Use a file input for a text field? - django

I have a Django model with a TextField. When I use a ModelForm to collect data to add/edit this model, I get a textarea in the HTML form, but I'd like to use a file input instead.
I think what I need to do is to set the widget for this field on my form class using django.forms.FileInput, or maybe a subclass of that input, but it isn't clear to me how to make this work (and I'm not positive this is the right approach).
So, how can I use a file input to collect data for a model using a ModelForm?

Here's what I came up with, elided and condensed for succinctness:
from django.contrib.gis.db.models import Model, TextField
from django import forms
class Recipe(Model):
source = TextField(null=False, blank=True)
...
class AsTextFileInput(forms.widgets.FileInput):
def value_from_datadict(self, data, files, name):
return files.get(name).read()
class RecipeForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Recipe
fields = ('source', ...)
widgets = {'source': AsTextFileInput(), ...}

Related

How can I access parent model fields in a form using the child model?

For context, I'm trying to create a form that allows users to upload info about their own custom Pokemon. Basically, they are creatures that you can catch, name, and level up. To draw a comparison, it is a similar concept to dogs; there are labradors, German Shepherds, huskies, etc. that would be variations of a base Dog model, but then each individual would have a name and other defining characteristics.
I've created Pokemon and CustomPokemon models and imported the latter into my forms.py file. I'm trying to access some parent fields but am unable to:
from django import forms
from .models import CustomPokemon
class PokemonForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = CustomPokemon
fields = ['pokemon.poke_name', 'name', 'level']
The poke_name field is inherited from the parent Pokemon model while the other two fields belong to the CustomPokemon model. I'm getting this FieldError:
Unknown field(s) (pokemon.poke_name) specified for CustomPokemon.
The issue isn't resolved by using poke_name, so I'm curious how I can access the parent model's fields so they can be displayed in the form.
First option
If you just want a dropdown displaying the field poke_name, what you could do is to define a __str__ method inside Pokemon model like this:
class Pokemon(model.Model):
...
def __str__(self):
return self.poke_name
Then, you can define the form as follows:
class PokemonForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = CustomPokemon
fields = ['pokemon', 'name', 'level']
And you will get a dropdown displaying all the poke_name of your database, where you can choose your foreign key. It would be better if poke_name is a unique field so that the foreign key can be clearly identified.
Second option
If you need more freedom, you could manually define a custom field as follows:
class PokemonForm(forms.ModelForm):
poke_name = forms.CharField()
class Meta:
model = CustomPokemon
fields = ['name', 'level']
Then, when validating the form, you should take care of whether the entry exists and/or create it:
if form.is_valid():
form.instance.pokemon = Pokemon.objects.get_or_create(cname=form.cleaned_data['poke_name'])
form.save()

UpdateView - Update a class that has OneToOne with User

Say I have a model called MyUser. It has some field, and one of them is this one:
user = OneToOneField(User, related_name='more_user_information')
I want to make a view to update this model, and I do the following:
Class AccountEdit(LoginRequiredMixin, UpdateView):
model = MyUser
form_class = MyUserForm
template_name = 'accounts/edit.html'
def get_object(self, queryset=None):
return self.model.objects.get(user=self.request.user)
Each field in MyUser renders fine for editing, except user. This one to one field becomse a select drop down box. What I like to do is to edit the fields on User model like first name or last name.
How can I achieve this while extending UpdateView? or perhaps shuold I use a FormView?
thanks
This problem is actually nothing to do with class based views or update view - its a basic issue that has been there since the beginning, which is:
ModelForms only edit the fields for one model, and don't recurse into
foreign keys.
In other words, if you have a model like this:
class MyModel(models.Model):
a = models.ForeignKey('Foo')
b = models.ForeignKey('Bar')
c = models.ForeignKey('Zoo')
name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
A model form will render three select fields, one for each foreign key, and these select fields will have all the values from those models listed - along with one text field for the name.
To solve this problem, you need to use InlineFormSets:
Inline formsets is a small abstraction layer on top of model formsets.
These simplify the case of working with related objects via a foreign
key.
You should use InlineFormSet from the excellent django-extra-views app. To do this, you'll create a view for the related object as well:
class MyUserInline(InlineFormSet):
model = MyUser
def get_object(self):
return MyUser.objects.get(user=self.request.user)
class AccountEditView(UpdateWithInlinesView):
model = User
inlines = [MyUserInline]
Another option is django-betterforms's Multiform and ModelMultiForm.
Example:
class UserProfileMultiForm(MultiForm):
form_classes = {
'user': UserForm,
'profile': ProfileForm,
}
It works with generic CBV (CreateView, UpdateView, WizardView).

