Django: __init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'first_name' - django

Question

I am writing a class-based view that lets the employees setup their profile. Because the employee model has a few foreign key field (e.g. employer is a forieng key referencing company model), I decided not to use ModelForm and resort to good old forms so the user can enter the name of the company they work in rather than 32.
Here is my code:
class Employee_ProfileSetting(forms.Form):
first_name = forms.CharField(label = 'First Name', max_length = 30)
last_name = forms.CharField(label = 'Last Name', max_length = 30)
email = forms.EmailField()
employer = forms.CharField(max_length = 50)
cell = forms.CharField(max_length = 20)
driver_license_num = forms.CharField(max_length=20)
birth_year = forms.IntegerField()
start_date = forms.IntegerField(help_text = 'Year you started with the company')
title = forms.CharField(max_length = 30)
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
if not args: # args is empty, meaning a fresh object
super(Employee_ProfileSetting, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
else:
# Retrieving the form's information
self.first_name = args[0].get('first_name')
self.last_name = args[0]['last_name']
self.email = args[0]['email']
self.cell = args[0]['cell']
self.driver_license_num = args[0]['driver_license_num']
self.birth_year = args[0]['birth_year']
self.start_year = args[0]['start_date']
self.title = args[0]['title']
super(Employee_ProfileSetting, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
The constructor would then allow me to do this in my class-based view:
# Inside class AdminSetting(View):
def post(self, request):
form = self.form_class(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
cd = form.cleaned_data
employee_profile = Employee_ProfileSetting(**cd) # Calling the constructor
employee_profile.save() # The save function is overridden
admin, created = Employee.objects.get_or_create(**cd) # If a matching employee exists, it gets that object. Otherwise, it creates it.
if created: # Object was not found, and so it was created
return HttpResponseRedirect('success.html')
When I run it, it gives me the error:
__init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'first_name'
So, my problem is two-fold:
1) What is wrong with the code? and what does that error mean?
2) Is there a better way to let the user fill in all the fields, including the foreign key fields, in a form and save fields accordingly? e.g. the field corresponding to a foreign key is saved in its respective table first (company1.employee_set.create() and then saving the other fields. Can a ModelForm be used?

Answer 1

Constructor of model can't take any arguments that have no matching field inside model. So if you try to pass first_name into model that doesn't have first_name field, you will get that exception.
To do it properly, you can create multiple forms and use them. Form should ignore extra POST data and take only what it needs. Also you can pass commit=False into ModelForm.save method, so created object won't be saved. That way you can pass some additional data, for example Employee_ProfileSettings ID can be passed into Employee before saving it.

Answer 2

The way you define the init is very strange. It should be something like this:
def __init__(self, data, *args, **kwargs):
if not data: # data is empty, meaning a fresh object
super(Employee_ProfileSetting, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
else:
# Retrieving the form's information
self.first_name = data[0].get('first_name')
self.last_name = data[0]['last_name']
self.email = data[0]['email']
self.cell = data[0]['cell']
self.driver_license_num = data[0]['driver_license_num']
self.birth_year = data[0]['birth_year']
self.start_year = data[0]['start_date']
self.title = data[0]['title']
super(Employee_ProfileSetting, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
And second thing is how you call you class:
employee_profile = Employee_ProfileSetting(**cd)
Which expands all the clean_data list. This expands to:
employee_profile = Employee_ProfileSetting(first_name=cleaned_data[first_name], ...)
Instead you should call it like this:
employee_profile = Employee_ProfileSetting(form.cleaned_data)
So that the dictionary instance is not expanded.
Finally, I don't think I understood why you cannot use a model form...