django prevent accessing variable before it's defined on submit - django

Question

I have the following django view that works great except in the instance of clicking the submitted button on the previous view i'm sending the POST information from.
def submitted(request):
# sets the employeentname to the username from the POST of results
owner = ADMirror.objects.get (employeentname=request.POST.get('userpost'))
# sets the firstname of owner
firstname = owner.employeefirstname
# sets the lastname of owner
lastname = owner.employeelastname
# gets the POST list for the report_id values in the checkboxes for application names
checkedlist = request.POST.getlist('report_id')
reportdetail = QvReportList.objects.filter(report_id__in = checkedlist).values_list('report_name_sc', flat = True).distinct()
# gets the timestamp from the system clock when the submit button is pressed
access_request_date = timezone.now()
#### Unused at this time, but we can pull the division CFO and facility CFO based on the tables Gregg created in the SQL server database. We'll let the workflow tool handle this part.
# facilitycfo = QvDatareducecfo.objects.filter(dr_code__exact = '34222', active = 1, cfo_type = 1).values_list('cfo_ntname', flat = True)
# divisioncfo = QvDatareducecfo.objects.filter(dr_code__exact = '34222', active = 1, cfo_type = 2).values_list('cfo_ntname', flat = True)
#print (facilitycfo)
#print (divisioncfo)
# gets the access level ie facility, division, market, group, corporate from the results.html POST request sent to submitted.html
selectedaccesslevel = request.POST.get('accesslevelid')
# sets access level name and organization level name for the submitted page
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '3':
accesslevel = 'company-wide access'
orglevelname = ''
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '4':
accesslevel = 'group level access'
accesslevelname = request.POST.getlist('blevel')
orglevelname = FacilityDimension.objects.filter(b_level__in = accesslevelname).values_list('group_name', flat = True).distinct()
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '5':
accesslevel = 'division level access'
accesslevelname = request.POST.getlist('rlevel')
orglevelname = FacilityDimension.objects.filter(r_level__in = accesslevelname).values_list('division_name', flat = True).distinct()
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '6':
accesslevel = 'market level access'
accesslevelname = request.POST.getlist('dlevel')
orglevelname = FacilityDimension.objects.filter(d_level__in = accesslevelname).values_list('market_name', flat = True).distinct()
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '7':
accesslevel = 'facility level access'
accesslevelname = request.POST.getlist('zcoid')
orglevelname = FacilityDimension.objects.filter(coid__in = accesslevelname).values_list('coid_name', flat = True).distinct()
# gets the PHI boolean flag from the results.html POST request sent to submitted.html
selectedphi = request.POST.get('phi')
# if statements to define hte datarduce code based on the selected access level sent from the results.html POST
## corporate
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '3':
selectlist = "S00001"
# group
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '4':
selectlist = request.POST.getlist('blevel')
# division
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '5':
selectlist = request.POST.getlist('rlevel')
# market
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '6':
selectlist = request.POST.getlist('dlevel')
# facility
if request.method == 'POST' and selectedaccesslevel == '7':
selectlist = request.POST.getlist('zcoid')
selectlist = [f'Z{value}' for value in selectlist]
# nested if/for statement which writes to the [QlikView].[dbo].[QV_FormAccessRequest] table if a corporate access level is selected the datareduce code is set to S00001
if request.method == 'POST':
for i in checkedlist:
if selectedaccesslevel == '3':
requestsave = QVFormAccessRequest(ntname = 'HCA\\'+owner.employeentname, first_name = owner.employeefirstname, last_name = owner.employeelastname, coid = owner.coid, title = owner.title
,report_id = i, accesslevel_id = selectedaccesslevel, phi = selectedphi , access_beg_date = access_request_date, previousdatareducecode = '', datareducecode = 'S00001', facility = owner.facilityname, requestid = '0', requesttype = 'New')# = list(facilitycfo)[0], division_cfo = list(divisioncfo)[0] )
requestsave.save()
# part of the nested if/for statement above which writes to [QlikView].[dbo].[QV_FormAccessRequest] if anything other than corporate user is selected it will chose the correct data reduce code based on the select list if statements above.
else:
for j in selectlist:
requestsave = QVFormAccessRequest(ntname = 'HCA\\'+owner.employeentname, first_name = owner.employeefirstname, last_name = owner.employeelastname, coid = owner.coid, title = owner.title
,report_id = i, accesslevel_id = selectedaccesslevel, phi = selectedphi , access_beg_date = access_request_date,previousdatareducecode = '', datareducecode = j, facility = owner.facilityname,requestid = '0', requesttype = 'New' )# = list(facilitycfo)[0], division_cfo = list(divisioncfo)[0] )
requestsave.save()
args = {'firstname' : firstname, 'lastname' : lastname, 'owner' : owner, 'accesslevel':accesslevel, 'reportdetail':reportdetail, 'orglevelname':orglevelname}
return render(request, 'submitted.html', args)
I have multiple buttons on my form so I can't use required because it will interfere with the action of another so I am using the following javascript validation.
function submitFormSub(action) {
var form = document.getElementById('form1');
form.action = action;
var accesslevelid = document.getElementById('accesslevelid');
if (form.action == 'submitted')
{
if ($('#accesslevelid').val() == "")
{
alert('Please select an access level');
return false;
}
form.submit();
}
}
The validation above works wonderful, as i see the alert, but the form still tries to submit and I'm greeted with the following error.
local variable 'accesslevel' referenced before assignment

Answer 1

A few options:
1) Convert your form to a Django Form so that you can override the validation methods and thus have it kick back the form when its is_valid method is called and fails. That is almost certainly the cleanest. You could also define the different choices using the choices keywords on fields and clean up a LOT of unnecessary code.
2) Call selectedaccesslevel = request.POST.get('accesslevelid', None) and on None skip to rendering a return without the logic of trying to set an access level and not processing the form to create QVFormAccessRequest instances.
To explain:
selectedaccesslevel = request.POST.get('accesslevelid', None)
if selectedaccesslevel:
# all your code that defines and sets access levels that you
# don't want to run because it doesn't have a crucial bit of info
args = {'firstname' : firstname, 'lastname' : lastname, 'owner' : owner, 'accesslevel':accesslevel, 'reportdetail':reportdetail, 'orglevelname':orglevelname}
return render(request, 'submitted.html', args)