# Accessing panels from client-side code

On model creation and editing views that are defined through [panels](forms.md#forms-panels-overview) - including the views for pages, [snippets](../topics/snippets/index.md#snippets) and [site settings](../reference/contrib/settings.md) - the panel structure is accessible to client-side code as the variable `window.wagtail.editHandler`. This makes it possible to retrieve and manipulate the form contents without navigating the HTML structure of the page, which is not guaranteed to remain stable across releases of Wagtail.

## `Panel`

`window.wagtail.editHandler` gives a `Panel` object corresponding to the top-level panel, usually a `TabbedInterface` or `ObjectList`. All panel objects have the following attributes and methods:

### type

The class name of the corresponding Python-side panel class, as a string.

### prefix

The unique string identifier assigned to this panel; HTML elements within this panel may use this as a prefix on `id` attributes to ensure that they are globally unique.

### getPanelByName(name)

Returns the descendant panel object that handles the model field or relation with the given name, or null if no such panel exists. This panel will typically be a `FieldPanel`, `InlinePanel` or `MultipleChooserPanel`.

## `PanelGroup`

Panels that act as a container for other panels (such as `ObjectList`, `TabbedInterface`, `FieldRowPanel` and `MultiFieldPanel`) are instances of `PanelGroup`. This provides one additional attribute:

### children

An array of child panels.

## `FieldPanel`

`FieldPanel` has the following additional methods:

### getBoundWidget()

Returns the [bound widget](../reference/streamfield/widget_api.md#bound-widget-api) instance managed by the `FieldPanel`. This provides access to the form field’s value. For `StreamField`, the returned object is the top-level block of the stream.

#### NOTE
This function may not be available for some third-party widget types, as it relies on the widget either rendering a single input element with the appropriate name, or providing a [telepath adapter](../reference/streamfield/widget_api.md#streamfield-widget-api) with a `getByName` method (which was not part of the API prior to Wagtail 7.1).

### getErrorMessage()

Returns the error message string currently being displayed within this panel, or null if there is no error.

### setErrorMessage(message)

Sets the error message displayed within this panel to the given string; pass null to remove the error.

## `InlinePanel`

`InlinePanel` has the following additional method:

### addForm()

Appends a new blank form to the panel.