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how can I modify form model data in Django

I want to send data from Form but can't send a specific data
for example:
in my model has a student that I want send separate from view
in view:
student = Student.objects.filter(id=id)
if request.method == "POST":
form = StudentProject(request.POST, files=request.FILES)
form.student_id=id
form.save()
return redirect('main')
in form:
class Meta:
model=Project
fields=['name','link','image','body','term']
in model:
name=models.CharField(max_length=100,null=False)
link=models.CharField(max_length=1000,null=False)
image=models.ImageField(upload_to='static/project/images/')
body=models.TextField()
term=models.DecimalField(max_digits=1,decimal_places=0,null=False)
student=models.ForeignKey(Student,on_delete=models.CASCADE)
created_at=models.DateTimeField(default=timezone.now)

I found that I can modify ModelForm in django like this:
class MyForm(forms.ModelForm):
name=forms.CharField(label="Name",widget=forms.TextInput(
attrs={
'class':'form-control',
}
))

If you want to send specific data, then exclude all the fields that you don't want to be on the form. Suppose I only want the name of the project:
class Meta:
model = Project
fields = ['name']
in my model has a student that I want send separate from view
I think the cleanest way to do this is to separate your initial form into two, create two views, and have the user input it separately.

adjust forms that are generated by django generic editing views

I am trying to understand the process of generating generic form views in django. I have a generic view class with just
class BookUpdate(UpdateView):
model = Book
fields = [ 'name',
'pages',
'categorys'
]
which automatically generates a working html form from my model data. But now, I want to modify the field that is shown for categorys, is there any way to do this, or do I have to create a complete working BookForm class and custom BookUpdate class? Here its just 3 fields, but in my real case there are maybe 15 fields that I would need to code by myself, just because of a tiny change in the category field.
Cant I just overwrite the single field, using any class method?

You can either specify fields or form_class in your generic class-based view. With fields, Django will use a modelform_factory to generate the form. There's not much you can customise then.
You should create a BookForm class so that you can customise the fields. In your BookUpdate view, you only need to remove fields and add form_class = BookForm. Here I'm customising the widget for categorys and overriding the form field for pages:
def BookUpdate(UpdateView):
model = Book
form_class = BookForm
def BookForm(ModelForm):
pages = MyCustomPagesField()
class Meta:
model = Book
fields = '__all__'
widgets = {'categorys': MyCustomWidget()}
Note that you don't have to specify all fields, you can use "__all__" to have all fields or you can set exclude = [<list fields to exclude>] to just exclude a couple.

You don't have to code the fields yourself. But there is a small amount of work to do, as there isn't a method to override.
What you need to do is define a custom form. Since that will be a ModelForm, it will use the same logic to automatically create its fields based on the model. You can then override the definition of one of them.
class BookForm(forms.ModelForm):
categorys = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(custom_attributes_here...)
class Meta:
model = Book
fields = ["name", "pages", "categorys"]
And now tell your view to use that form:
class BookUpdate(UpdateView):
form_class = BookForm

Add custom form fields that are not part of the model (Django)

I have a model registered on the admin site. One of its fields is a long string expression. I'd like to add custom form fields to the add/update pages of this model in the admin. Based on the values of these fields I will build the long string expression and save it in the relevant model field.
How can I do this?
I'm building a mathematical or string expression from symbols. The user chooses symbols (these are the custom fields that are not part of the model) and when they click save then I create a string expression representation from the list of symbols and store it in the DB. I don't want the symbols to be part of the model and DB, only the final expression.

Either in your admin.py or in a separate forms.py you can add a ModelForm class and then declare your extra fields inside that as you normally would. I've also given an example of how you might use these values in form.save():
from django import forms
from yourapp.models import YourModel
class YourModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
extra_field = forms.CharField()
def save(self, commit=True):
extra_field = self.cleaned_data.get('extra_field', None)
# ...do something with extra_field here...
return super(YourModelForm, self).save(commit=commit)
class Meta:
model = YourModel
To have the extra fields appearing in the admin just:
Edit your admin.py and set the form property to refer to the form you created above.
Include your new fields in your fields or fieldsets declaration.
Like this:
class YourModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = YourModelForm
fieldsets = (
(None, {
'fields': ('name', 'description', 'extra_field',),
}),
)
UPDATE:
In Django 1.8 you need to add fields = '__all__' to the metaclass of YourModelForm.

