Can't figure out why form.has_changed() is always true? - django

I'm trying to learn Django and have come up with a situation I can't figure out. I have the following code:
def contact_add(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = ContactManageForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
if form.has_changed(): # <-- ALWAYS RETURNS TRUE!
form.clean()
...
elif 'id' in request.GET: # Request to show an existing contact
new_contact_dynamic = contacts.models.PersonDynamic.objects.get(person_static = request.GET['id'],
current_record_fg = True)
form = ContactManageForm(new_contact_dynamic.__dict__, initial=new_contact_dynamic.__dict__)
else: # This must be to add a new contact
form = ContactAddForm()
return render(request, 'contact_manage.html', {'form': form})
So, if I'm sent an ID number, I read a record and display it on the screen. My template gives the user a 'submit changes' button. My problem, as noted above, is that Django always shows that the form has changed, even if the user hasn't changed any data on the screen (i.e. he just hit the submit changes button without changing anything).
So, am I doing something obviously wrong in my code that's creating this situation? Am I misinterpreting how the form.has_changed() method works?
It's my assumption that when I use the initial=parameter after a GET request, Django is storing that data somewhere and knows the context when the user then hits the 'submit data' button, is this wrong?

Yes you need to initialize your Form with initial data.
In your view the GET and POST requests have no common context. You may want to use sessions for that.
But in this case, it is not necessary. You can retrieve the instance on each request:
def contact_add(request):
if 'id' in request.GET:
new_contact_dynamic = contacts.models.PersonDynamic.objects.get(
person_static = request.GET['id'],
current_record_fg = True
)
if request.method == 'POST':
form = ContactManageForm(request.POST, initial=new_contact_dynamic.__dict__)
...
else: # Show an existing contact
form = ContactManageForm(initial=new_contact_dynamic.__dict__)
else:
form = ContactAddForm()
return render(request, 'contact_manage.html', {'form': form})

Related

Django - Previously page with data entered when form is invalid

Can I make my page return with the information previously entered when the form is invalid?
Views.py
def MyView(request):
[...code...]
if request.method == 'POST':
form = MyForm(request.POST or None)
if form.is_valid()
//do something and redirect to success page
else:
//back to the page with the information filled in by the user (HERE IS MY PROBLEM)
the line form = MyForm(request.POST or None) creates a MyForm object called form with request data assigned to it - its kinda like filled out form. The is_valid() method checks for errors in your form and adds particular errors to your form so this is now a filled out form with errors assigned. If you want to return this form to user you should add it to context so considering its a standard django function based view it should look like this:
def MyView(request):
[...code...]
if request.method == 'POST':
form = MyForm(request.POST or None)
if form.is_valid()
form.save()
return render(request, 'succes_page_template.html')
else:
return render(request, 'current_template.html', context = {'form': form})
if the form is invalid the next thing the user sees is same page where he filled out the form ('current_template.html') but with all the fields filled with data he/she already put it also form will have erros assigned to particular fields so you can print them. If you are new to Django I suggest getting into class based views from the start - they do the heavy lifting for you and refactoring + debugging becomes much easier. here is the link cheers!

Problems when obtaining an id, sent by a form

Good evening, I am trying to get the id of my model Note that is sent by means of a form, but when I put form.id it tells me that id is not defined, try to get it through the user session but it says that it was not found.
def add_book(request):
template_name = 'books/create_note.html'
book = get_or_create_book(request)
form = NoteForm(request.POST)
if request.method == 'POST' and form.is_valid():
note = Note.objects.get(pk=form.pk)
book.notes.add(note)
form.save()
return redirect('books:book')
return render(request, template_name, {
'form': form,
})
and this is the form
class NoteForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Note
fields = (
'title', 'nota'
)
labels = {
'title': 'Titulo',
'nota': 'Nota',
}
try creating an instance of my Note model but when it comes time to create it tells me it is empty.
I'm new to Django, but I had similar problems that frustrate me. not sure if I have the hang of it yet, but I think what might be happening is that when you first go to the page there is a GET request, so your if statement misses it. It then it reaches the last line and goes to template_name without the form being assigned so the form never gets a Post requests. In the terminal you can see the POST and GET requests. I ended up also printing out request.method a lot before and after if statements just to help trace what was going on.
else:
form=NoteForm()
Then your return render(request,....
making sure it goes back to the correct html page.
The thing that worked for me eventually was something like
def Search_Page(request):
if request.method=='POST':
form = Search_Page_Form(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
do some stuff and save the change to the model
return(redirect('mainapp:Evaluate_Page'))
else:
form=Search_Page_Form()
return render(request, 'mainapp/Search_Page.html', {'form': form})

