Django model/form clean, validate, and unique - django

Question

I am trying to create a Model and ModelForm with "name" and "client" fields that have the following cleaning and validation characteristics. I can manage each individual requirement but can't seem get them to work together.
An authenticated user can enter a name for an Item
Item is saved with the name and forced to the client that is associated with the user account.
Name is cleaned via ' '.join(name.strip().split())
Name is validated so that (cleaned_name.lower(),client) is unique
EG: If "FOO BAR" exists in the user's associated client, user would get an error if they enter "foo bar"
It is a fairly simple model:
class Item(BaseModel):
class Meta:
unique_together = (("client", "name"),)
client = models.ForeignKey(Client,related_name='items',null=True,blank=False)
name = models.CharField(max_length=64, null=False, blank=False)
def clean_name(self):
return ' '.join(self.cleaned_data['name'].strip().split())
All item creates/updates are done via Django REST Framework:
class ItemSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Item
fields = ('id','name')
def create(self,validated_data):
item = Item.objects.create(name=validated_data['name'],client=self.context['request'].user.client)
item.save()
return item
I would prefer as much of the logic in the Model as possible (eg, not use SQL to create indexes), but could push some of the validation to the serializer if need be.
Tx.

Answer 1

I ended up with the following. The only caveat is that I have to include a name_slug field to store for sorting purposes.
models.py
class Item(BaseModel):
class Meta:
db_table = 'item'
ordering = ['name_slug']
# relations
client = models.ForeignKey(Client,related_name='items',null=True,blank=False)
# attributes
name = models.CharField(max_length=64, null=False, blank=False)
name_slug = models.CharField(max_length=64, null=False, blank=True)
def clean(self):
self.name = ' '.join(self.name.strip().split())
if Item.objects.filter(client=self.client,name__iexact=self.name).count() > 0:
raise ValidationError({'name': 'Name already exists. Please enter a different name'})
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
self.name_slug = '-'.join(self.name.split()).lower()
super(Item, self).save(*args, **kwargs)
serializers.py
class ItemSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Item
fields = ('id','name','name_slug')
read_only_fields = ('name_slug',)
def validate(self, attrs):
attrs['client'] = self.context['request'].user.client
instance = Item(**attrs)
instance.clean()
return { k: getattr(instance,k) for k in attrs.keys()}