How to pass request.user with a ManyToMany Field in Django - django

Question

I have two models Exercise and Area, Area has a manytomanyfield back to Exercise:
class Exercise(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(Profile, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
class Area(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(Profile, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
exercise = models.ManyToManyField(Exercise, blank=True)
I want the user to be able to create a new exercise that automatically attaches to its specific area, and also passes in request.user. Here is my view:
from .forms import ExerciseForm as e_form
class ExerciseFormView(CreateView):
form_class = e_form
success_url = '/'
def form_valid(self, form):
form.save()
area = Area.objects.get(pk=self.kwargs["area_id"])
new_ex = Exercise.objects.latest('id')
new_ex.user = self.request.user
area.exercise.add(new_ex)
form.instance.user = self.request.user
return JsonResponse({'exercise': model_to_dict(new_ex)}, status=200)
And its registered url:
path('exercise-add-new/<int:area_id>/', ExerciseFormView.as_view(), name='exercise_add_new'),
I should add that this used to work until I recently added user as a field to the Exercise model, and new_ex.user = self.request.user to the view. Now when I try to submit the form nothing happens. No errors, and no objects are created. I have tried new_ex.user = self.request.user and form.instance.user = self.request.user and still nothing happens.
Btw my user attributes are a ForeignKey to the auth user model:
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
class Profile(models.Model):
user = models.OneToOneField(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
EDIT
If I remove the user field from the Exercise model my view works, however I want to then be able to see details of each exercise, but have those details visible only to the user who created them. Is there another way that this can be achieved?

Answer 1

I see you have involved user in both of the models. This shouldn't be done.
You should user as Foreign Key in either of the Models not both. This would cause insolvency in your logic.
You can do it with a simple logic like : Remove user Foreign Key from Exercise
Models.py
class Exercise(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
Views.py
from .forms import ExerciseForm as e_form
class ExerciseFormView(CreateView):
form_class = e_form
success_url = '/'
def form_valid(self, form):
form.save()
area = Area.objects.get(user__id=request.user.id)
new_ex = Exercise.objects.latest('id')
area.exercise.add(new_ex)
area.save()
form.instance.user = self.request.user
return JsonResponse({'exercise': model_to_dict(new_ex)}, status=200)
To get all exercises of a specific user
a = Area.objects.get(user__id=request.user.id)
exercises = a.exercise.all()

Answer 2

The solution was to create a user field with a foreign key to Profile in my Workout model and then instantiate the view.