M2M using through and form with multiple checkboxes - django

Question

I'd like to create a form allowing me to assign services to supplier from these models. There is no M2M relationship defined since I use a DB used by others program, so it seems not possible to change it. I might be wrong with that too.
class Service(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=30L, blank=True)
class ServiceUser(models.Model):
service = models.ForeignKey(Service, null=False, blank=False)
contact = models.ForeignKey(Contact, null=False, blank=False)
class SupplierPrice(models.Model):
service_user = models.ForeignKey('ServiceUser')
price_type = models.IntegerField(choices=PRICE_TYPES)
price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=10, decimal_places=4)
I've created this form:
class SupplierServiceForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
services = ModelMultipleChoiceField(queryset=Service.objects.all())
model = ServiceUser
widgets = {
'service': CheckboxSelectMultiple(),
'contact': HiddenInput(),
}
Here is the view I started to work on without any success:
class SupplierServiceUpdateView(FormActionMixin, TemplateView):
def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
supplier = Contact.objects.get(pk=self.kwargs.get('pk'))
service_user = ServiceUser.objects.filter(contact=supplier)
form = SupplierServiceForm(instance=service_user)
return {'form': form}
I have the feeling that something is wrong in the way I'm trying to do it. I have a correct form displayed but it is not instantiated with the contact and checkboxes aren't checked even if a supplier has already some entries in service_user.

Answer 1

You are defining services inside your Meta class. Put it outside, right after the beginning of SupplierServiceForm. At the very least it should show up then.
Edit:
I misunderstood your objective. It seems you want to show a multiple select for a field that can only have 1 value. Your service field will not be able to store the multiple services.
So, by definition, your ServiceUser can have only one Service.
If you don't want to modify the database because of other apps using it, you can create another field with a many to many relationship to Service. That could cause conflicts with other parts of your apps using the old field, but without modifying the relationship i don't see another way.

Answer 2

The solution to my problem was indeed to redefine my models in oder to integrate the m2m relationship that was missing, using the through argument. Then I had to adapt a form with a special init method to have all selected services displayed in checkboxes, and a special save() method to save the form using m2m relationship.
class Supplier(Contact):
services = models.ManyToManyField('Service', through='SupplierPrice')
class Service(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=30L, blank=True)
class ServiceUser(models.Model):
service = models.ForeignKey(Service, null=False, blank=False)
supplier = models.ForeignKey(Supplier, null=False, blank=False)
price = models.Decimal(max_digits=10, decimal_places=2, default=0)
And the form, adapted from the very famous post about toppings and pizza stuff.
class SupplierServiceForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Supplier
fields = ('services',)
widgets = {
'services': CheckboxSelectMultiple(),
'contact_ptr_id': HiddenInput(),
}
services = ModelMultipleChoiceField(queryset=Service.objects.all(), required=False)
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
# Here kwargs should contain an instance of Supplier
if 'instance' in kwargs:
# We get the 'initial' keyword argument or initialize it
# as a dict if it didn't exist.
initial = kwargs.setdefault('initial', {})
# The widget for a ModelMultipleChoiceField expects
# a list of primary key for the selected data (checked boxes).
initial['services'] = [s.pk for s in kwargs['instance'].services.all()]
ModelForm.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
def save(self, commit=True):
supplier = ModelForm.save(self, False)
# Prepare a 'save_m2m' method for the form,
def save_m2m():
new_services = self.cleaned_data['services']
old_services = supplier.services.all()
for service in old_services:
if service not in new_services:
service.delete()
for service in new_services:
if service not in old_services:
SupplierPrice.objects.create(supplier=supplier, service=service)
self.save_m2m = save_m2m
# Do we need to save all changes now?
if commit:
self.save_m2m()
return supplier
This changed my first models and will make a mess in my old DB but at least it works.