Storing form data in the database - django

Question

I can't figure out how to store a simple form in the database. I think I'm quite close but there is probably something wrong in my views.py. Here is my code, any ideas what I'm doing wrong? (also on dpaste)
# models.py
class IngredienceCategory(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=30, unique=True)
user = models.ForeignKey(User, null=True, blank=True)
class Meta:
verbose_name_plural = "Ingredience Categories"
def __unicode__(self):
return self.name
# forms.py
class CategoryForm(forms.Form):
name = forms.CharField(max_length=30)
# views.py
#login_required
def newCategory(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
username = request.user.username
cform = CategoryForm(request.POST)
if cform.is_valid():
formInstance = cform.save(commit = False)
formInstance.user = username
formInstance.name = cform.cleaned_data['name']
formInstance = IngredienceCategory.objects.filter(name=formInstance.name, user=formInstance.user)
formInstance.save()
# return HttpResponseRedirect('new-category/')
else:
form = CategoryForm()
context = {'form': form}
return render_to_response('new-category.html', context, context_instance=RequestContext(request))
# new-category.html
<h3>Insert New Category</h3>
<form action="/" method="post" id="food-form">{% csrf_token %}
{{ form.as_p }}
<input type="submit" name="foodForm" value="Save" />
</form>

Answer 1

The line below is not useful at it current position. That command will perform a database query and assign the result as a queryset, before you have saved the form data.
formInstance = IngredienceCategory.objects.filter(name=formInstance.name, user=formInstance.user)
This should work:
With cform as a normal Form:
if cform.is_valid():
formInstance = IngredienceCategory(user=request.user, cform.cleaned_data['name'])
formInstance.save()
If cform had been a ModelForm you could do:
if cform.is_valid():
formInstance = cform.save(commit=False)
formInstance.user = request.user
formInstance.save()
I do recommend you to check out ModelForms since it will build the cleaning functionality based on your model.

Answer 2

You should inherit from ModelForm
from django.forms import ModelForm
class CategoryForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = IngredienceCategory
Refer to https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/forms/modelforms/ for how to render form and save it to database.