Django template isn't rendering dynamic form errors - django

Question

I have a Django 1.8 form that contains a paragraph tag that renders either some feedback or a question submitted by a user. It also contains a textarea input 'response_text' and a pair of radio buttons 'close_issue'. This response input can be used to send an optional response to the user. If the user submitted some feedback, the admin should be able to click the 'close issue' radio button and submit the form with no response. However, if the textarea input contains a question, then the form should render an error telling the admin that he/she can't submit the form without typing an answer into the response input. The problem I'm having is that I can't get the form to cause the template to render an error message if the user submitted a question but the admin didn't type in a response. My view, model, form, and template are shown below. forms.py shows all the ways (all commented out) I have tried to make the response input field required if the user submitted a question so that the template will display an error. I also tried overriding the default 'clean' method with one that would raise a ValidationError if the user submitted a question and the response input is blank but that didn't work either. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks.
# view.py
def review_feedback_or_question(request, template, *args, **kwargs):
fqid = kwargs['fqid']## Heading ##
submission = FeedbackQuestion.objects.get(pk=fqid)
if request.method == 'POST':
form = FeedbackQuestionResponseForm(request.POST, submission=submission)
if form.is_valid():
# process the form
return redirect('review-feedback-or-question-queue')
else:
pass
form = FeedbackQuestionResponseForm(submission=submission)
context = {'form': form, 'submission': submission,}
return render(request, template, context)
# models.py
class FeedbackQuestion(models.Model):
SELECT = ''
FEEDBACK = 'feedback'
QUESTION = 'question'
SUBMISSION_TYPE_CHOICES = (
(SELECT , '-- Select --'),
(FEEDBACK, 'Feedback'),
(QUESTION, 'Question'),
)
user = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name="user")
submission_type = models.CharField(max_length=8,
choices=SUBMISSION_TYPE_CHOICES,
default=SELECT)
submission_text = models.TextField()
date_submitted = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
response_text = models.TextField()
respondent = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name='respondent')
date_responded = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
issue_closed = models.BooleanField(default=False)
class Meta:
db_table = 'feedback_question'
# forms.py
class FeedbackQuestionResponseForm(forms.Form):
TRUE = 1
FALSE = 0
BLANK = ''
CHOICES = ( (TRUE, 'Yes'), (FALSE, 'No') )
response_text = forms.CharField(
required=False,
label='',
widget=forms.Textarea(attrs={'placeholder': 'Enter response...'}))
close_issue = forms.TypedChoiceField(
choices=CHOICES,
label='Close this issue?',
widget=forms.RadioSelect(renderer=HorizontalRadioRenderer),
coerce=int)
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
if 'submission' in kwargs:
submission = kwargs.pop('submission')
if submission.submission_type == 'question':
# NONE OF THESE WORKED!
#self.fields.get('response_text').required = True
#self.declared_fields['response_text'].required = self.TRUE
#self.declared_fields['response_text'].required = self.TRUE
#self.declared_fields['response_text'].required = True
#self._errors['response_text'] = "You must enter a response"
pass
super(FeedbackQuestionResponseForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
# template.html
<p>{{ submission.submission_text }}</p>
<form action="" method="post">{% csrf_token %}
{{ form.non_field_errors }}
{% if form.errors %}
{% if form.errors.items|length == 1 %}
Please correct the error below.
{% else %}
Please correct the errors below.
{% endif %}
</p>
{% endif %}
{{ form.response_text.errors }}
{{ form.response_text.label_tag }} {{ form.response_text }}
{{ form.close_issue.errors }}
{{ form.close_issue }} {{ form.close_issue.label_tag }}
<input type="submit" value="Submit" class="" />
</form>

Answer 1

You're not passing submission into the form when you instantiate it on POST, so the required attribute is never being set.

Answer 2

Daniel Roseman was correct in that I need to pass 'submission' into the form when I instantiate the form on POST. But there were still two other problems. First, I need to instantiate the form inside the else block. If this isn't done and the form doesn't validate, then you're passing an unbound form back to the viewer and any errors won't be displayed. Also, it isn't necessary to pass 'submission' to the form when you instantiate it here:
...
else:
form = FeedbackQuestionResponseForm()
context = {...}
...
The next problem was that the order of my statements inside the init method was incorrect. It appears that I needed to execute 'super()' before trying to reference the 'response_text' field. I'll need to locate and study this method in the Django source code to understand exactly why. In any case, this works:
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
if 'submission' in kwargs:
submission = kwargs.pop('submission')
else:
submission = False
super(FeedbackQuestionResponseForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
if submission:
if submission.submission_type == 'question':
self.fields['response_text'].required = True
else:
self.fields['response_text'].required = False
When the above changes are implemented, the form will make the response_text field required if the user submits a question and an error will be displayed if the admin doesn't enter a response before submitting the form. Many thanks again to Daniel for getting me back on track towards finding a solution.