Supporting the Triptych Project

The Django Steering Council — in its role as the DSF's arm for technical governance — has provided a Letter of Collaboration in support of a funding application by Carson Gross and Alex Petros to advance the Triptych Project: three proposals to make HTML itself more expressive, in every browser, by default.

Here's why, and how you can help.

HTML over the wire, and Django

The last few years have seen a move back towards serving multipage applications, with server-rendered templates. The HTMX library has probably had the biggest impact in the Django space, but Unpoly, Turbo, and others are part of the same story: send HTML over the wire, let the browser do what browsers do, and skip the client-side application layer where you don't really need it. It's a simpler model of the web — and it's one that speaks to Django's heart.

This isn't a movement Django has watched from the sidelines. Template partials, added in Django 6.0, were directly inspired by the patterns these libraries make natural.

The Triptych Project

The Triptych Project takes the core insights from HTMX (and the related libraries) and proposes them for the HTML standard itself. Three small additions:

1. PUT, PATCH, and DELETE methods for forms — completing HTML's HTTP vocabulary.
2. Button actions — buttons that make HTTP requests without a wrapping form. This is the current focus.
3. Partial page replacement — links, forms, and buttons that target part of the DOM.

Together these aim to make it possible to build far more of the web with plain HTML — no JavaScript dependency, no library, nothing to ship or maintain.

Button actions

The current proposal (WHATWG #12330, full proposal) adds the action and method attributes to <button>. The canonical example is logout. Today there's no semantic way to write a logout button; you have to wrap it in a form:

<form action=/logout method=POST>
  <button>Logout</button>
</form>

Every Django developer has written this kind of thing. With button actions we could write the simpler single line:

<button action=/logout method=POST>Logout</button>

This isn't abstract for us. The Django admin's submit row holds multiple buttons, and a link disguised as a button:

<div class="submit-row">
  <input type="submit" value="Save" class="default" name="_save">
  <input type="submit" value="Save and add another" name="_addanother">
  <input type="submit" value="Save and continue editing" name="_continue">
  <a href="/admin/auth/user/.../delete/" class="deletelink">Delete</a>
</div>

Here, all the save inputs lead to the same action URL from the wrapping form. The view then branches on the submitted name value. That, of course, works, but we can imagine simpler, more flexible ideas being enabled via the Multi-Action Pages examples in the proposal.

The disguised submit link leads to the deletion confirmation page, where we then submit a form to confirm the action. That's the correct behaviour, but the markup confuses the intent: this isn't (really) a navigation to a new page, it's the first step of an action — deleting the object. The proposal's discussion of Buttons vs Links describes situations we come up against writing applications regularly.

The goal here is simpler patterns that will help us write better markup.

Why we're supporting this

The Django Software Foundation's mission includes a commitment to "advance the state of the art in Web development". Standards work is that in its purest form: an improvement to HTML lands for everyone, in every framework, in every browser, indefinitely.

It's also slow, painstaking work — specification, implementer engagement, web platform tests — that needs sustained attention. Carson and Alex are applying for funds so that people can devote real time to it. Our Letter of Collaboration is a concrete contribution to that application.

How you can help

If your company builds on Django, or indeed any other framework — with HTMX, Unpoly, Turbo, or plain HTML forms — this work benefits you directly. Carson and Alex are seeking non-binding letters of support on official letterhead for the funding application. Details and contacts are on the Triptych Project site.

Individually, do read the proposals, weigh in constructively on the WHATWG issues, and spread the word.

A simpler web is a better web. We're glad to support work that moves HTML in that direction.