It it possible to do in the admin, but there is not a very straightforward way to it. Also, I would like to advice to keep most business logic in your models, so you won't be dependent on the Django Admin.
Maybe it would be easier (and maybe even better) if you have the two seperate fields on your model. Then add a method on your model that combines them.
For example:
class MyModel(models.model):
field1 = models.CharField(max_length=10)
field2 = models.CharField(max_length=10)
def combined_fields(self):
return '{} {}'.format(self.field1, self.field2)
Then in the admin you can add the combined_fields() as a readonly field:
class MyModelAdmin(models.ModelAdmin):
list_display = ('field1', 'field2', 'combined_fields')
readonly_fields = ('combined_fields',)
def combined_fields(self, obj):
return obj.combined_fields()
If you want to store the combined_fields in the database you could also save it when you save the model:
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
self.field3 = self.combined_fields()
super(MyModel, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

Django 2.1.1
The primary answer got me halfway to answering my question. It did not help me save the result to a field in my actual model. In my case I wanted a textfield that a user could enter data into, then when a save occurred the data would be processed and the result put into a field in the model and saved. While the original answer showed how to get the value from the extra field, it did not show how to save it back to the model at least in Django 2.1.1
This takes the value from an unbound custom field, processes, and saves it into my real description field:
class WidgetForm(forms.ModelForm):
extra_field = forms.CharField(required=False)
def processData(self, input):
# example of error handling
if False:
raise forms.ValidationError('Processing failed!')
return input + " has been processed"
def save(self, commit=True):
extra_field = self.cleaned_data.get('extra_field', None)
# self.description = "my result" note that this does not work
# Get the form instance so I can write to its fields
instance = super(WidgetForm, self).save(commit=commit)
# this writes the processed data to the description field
instance.description = self.processData(extra_field)
if commit:
instance.save()
return instance
class Meta:
model = Widget
fields = "__all__"

You can always create new admin template, and do what you need in your admin_view (override the admin add URL to your admin_view):
url(r'^admin/mymodel/mymodel/add/$','admin_views.add_my_special_model')

If you absolutely only want to store the combined field on the model and not the two seperate fields, you could do something like this:
Create a custom form using the form attribute on your ModelAdmin. ModelAdmin.form
Parse the custom fields in the save_formset method on your ModelAdmin. ModelAdmin.save_model(request, obj, form, change)
I never done something like this so I'm not completely sure how it will work out.

The first (highest score) solution (https://stackoverflow.com/a/23337009/10843740) was accurate, but I have more.
If you declare fields by code, that solution works perfectly, but what if you want to build those dynamically?
In this case, creating fields in the __init__ function for the ModelForm won't work. You will need to pass a custom metaclass and override the declared_fields in the __new__ function!
Here is a sample:
class YourCustomMetaClass(forms.models.ModelFormMetaclass):
"""
For dynamically creating fields in ModelForm to be shown on the admin panel,
you must override the `declared_fields` property of the metaclass.
"""
def __new__(mcs, name, bases, attrs):
new_class = super(NamedTimingMetaClass, mcs).__new__(
mcs, name, bases, attrs)
# Adding fields dynamically.
new_class.declared_fields.update(...)
return new_class
# don't forget to pass the metaclass
class YourModelForm(forms.ModelForm, metaclass=YourCustomMetaClass):
"""
`metaclass=YourCustomMetaClass` is where the magic happens!
"""
# delcare static fields here
class Meta:
model = YourModel
fields = '__all__'

