so I'm working on a django application where I have a model Event. Each Event has some attributes, say one of them is "hostname" (which I will use throughout as an example). I need to implement search functionality where a user can search for all events that has hostname == some_value, e.g. hostname == "myhost.foo.bar".
Now, I wanted to allow the user to select among the valid options (i.e. the hostnames that actually exist in one or more event) in a combobox in the search form, so I use ModelChoiceFields for my form. My subclass of ModelChoiceView, for displaying the correct label:
class HostnameModelChoiceField(forms.ModelChoiceField):
def label_from_instance(self, obj):
return obj.host.hostname
My form:
class QueryForm(forms.Form):
hostname = HostnameModelChoiceField(queryset=Event.objects.all(), required=False)
...
However, this gives duplicates because many events may have the same hostname. I attempted using "distinct()" on the queryset but of course that won't work because the objects are distinct (even if the displayed values are not).
So, I tried to instead select only the values I need:
class QueryForm(forms.Form):
hostname = ModelChoiceField(queryset=Event.objects.all().values_list("hostname", "hostname").distinct(), required=False)
But this won't validate! I suspect because the values are not actual Event instances but just string values.
So I tried a regular ChoiceField:
hostname = forms.ChoiceField(choices=Event.objects.all().values_list("hostname", "hostname").distinct(), required=False)
This works, BUT this list is only populated once, so it's not up to date with the database.
So... Is there any good way of solving this problem? To recap the question: HOW do I populate a combo box with the distinct values from one of the fields of a model, and also keeping it in-sync with the database? I would think that a ModelChoiceField would be the best bet, if I can get it to validate when using .values(...) or .values_list(...).
Sincerely,
Hallgeir
The second way will work, but you need to set the choices on init so its refreshed each time the form is called.
e.g
class QueryForm(forms.Form):
hostname = forms.ChoiceField(choices=[], required=False)
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(QueryForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.fields['hostname'].choices = Event.objects.all().values_list("hostname","hostname").distinct()
Related
I'm relatively new to Django, and I've been trying to find a way to implement a ManyToMany field whose visible 'choices' within the UI change based upon a BooleanField found within the same model.
For instance, suppose I have a model that represents different jobs, and a worker model that has a manytomany relationship to this jobs model. Suppose also that there are two types of workers: a manager and non-manager which is represented as a BooleanField. If you are a manager, you have certain jobs that a worker does not have and vice versa.
I'm trying to find a way, without creating a new table, to have it such that the jobs listed within the manytomany relationship are dependent on the boolean value of 'is_manager'. That is, if you were to click 'is_manager', this should list manager-specific jobs, yet these manager specific jobs live within the same table as non-manager jobs -- those would just be blank.
I've been looking into the through field, etc, but all solutions that I come up with seem to be dependent on making another table. I'm sure there is a way to do this better though.
Thank you.
I suggest this approach:
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = MyModel
fields = ['jobs', 'username']
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
instance = kwargs.get('instance', None)
if instance is not None:
if instance.is_manager:
self.fields['jobs'].queryset = Jobs.objects.filter(manager=True)
else:
self.fields['jobs'].queryset = Jobs.objects.filter(manager=False)
In a Django app, I'm having a model Bet which contains a ManyToMany relation with the User model of Django:
class Bet(models.Model):
...
participants = models.ManyToManyField(User)
User should be able to start new bets using a form. Until now, bets have exactly two participants, one of which is the user who creates the bet himself. That means in the form for the new bet you have to chose exactly one participant. The bet creator is added as participant upon saving of the form data.
I'm using a ModelForm for my NewBetForm:
class NewBetForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Bet
widgets = {
'participants': forms.Select()
}
def save(self, user):
... # save user as participant
Notice the redefined widget for the participants field which makes sure you can only choose one participant.
However, this gives me a validation error:
Enter a list of values.
I'm not really sure where this comes from. If I look at the POST data in the developer tools, it seems to be exactly the same as if I use the default widget and choose only one participant. However, it seems like the to_python() method of the ManyToManyField has its problems with this data. At least there is no User object created if I enable the Select widget.