How can I delete form field data in django after submit

I'm working on a django project where during registration, a user can submit a code to get special discounts. The validation of the discount codes is already working nicely, but I'm missing one beautifying aspect: After the user submits an invalid code I want to empty out the input field; i.e.:
def validate_code(value):
# check code for validity or raise ValidationError
class CodeForm(forms.Form):
code = forms.CharField(validators=[validate_code])
# in my views.py
def code_verification_view(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = CodeForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
# proceed with given code
else:
# modify form to return an empty html input for the code field
# this is where I'm stuck
form.fields['code'].value = ''
# ... render the form in a template
The end result should be a form with an empty input field, but the validation errors showing. The behavior should be similar to how password input fields are emptied if the form verification fails.
EDIT: I solved the problem, but in a very hacky way:
see https://stackoverflow.com/a/46564834/8572938
I'd appreciate a proper solution that does not rely on accessing protected members of the form.
the key is to reset form variable
form = CodeForm(None)
in your code
def code_verification_view(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = CodeForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
# proceed with given code
else:
form = CodeForm(None)
Just render your template, if your form is not valid, it will show error, In case if it is valid process your data
def code_verification_view(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = CodeForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
// process your data
else:
form.data['field'] = None
return render(request, template_name, {'form': form})
Make a field validation in your form definition:
class CodeForm(forms.Form):
code = forms.CharField(validators=[validate_code])
def clean_code(self):
code = self.cleaned_data(code)
error = # some of your process
if error:
self.fields['code'] = None
raise forms.ValidationError('...')
else:
return code
And remove the else part in your view, instead you want to do something else. If you just want to display the form with error, the raise forms.ValidationError will do it.
You can in django form add a clean_<field_name> to control each field as you like.
More info here
I found a way that works, but it's quite dirty:
old_form = CodeForm(request.POST)
form = CodeForm()
if old_form.is_valid():
# ...
else:
form._errors = old_form._errors
# pass form into the rendering context
This way, I get a clean form with the preserved errors.
While it does the job, it is clearly an ugly hack.

Form Validation Error when a required field is remained blank in django

I want to have errors as a label above a field if it is not filled.
This is my views.py:
#login_required(login_url='user_profile:login')
def NewWriting(request):
if request.method=="POST":
form=WritingForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
post=form.save(commit=False)
post.author=request.user
post.save()
return redirect('user_profile:index')
else:
form = WritingForm()
subject = Subject.objects.all()
return render(request,'user_profile/writing_form.html', {'form':form , 'subject':subject})
what should I add to my code?
Thanks
Without seeing your form class ...
Option 1:
If you really want the user to be able to submit the form with empty data and then specifically show them that error using the form, set the required=False kwarg for the specific field in your WritingForm class. Then override the clean_<fieldname> (link) method and then you could do:
def clean_<fieldname>:
if self.cleaned_data['<fieldname>'].strip() == '':
raise ValidationError('This field cannot be blank!')
return self.cleaned_data['<fieldname>']
Replacing <fieldname> with whatever that fieldname is.
Option 2:
The default for any form is to make all fields required (IE: required=True kwarg on the field). So in general, if the field is required most browsers will at least move the cursor to the empty field and won't allow the form to be submitted while there is no data in the field.
You also need to return a bound form in the case where form.is_valid() returns False or you won't ever see the errors (right now you don't return anything if the form is invalid). Please see the django docs here for a common functional view pattern using forms.
You need to add another all to render if the form is not valid, and in your template, you need to make use of form.errors. Something like this should work so that form validation errors are then passed back to the UI/template for display to the user:
#login_required(login_url='user_profile:login')
def NewWriting(request):
form = None
if request.method=="POST":
form=WritingForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
post=form.save(commit=False)
post.author=request.user
post.save()
return redirect('user_profile:index')
if form is None:
form = WritingForm()
subject = Subject.objects.all()
return render(request,'user_profile/writing_form.html', {'form':form , 'subject':subject})

