So, on a rend.Page you can do: T.div[ T.directive('field textbox dbcolumn1'), T.directive('field textarea dbcolumn2'), ] def render_field(self, what): kind, dbcol = what.split(' ') return widgets[kind](value=self.dbrow[dbcol]) ...however page.Element's "rendered" method doesn't see the spaces in the T.directive and instead looks for a render method called: "field textbox dbcolumn1" ...which is not useful. Intentional or just missed?