Django form without model not appearing in template when rendered - django

Question

I have a form without an associated model, just a contact form for sending a message.
I have some experience with django forms by now, so I thought I had done everything correctly, but nothing ends up rendering when the page is viewed in a browser at all, nor are there any errors to troubleshoot.
My forms.py:
from django import forms
class ContactForm(forms.Form):
class Meta:
fields = ['full_name', 'phone', 'email', 'message']
full_name = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
phone = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
email = forms.CharField(max_length=30)
message = forms.CharField(max_length=400)
And my view that turns the form into something useful:
def contact_view(request):
full_name = request.POST.get('full_name', False)
phone = request.POST.get('phone', False)
email = request.POST.get('email', False)
message = request.POST.get('message', False)
form = ContactForm()
if request.method == 'POST':
form = ContactForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
# send_emails(first_name, last_name, email)
template = loader.get_template('/myapp/mysite/main_page/templates/main_page/thankyoumsg.html')
return HttpResponse(template.render({}, request))
template = loader.get_template('/myapp/mysite/main_page/templates/main_page/contact.html')
return HttpResponse(template.render({}, request))
And my template:
<form class="leave-comment" action="." method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{form.as_p}}
<button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
But nothing is displaying, and I am unsure why. How can I troubleshoot this?

Answer 1

You're not including the form in the response at the last line. This should (probably) do the trick:
def contact_view(request):
...
return HttpResponse(template.render({'form': form}, request))
I also believe you need to add the fields directly to the form class, not in the Meta-class.
from django import forms
class ContactForm(forms.Form):
# Move out the fields here instead
full_name = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
phone = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
email = forms.CharField(max_length=30)
message = forms.CharField(max_length=400)
class Meta:
# This may still be there but may also be a bit redundant since
# you're choosing to show all applied fields.
fields = ['full_name', 'phone', 'email', 'message']

Answer 2

class Meta is only used when you have a model. If you only need to render a form without a specific model use it this way. for more information please visit official documentation:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/topics/forms/
forms.py
class ContactForm(forms.Form):
full_name = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
phone = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
email = forms.CharField(max_length=30)
message = forms.CharField(max_length=400)
views.py
def contact_view(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = ContactForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
full_name = form.cleaned_data['full_name']
phone = form.cleaned_data['phone']
email = form.cleaned_data['email']
message = form.cleaned_data['message']
template = loader.get_template('/myapp/mysite/main_page/templates/main_page/thankyoumsg.html')
return HttpResponse(template.render({'form': form}, request))
template = loader.get_template('/myapp/mysite/main_page/templates/main_page/thankyoumsg.html')
return HttpResponse(template.render({'form': form}, request))
form = ContactForm()
template = loader.get_template('/myapp/mysite/main_page/templates/main_page/contact.html')
return HttpResponse(template.render({'form': form}, request))