How to send dynamic hidden form variables using POST - django

Question

I have a page that pulls out entries from the database as 'users' and lists them. A typical result looks like this:
John
Marty
Tom
Jane
Chris
Now I would like to click on a specific the name and go to their specific page. For this, I have a form that posts to a view that expects the user that has been "clicked"
So far, I have a form inside a loop that goes through each 'user' in 'users' table. The setup works fine but the major problem is that the form element 'name' is replaced by the last user. No matter, whose name I click it always passes the last user's username.
{% for user in users %}
<h1>{{ user.firstName }} {{ user.lastName }}</h1>
<form action="/friend_profile/" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8">
<input type="hidden" name="selectedFriend" value ={{ user.userName }}>
<button type="submit" value="view profile">
{% endfor %}
I am not using DJango forms and just using request.method == 'POST' for receiving variables.
So my dumb question would be, is there a way to dynamically create 'name' form element and submit its contents specific to the user? Right now, the form always submits the user "Chris" no matter which user I click because its the last one on the list.

Answer 1

Right now, the form always submits the user "Chris" no matter which user I click because its the last one on the list.
That's because you didn't close your <form> tag, so the browser sees one big bunch of nested forms.
Also, you need to quote and escape the value attribute in your hidden input:
<form action="/friend_profile/" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8">
<input type="hidden" name="selectedFriend" value="{{ user.userName|escape }}">
<button type="submit" value="view profile">
</form>