I know I could work around this problem by excluding the participants field from the form and define it myself but it would be a lot nicer if the ModelForm's capacities could still be used (after all, it's only a widget change). Maybe I could manipulate the passed data in some way if I knew how.
Can anyone tell me what the problem is exactly and if there is a good way to solve it?
Thanks in advance!
Edit
As suggested in the comments: the (relevant) code of the view.
def new_bet(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = NewBetForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
form.save(request.user)
... # success message and redirect
else:
form = NewBetForm()
return render(request, 'bets/new.html', {'form': form})
After digging in the Django code, I can answer my own question.
The problem is that Django's ModelForm maps ManyToManyFields in the model to ModelMultipleChoiceFields of the form. This kind of form field expects the widget object to return a sequence from its value_from_datadict() method. The default widget for ModelMultipleChoiceField (which is SelectMultiple) overrides value_from_datadict() to return a list from the user supplied data. But if I use the Select widget, the default value_from_datadict() method of the superclass is used, which simply returns a string. ModelMultipleChoiceField doesn't like that at all, hence the validation error.
To solutions I could think of:
Overriding the value_from_datadict() of Select either via inheritance or some class decorator.
Handling the m2m field manually by creating a new form field and adjusting the save() method of the ModelForm to save its data in the m2m relation.
The seconds solution seems to be less verbose, so that's what I will be going with.
I don't mean to revive a resolved question but I was working a solution like this and thought I would share my code to help others.
In j0ker's answer he lists two methods to get this to work. I used method 1. In which I borrowed the 'value_from_datadict' method from the SelectMultiple widget.
forms.py
from django.utils.datastructures import MultiValueDict, MergeDict
class M2MSelect(forms.Select):
def value_from_datadict(self, data, files, name):
if isinstance(data, (MultiValueDict, MergeDict)):
return data.getlist(name)
return data.get(name, None)
class WindowsSubnetForm(forms.ModelForm):
port_group = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(widget=M2MSelect, required=True, queryset=PortGroup.objects.all())
class Meta:
model = Subnet
The problem is that ManyToMany is the wrong data type for this relationship.
In a sense, the bet itself is the many-to-many relationship. It makes no sense to have the participants as a manytomanyfield. What you need is two ForeignKeys, both to User: one for the creator, one for the other user ('acceptor'?)
You can modify the submitted value before (during) validation in Form.clean_field_name. You could use this method to wrap the select's single value in a list.
class NewBetForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Bet
widgets = {
'participants': forms.Select()
}
def save(self, user):
... # save user as participant
def clean_participants(self):
data = self.cleaned_data['participants']
return [data]
I'm actually just guessing what the value proivded by the select looks like, so this might need a bit of tweaking, but I think it will work.
Here are the docs.
Inspired by #Ryan Currah I found this to be working out of the box:
class M2MSelect(forms.SelectMultiple):
def render(self, name, value, attrs=None, choices=()):
rendered = super(M2MSelect, self).render(name, value=value, attrs=attrs, choices=choices)
return rendered.replace(u'multiple="multiple"', u'')
The first one of the many to many is displayed and when saved only the selected value is left.
I found an easyer way to do this inspired by #Ryan Currah:
You just have to override "allow_multiple_selected" attribut from SelectMultiple class
class M2MSelect(forms.SelectMultiple):
allow_multiple_selected = False
class NewBetForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Bet
participants = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(widget=M2MSelect, required=True, queryset=User.objects.all())
I posted this question on the django-users list, but haven't had a reply there yet.
