DateField -- "enter a valid date" message - django

Question

I'm a bit confused as why it keeps returning the 'enter a valid date' message. Is it my formatting?
I've tried different combinations of %m-%d-%Y, but still no luck.
models.py
class DeliveryDate(models.Model):
cart = models.ForeignKey('Cart', null=True, blank=True)
date = models.DateField()
def __str__(self):
return str(self.cart.id)
return self.date
views.py
def add_delivery_date(request):
the_id = request.session['cart_id']
cart = Cart.objects.get(id=the_id)
form = DeliveryDateForm(request.POST or None)
if request.method == "POST":
if form.is_valid():
delivery_date = form.save(commit=False)
date = request.POST['date']
delivery_date = DeliveryDate.objects.create(cart=cart, date=date)
delivery_date.save()
return HttpResponseRedirect('thank-you.html')
context = {
"form": form
}
return render(request, 'choose_delivery_date.html', context)
forms.py
class DeliveryDateForm(forms.ModelForm):
date = forms.DateField(input_formats=['%m %d %Y'], widget=SelectDateWidget, initial=datetime.date.today())
class Meta:
model = DeliveryDate
fields = ['date']

Answer 1

First in your Django ModelForm let's change the date model field's widget without adding an extra field.
This is done in the __ init __ method :
from django.forms.extras.widgets import SelectDateWidget
class DeliveryDateForm(forms.ModelForm):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(DeliveryDateForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
#Change date field's widget here
self.fields['date'].widget = SelectDateWidget()
class Meta:
model = DeliveryDate
fields = ['date']
By adding a field like you did :
class DeliveryDateForm(forms.ModelForm):
date = forms.DateField(input_formats=['%m %d %Y'], widget=SelectDateWidget, initial=datetime.date.today())
Is actually adding an extra FormField to your ModelForm which has the same name than the ModelField.
Doing this way, you'll simply change the binded date ModelField widget to 3 selects for Day/month/year
Second, your form validation is quit odd :
What I usually write looks like that:
def add_delivery_date(request):
the_id = request.session['cart_id']
cart = Cart.objects.get(id=the_id)
form = DeliveryDateForm()
if request.method == "POST":
form = DeliveryDate(data=request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
delivery_date = form.save(commit=False)
delivery_date.cart = cart
delivery_date.save()
return HttpResponseRedirect('thank-you.html')
return render(request, 'choose_delivery_date.html', {
'form': form
})