Understanding Django and Django FormView - django

Question

I am trying to create a Django web app that accepts text in a form/textbox, processes it and redirects to a webpage showing the processed text . I have written a half-functioning app and find de-bugging quite challenging because I don't understand most of what I've done. I'm hoping you will help me understand a few concepts, Linking to resources, also appreciated.
Consider this simple model:
class ThanksModel(models.Model):
thanks_text = models.CharField(max_length=200)
Is the only way to set the text of thanks_text through the manage.py shell? This feels like a pain if I just have one piece of text that I want to display. If I want to display a webpage that just says 'hi', do I still need to create a model?
Consider the view and template below:
views.py
class TestView(generic.FormView):
template_name = 'vader/test.html'
form_class = TestForm
success_url = '/thanks/'
test.html
<form action = "{% url 'vader:thanks'%}" method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form }}
<input type = "submit" value = "Submit">
</form>
I need to create another model, view and html template and update urls.py for '/thanks/' in order for the success_url to redirect correctly? (That's what I've done.) Do I need to use reverse() or reverse_lazy() the success_url in this situation?

Answer 1

Models are used when you are dealing with Objects and Data and DataBases that can contain a lot of information.
For Example A Person would be a model. their attributes would be age, name, nationality etc.
models.py
class Person(models.Model):
Name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
age = models.IntegerField()
nationality = models.CharField(max_length=50)
Thi deals with multiple bits of information for one object. (the object being the person)
A Thank you message would not need this? so scrap the model for the thank you message. just have views where you create the view using a templates and setting the view to a url.
views.py
class TestView(generic.FormView):
template_name = 'vader/test.html' # self explantory
form_class = TestForm # grabs the test form object
success_url = reverse_lazy('vader:thanks') # this makes sure you can use the name of the url instead of the path
def ThanksView(request): # its simple so you don't even need a class base view. a function view will do just fine.
return render(request,"thanks.html")
test.html
<form action = "{% url 'vader:thanks'%}" method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form }}
<input type = "submit" value = "Submit">
</form>
thanks.html
<h1>Thank you for Submitting</h1>
<h2> Come Again </h2>
url.py
from django.urls import path
from djangoapp5 import views
urlpatterns = [
path('', TestView.as_view(), name='test_form'),
path('thanks/', views.ThanksView, name='vader:thanks'),
]
I haven't tested this but hopefully it helps and guide you in the right direction