Django modelForm is not saving file to DB - django

Question

Django 2.0
Python 3.6
I am having trouble with a Django form that is not saving the file that is selected through the form; whenever you select a file to upload, I receive the message "This Field is Required.".
I placed a blank=True and a null=True in the Model FileField to get rid of the same, but whenever I attempt to load the html, I get this error: "The 'copydoc' attirbute has no file associated with it."
I would like for a user to be able to log in, create an entry and upload a file along with said entry. Why doesn't the DB accept the file from the form?
Thank you.
views.py:
from django.shortcuts import render, redirect
from .models import notarizer, CustomUser, notarizerCreateForm
# from .forms import notarizerCreateForm
# Create your views here.
def home(request):
t = 'home.html'
return render(request, t)
def page1(request):
t = 'log1/page1.html'
if request.user.is_authenticated:
logger = notarizer.objects.filter(userziptie=request.user).order_by('-date')
return render(request, t, {'logger': logger})
else:
return redirect(home)
def create_entry(request):
createPath = 'log1/create_entry.html'
if request.method == 'POST':
if request.method == 'FILES':
form = notarizerCreateForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
if form.is_valid():
instance =notarizerCreateForm(
file_field=request.FILES['file']
)
instance.save()
else:
print(form.errors)
else:
form = notarizerCreateForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
form.save()
else:
print(form.errors)
else:
form = notarizerCreateForm()
return render(request, createPath, {'form': form})
create_entry.html:
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block placeholder1 %}
<div class="form-holder">
<form name="form" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="POST"
action="/create_entry/" >
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form.as_table }}
<input type="submit"/>
</form>
</div>
{% endblock %}
models.py:
from django.db import models
from users.models import CustomUser
from django.forms import ModelForm
# Create your models here.
class notarizer(models.Model):
date = models.DateField(auto_now_add=True)
docName = models.CharField(max_length=25, null=False)
describe = models.TextField(max_length=280)
signee = models.CharField(max_length=25, null=False)
signeeDets = models.TextField(max_length=280)
copydoc = models.FileField(upload_to='users/', blank=True, null=True)
userziptie = models.ForeignKey('users.CustomUser',
on_delete=models.DO_NOTHING, null=True)
def __str__(self):
return "{0}\n{1}\n{2}\n{3}\n{4}\n{5}\n{6}".format(
self.pk,
self.date,
self.docName,
self.describe,
self.signee,
self.signeeDets,
self.userziptie
)
class notarizerCreateForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = notarizer
fields = ['docName','describe','signee','signeeDets', 'copydoc']

Answer 1

There are some things that make the view workflow very weird:
you check request.method, first you check if it is a 'POST' which is a good idea, but then you check if it is 'FILES', there is no HTTP method named FILES, there are only GET, POST, PATCH, PUT, OPTIONS, etc.;
you call form.is_valid() which is again what should happen, but then you create a new Form, and only pass it a single parameter; and
in case of a POST you should not return a rendered page, but redirect to a GET page (for example showing the result). The workflow is typically Post-redirect-get, since if the user refreshes their browser, we do not want to make the same post again.
The workflow should look like:
def create_entry(request):
createPath = 'log1/create_entry.html'
if request.method == 'POST': # good, a post (but no FILES check!)
form = notarizerCreateForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
if form.is_valid():
instance = form.save()
else:
# you probably want to show the errors in that case to the user
print(form.errors)
# redirect to a page, for example the `page1 view
return redirect(page1)
else:
form = notarizerCreateForm()
return render(request, createPath, {'form': form})