Django view functions used just for logic ending with a http redirect

Hy there,
i just read here that posted data can't be sent by a redirect,
and then found that people are generally not happy with using redirects. And my question is why?
My situation
I have a Django app which starts by rendering a page which gives the choice of using Registered or Anonymous usage.
def start(request):
request.session.flush()
return render_to_response('start.html')
If Registered usage is chosen a simple form is rendered to insert the registration data, and it loops to itself until form is valid after which 'auth/' takes place.
def registration(request):
if request.method == "POST":
form = RegistrationForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
return HttpResponseRedirect('auth/')
else:
return render_to_response('registration.html',
{'form':form})
form = RegistrationForm()
return render_to_response('registration.html',
{'form':form})
If anonymous usage is chosen, the registration page is skipped, and is redirected to 'auth/', the same Django view function like in upper code:
return HttpResponseRedirect('auth/')
What i was hoping to achieve with auth is for it to just set the sessions, write the data to a database and then redirect the next page which is identical to Registered and Anonymous users (only the sessions would differ).
def auth(request):
ipdb.set_trace()
if request.method == "POST":
request.session['user_type'] = 'REG'
request.session['email'] = request.POST['email']
request.session['first_name'] = request.POST['first_name']
RegisteredUser.objects.create(first_name = request.POST['first_name'],
email = request.POST['email'],
company = request.POST['company'])
else:
request.session['user_type'] = 'ANONIM'
return HttpResponseRedirect('next_page')
Of course, when the debugger starts, request.method always returns GET.
My reasons
There is a lots of talking about separating the view from the logic, and i don't find it very readable or loosely coupled when i have a Django view function (if I drop the 'auth/', 'next_page' would have to take it's functionality) which has to
Check for request.post
If there if the reason for it is form validation of the current page, or if it's from the previous page, in which case write that data to a base
Do additional checks to set the sessions for registered or anonymous user
which I would have to do since using separated functions just for logic that redirects instead of rendering doesn't seem as the generally accepted way.
Can someone please shed some light on things?
UPDATE WITH SOLUTION
Thanks to the answers i figured out the pattern on how to do this. The code for registration is now:
def registration(request):
if request.method == "POST":
form = RegistrationForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
request.session['user_type'] = 'REG'
request.session['email'] = request.POST['email']
request.session['first_name'] = request.POST['first_name']
RegisteredUser.objects.create(first_name = request.POST['first_name'],
email = request.POST['email'],
company = request.POST['company'])
return HttpResponseRedirect('param_select/')
else:
return render_to_response('registration.html',
{'form':form},
context_instance = RequestContext(request))
form = RegistrationForm()
return render_to_response('registration.html',
{'form':form},
context_instance = RequestContext(request))
From now on, I'm using the "Loop into yourself with POST data, and then perform the logic" method.
To demystify the name, thats what the new registration(request) does.
First it renders the form to input the data
Than it is recalled once the data is submitted because of link to itself
form action="" method="post"
This is repeated until correct form data isn't submitted after which the logic is called (in this case, writing to a base and setting the sessions).
It ends with a httpRedirect to a different page leaving the registration completely handled by registration(request).
By default you can assume that user is anonymous and set request.session['user_type'] = 'ANONIM' in your start() view.
Whatever you are doing in auth() you can do it in registration() along with request.session['user_type'] = 'REG'. With this you can use the validated form to create RegisteredUser and flag errors as well if required.
And once POST processing is valid and complete it can redirect to your next_page.
If anonymous user is chosen, start will redirect to next_page rather than auth/