How to initialize a Django ModelChoiceField from a view? - django

Question

I have the following model relationship where a task is associated to an objective and an objective is associated to a User. I created a Django form that displays all the objectives that are associated to a User.
class DropDownMenuSelectedObjectivesForm(forms.Form):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
user_id = kwargs.pop('id')
super(DropDownMenuSelectedObjectivesForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.fields['objective'] = forms.ModelChoiceField(queryset = Objective.objects.values_list('objective',flat=True)
.filter(accounts=User.objects.get(id=user_id),
status='In Progress'), empty_label=None)
When I open my views.py I am able to see all the objectives from the User but I would like that the Django form dropdown menu could be initialized with the current objective that is associated with a task.
So far, I have tried the following to initialize the dropdown menu but I've got no success.
# views.py
def update_task(request, id):
'''Update a task'''
task = Task.objects.get(pk=id) # get the task id from the db
associated_task_objective = task.objective.values('objective')[0]
form = TaskModelForm(request.POST or None, instance=task)
# Attempt 1 to initialize the ModelChoiceField
objective = DropDownMenuSelectedObjectiveForm(id = request.user.id, initial = { 'objective': associated_task_objective})
if request.method == "GET":
template_name = 'task/formTask.html'
return render(request, template_name, {'form': form, 'objective':objective})
# forms.py
class DropDownMenuSelectedGoalsForm(forms.Form):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
user_id = kwargs.pop('id')
super(DropDownMenuSelectedGoalsForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
# Attempt 2 to initialize the ModelChoiceField
self.fields['objective'] = forms.ModelChoiceField(queryset = Objective.objects.values_list('objective',flat=True)
.filter(accounts=User.objects.get(id=user_id),
status='In Progress'), empty_label=None, initial=2)
Even if I try to initialize the ModelChoiceField from the forms.py with a valid pk number, the modelchoicefield doesn't initialize.
Any idea or suggestion is really appreciated :)

Answer 1

I had to do the following to solve this problem:
def update_task(request, id):
'''Update a task'''
task = Task.objects.get(pk=id) # get the task id from the db
associated_task_objective = task.goal.values_list('goal',flat=True)[0]
form = TaskModelForm(request.POST or None, instance=task)
objective = DropDownMenuSelectedObjectiveForm(id = request.user.id, initial = { 'objective': associated_task_objective})
The initial keyword is looking by name of the objective, not by pk.