I have models that look something like this:
class ProductGroup(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=10, primary_key=True)
def __unicode__(self): return self.name
class ProductRun(models.Model):
date = models.DateField(primary_key=True)
def __unicode__(self): return self.date.isoformat()
class CatalogItem(models.Model):
cid = models.CharField(max_length=25, primary_key=True)
group = models.ForeignKey(ProductGroup)
run = models.ForeignKey(ProductRun)
pnumber = models.IntegerField()
def __unicode__(self): return self.cid
class Meta:
unique_together = ('group', 'run', 'pnumber')
class Transaction(models.Model):
timestamp = models.DateTimeField()
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
item = models.ForeignKey(CatalogItem)
quantity = models.IntegerField()
price = models.FloatField()
Let's say there are about 10 ProductGroups and 10-20 relevant
ProductRuns at any given time. Each group has 20-200 distinct
product numbers (pnumber), so there are at least a few thousand
CatalogItems.
I am working on formsets for the Transaction model. Instead of a
single select menu with the several thousand CatalogItems for the
ForeignKey field, I want to substitute three drop-down menus, for
group, run, and pnumber, which uniquely identify the CatalogItem.
I'd also like to limit the choices in the second two drop-downs to
those runs and pnumbers which are available for the currently
selected product group (I can update them via AJAX if the user
changes the product group, but it's important that the initial page
load as described without relying on AJAX).
What's the best way to do this?
As a point of departure, here's what I've tried/considered so far:
My first approach was to exclude the item foreign key field from the
form, add the substitute dropdowns by overriding the add_fields
method of the formset, and then extract the data and populate the
fields manually on the model instances before saving them. It's
straightforward and pretty simple, but it's not very reusable and I
don't think it is the right way to do this.
My second approach was to create a new field which inherits both
MultiValueField and ModelChoiceField, and a corresponding
MultiWidget subclass. This seems like the right approach. As
Malcolm Tredinnick put it in
a django-users discussion,
"the 'smarts' of a field lie in the Field class."
The problem I'm having is when/where to fetch the lists of choices
from the db. The code I have now does it in the Field's __init__,
but that means I have to know which ProductGroup I'm dealing with
before I can even define the Form class, since I have to instantiate the
Field when I define the form. So I have a factory
function which I call at the last minute from my view--after I know
what CatalogItems I have and which product group they're in--to
create form/formset classes and instantiate them. It works, but I
wonder if there's a better way. After all, the field should be
able to determine the correct choices much later on, once it knows
its current value.
Another problem is that my implementation limits the entire formset
to transactions relating to (CatalogItems from) a single
ProductGroup.
A third possibility I'm entertaining is to put it all in the Widget
class. Once I have the related model instance, or the cid, or
whatever the widget is given, I can get the ProductGroup and
construct the drop-downs. This would solve the issues with my
second approach, but doesn't seem like the right approach.
One way of setting field choices of a form in a formset is in the form's __init__ method by overwriting the self.fields['field_name'].choices, but since a more dynamic approach is desired, here is what works in a view:
from django.forms.models import modelformset_factory
user_choices = [(1, 'something'), (2, 'something_else')] # some basic choices
PurchaserChoiceFormSet = modelformset_factory(PurchaserChoice, form=PurchaserChoiceForm, extra=5, max_num=5)
my_formset = PurchaserChoiceFormSet(self.request.POST or None, queryset=worksheet_choices)
# and now for the magical for loop
for choice_form in my_formset:
choice_form.fields['model'].choices = user_choices
I wasn't able to find the answer for this but tried it out and it works in Django 1.6.5. I figured it out since formsets and for loops seem to go so well together :)
I ended up sticking with the second approach, but I'm convinced now that it was the Short Way That Was Very Long. I had to dig around a bit in the ModelForm and FormField innards, and IMO the complexity outweighs the minimal benefits.
What I wrote in the question about the first approach, "It's straightforward and pretty simple," should have been the tip-off.
I have two models: Activity and Place.
The Activity model has a ReferenceProperty to the Place model.
This was working fine until the Place table started growing and now
when trying to edit an Activity via django admin I get a memory error
from Google (it doesn't happen if I remove that field from the Activity
admin's fieldsets)
The widget used to edit the RefrenceProperty uses Place.all() to get
the possible values.
As both Activity and Place are sharded by a city property I would like
to optimize the widget's choice query from Place.all() to just the
relevant places, for example Place.all().filter("city =", )
I couldn't find a way to override the query in the docs and I was
wondering if the above is even possible? and if so, how?
