on querysets. A Country iterable can work with a Region iterable with the same approach you'd use between two model autocompletes.
• One security path. All the escaping and sanitization for option text live in utils.py and run on the JSON path. A parallel "static" rendering path would need its own escaping audit, and potentially introduce new challenges.

---

The iterable view subclass is intentionally small. Your example becomes:

from django.db.models import TextChoices
from django_tomselect.autocompletes import AutocompleteIterablesView

class Status(TextChoices):
    DRAFT = 'D', 'Draft'
    PUBLISHED = 'P', 'Published'
    ARCHIVED = 'A', 'Archived'

class StatusAutocompleteView(AutocompleteIterablesView):
    iterable = Status

# urls.py
path('autocomplete/status/', StatusAutocompleteView.as_view(), name='autocomplete-status'),

# forms.py
from django_tomselect.forms import TomSelectChoiceField
from django_tomselect.app_settings import TomSelectConfig, PluginDropdownHeader

self.fields["assay"] = TomSelectChoiceField(
    config=TomSelectConfig(
        url='autocomplete-status',
        plugin_dropdown_header=PluginDropdownHeader(title="Select assay"),
    ),
    required=True,
)

Note: the "Reverse for 'autocomplete' not found" error is TomSelectConfig falling back to its default url='autocomplete' URL name; once you point it at your registered name, it resolves.

Hope that helps give some background. It might feel a bit overboard for iterables, but there's a reason behind it.

[shortydutchie]

Hi - apologies for the late response - thank you for this detail, that is very useful.
I was not aware of the AutocompleteIterablesView option, if it is in the docs it would be good to highlight it (but I probably just missed it).

Will have a play!