Django forms.ChoiceField without validation of selected value

Django ChoiceField "Validates that the given value exists in the list of choices."
I want a ChoiceField (so I can input choices in the view) but I don't want Django to check if the choice is in the list of choices. It's complicated to explain why but this is what I need. How would this be achieved?
You could create a custom ChoiceField and override to skip validation:
class ChoiceFieldNoValidation(ChoiceField):
def validate(self, value):
pass
I'd like to know your use case, because I really can't think of any reason why you would need this.
Edit: to test, make a form:
class TestForm(forms.Form):
choice = ChoiceFieldNoValidation(choices=[('one', 'One'), ('two', 'Two')])
Provide "invalid" data, and see if the form is still valid:
form = TestForm({'choice': 'not-a-valid-choice'})
form.is_valid() # True
Best way to do this from the looks of it is create a forms.Charfield and use a forms.Select widget. Here is an example:
from django import forms
class PurchaserChoiceForm(forms.ModelForm):
floor = forms.CharField(required=False, widget=forms.Select(choices=[]))
class Meta:
model = PurchaserChoice
fields = ['model', ]
For some reason overwriting the validator alone did not do the trick for me.
As another option, you could write your own validator
from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
def validate_all_choices(value):
# here have your custom logic
pass
and then in your form
class MyForm(forms.Form):
my_field = forms.ChoiceField(validators=[validate_all_choices])
Edit: another option could be defining the field as a CharField but then render it manually in the template as a select with your choices. This way, it can accept everything without needing a custom validator

Override a ModelForm field value set using ModelForm(instance=some_instance)

I have the following models—
class Book(Model):
title = CharField(max_length=100)
author = ForeignKey('Author')
class Author(models.Model):
name = CharField(max_length=100)
And have a standard ModelForm to Book.
In the form, author is a ModelChoiceField, and is rendered as a <select>. I'd like it to be text field where you can input the author's name—Author.name.
If there's already an author with that name, the saved model uses that in its foreign key, otherwise an author with that name is created (and used in its foreign key)—in effect, Author.get_or_create(name=posted_name_value).
I've found that the simplest way is to override the field as a CharField, like so—
class BookForm(ModelForm):
author = CharField()
class Meta:
model = Book
Although with that I can add custom clean logic that does what I want, I can't do the same with the pre-populated value when using BookForm(instance=some_book_object)—the CharField gets set to the Author's pk, not its name.
I've tried to do this but I can't seem to find out how. I've tried overriding things in BookForm.__init__ to no avail.
How can I override a fields' value set when using instance with a ModelForm?
I'd add author to the ModelForm meta's exclude, then have a form field called author_name that you populate using initial, and save into the model in the view's form_valid method (assuming you are using generic form view classes).
You could override the field content by this:
form = BookForm(instance=instance, initial={'name': instance.author.name})

Django Forms - set field values in view

I have a model which represents a work order. One of the fields is a DateField and represents the date the work order was created (aptly named: dateWOCreated). When the user creates a new work order, I want this dateWOCreated field to be automatically populated with todays date and then displayed in the template. I have a few other fields that I want to set without user's intervention but should show these values to the user in the template.
I don't want to simply exclude these fields from the modelForm class because there may be a need for the user to be able to edit these values down the road.
Any help?
Thanks
When you define your model, you can set a default for each field. The default object can be a callable. For your dateWOCreated field we can use the callable date.today.
# models.py
from datetime import date
class WorkOrder(models.Model):
...
dateWOCreated = models.DateField(default=date.today)
To display dates in the format MM/DD/YYYY, you need to override the widget in your model form.
from django import forms
class WorkOrderModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = WorkOrder
widgets = {
'dateWOCreated': forms.DateInput(format="%m/%d/%Y")),
}
In forms and model forms, the analog for the default argument is initial. For other fields, you may need to dynamically calculate the initial field value in the view. I've put an example below. See the Django Docs for Dynamic Initial Values for more info.
# views.py
class WorkOrderModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = WorkOrder
def my_view(request, *args, **kwargs):
other_field_inital = 'foo' # FIXME calculate the initial value here
form = MyModelForm(initial={'other_field': 'other_field_initial'})
...