Managed to optimize the query by overriding the admin form:
class ActivityAdminForm(forms.ModelForm):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(ActivityAdminForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.fields['place'].queryset = <... my query ...>
class ActivityAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = ActivityAdminForm
Given a model with ForeignKeyField (FKF) or ManyToManyField (MTMF) fields with a foreignkey to 'self' how can I prevent self (recursive) selection within the Django Admin (admin).
In short, it should be possible to prevent self (recursive) selection of a model instance in the admin. This applies when editing existing instances of a model, not creating new instances.
For example, take the following model for an article in a news app;
class Article(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
slug = models.SlugField()
related_articles = models.ManyToManyField('self')
If there are 3 Article instances (title: a1-3), when editing an existing Article instance via the admin the related_articles field is represented by default by a html (multiple)select box which provides a list of ALL articles (Article.objects.all()). The user should only see and be able to select Article instances other than itself, e.g. When editing Article a1, related_articles available to select = a2, a3.
I can currently see 3 potential to ways to do this, in order of decreasing preference;
Provide a way to set the queryset providing available choices in the admin form field for the related_articles (via an exclude query filter, e.g. Article.objects.filter(~Q(id__iexact=self.id)) to exclude the current instance being edited from the list of related_articles a user can see and select from. Creation/setting of the queryset to use could occur within the constructor (__init__) of a custom Article ModelForm, or, via some kind of dynamic limit_choices_to Model option. This would require a way to grab the instance being edited to use for filtering.
Override the save_model function of the Article Model or ModelAdmin class to check for and remove itself from the related_articles before saving the instance. This still means that admin users can see and select all articles including the instance being edited (for existing articles).
Filter out self references when required for use outside the admin, e.g. templates.
The ideal solution (1) is currently possible to do via custom model forms outside of the admin as it's possible to pass in a filtered queryset variable for the instance being edited to the model form constructor. Question is, can you get at the Article instance, i.e. 'self' being edited the admin before the form is created to do the same thing.
It could be I am going about this the wrong way, but if your allowed to define a FKF / MTMF to the same model then there should be a way to have the admin - do the right thing - and prevent a user from selecting itself by excluding it in the list of available choices.
Note: Solution 2 and 3 are possible to do now and are provided to try and avoid getting these as answers, ideally i'd like to get an answer to solution 1.
Carl is correct, here's a cut and paste code sample that would go in admin.py
I find navigating the Django relationships can be tricky if you don't have a solid grasp, and a living example can be worth 1000 time more than a "go read this" (not that you don't need to understand what is happening).
class MyForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = MyModel
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(MyForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.fields['myManyToManyField'].queryset = MyModel.objects.exclude(
id__exact=self.instance.id)
You can use a custom ModelForm in the admin (by setting the "form" attribute of your ModelAdmin subclass). So you do it the same way in the admin as you would anywhere else.
You can also override the get_form method of the ModelAdmin like so:
def get_form(self, request, obj=None, **kwargs):
"""
Modify the fields in the form that are self-referential by
removing self instance from queryset
"""
form = super().get_form(request, obj=None, **kwargs)
# obj won't exist yet for create page
if obj:
# Finds fieldnames of related fields whose model is self
rmself_fields = [f.name for f in self.model._meta.get_fields() if (
f.concrete and f.is_relation and f.related_model is self.model)]
for fieldname in rmself_fields:
form.base_fields[fieldname]._queryset =
form.base_fields[fieldname]._queryset.exclude(id=obj.id)
return form
Note that this is a on-size-fits-all solution that automatically finds self-referencing model fields and removes self from all of them :-)
I like the solution of checking at save() time:
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
# call full_clean() that in turn will call clean()
self.full_clean()
return super().save(*args, **kwargs)
def clean(self):
obj = self
parents = set()
while obj is not None:
if obj in parents:
raise ValidationError('Loop error', code='infinite_loop')
parents.add(obj)
obj = obj.parent