This is what I did to add the custom form field "extra_field" which is not the part of the model "MyModel" as shown below:
# "admin.py"
from django.contrib import admin
from django import forms
from .models import MyModel
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
extra_field = forms.CharField()
def save(self, commit=True):
extra_field = self.cleaned_data.get('extra_field', None)
# Do something with extra_field here
return super().save(commit=commit)
#admin.register(MyModel)
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = MyModelForm

You might get help from my answer at :
my response previous on multicheckchoice custom field
You can also extend multiple forms having different custom fields and then assigning them to your inlines class like stackedinline or tabularinline:
form =
This way you can avoid formset complication where you need to add multiple custom fields from multiple models.
so your modeladmin looks like:
inlines = [form1inline, form2inline,...]
In my previous response to the link here, you will find init and save methods.
init will load when you view the page and save will send it to database.
in these two methods you can do your logic to add strings and then save thereafter view it back in Django admin change_form or change_list depending where you want.
list_display will show your fields on change_list.
Let me know if it helps ...
....
class CohortDetailInline3(admin.StackedInline):
model = CohortDetails
form = DisabilityTypesForm
...
class CohortDetailInline2(admin.StackedInline):
model = CohortDetails
form = StudentRPLForm
...
...
#admin.register(Cohort)
class CohortAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = CityInlineForm
inlines = [uploadInline, cohortDetailInline1,
CohortDetailInline2, CohortDetailInline3]
list_select_related = True
list_display = ['rto_student_code', 'first_name', 'family_name',]
...

Form for multiple models

Suppose I have two models:
class Topic(models.Model):
title = models.CharField()
# other stuff
class Post(models.Model):
topic = models.ForeignKey(Topic)
body = models.TextField()
# other stuff
And I want to create a form contains two fields: Topic.title and Post.body. Of course, I can create the following form:
class TopicForm(Form):
title = forms.CharField()
body = forms.TextField()
# and so on
But I don't want to duplicate code, since I already have title and body in models. I'm looking for something like this:
class TopicForm(MagicForm):
class Meta:
models = (Topic, Post)
fields = {
Topic: ('title', ),
Post: ('body', )
}
# and so on
Also, I want to use it in class based views. I mean, I would like to write view as:
class TopicCreate(CreateView):
form_class = TopicForm
# ...
def form_valid(self, form):
# some things before creating objects
As suggested in comments, I could use two forms. But I don't see any simple way to use two forms in my TopicCreate view - I should reimplement all methods belongs to getting form(at least).
So, my question is:
Is there something already implemented in Django for my requirements? Or is there a better(simpler) way?
or
Do you know a simple way with using two forms in class based view? If so, tell me, it could solve my issue too.

You can create two separate forms having the required fields, for each model. Then show both forms in the template inside one html element. Both forms will get rendered and then submitted individually. You can then process the forms separately in the view.
class TopicForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Topic
fields = ("title", ..)
class PostForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Post
fields = ("body", ..)
In view:
form1 = TopicForm()
form2 = PostForm()
In template:
<form ...>
{{ form1 }}
{{ form2 }}
</form>
You can easily use form.save() and all other functions, without doing it all yourself.

creating django forms

I'm struggling to get my head round django forms.. I've been reading various documentation but just can't quite grasp the concepts. I have got to grips with models, views and templates. What I am trying to do is to create a form with various fields composing of dropdown lists and checkboxes which are populated by values in a database.
I have a working app called vms. Using the models.py I have a built a simple schema that holds size and type. Size consists of 'small', 'medium' & 'large'. Type is 'windows' & 'linux'. Using the admin site, I can add an extra size, for example 'Extra Large'.
What I would like to do is create a form that has a drop down list of the vm sizes. If an extra size gets added via the admin site, I would like that size to appear in the drop down list.
I would submit my attempts at the code, but actually am struggling with the concepts. Can anyone help guide me in how to accomplish the above?
Thanks
Oli

Forms are just a tool to simplify and speed-up (the development of) the process of fetching POST data from the request. A manual way would be to do request.POST.get('somefield') for all the fields there are in some HTML form. But Django can do better than that...
In its essence, a Form class holds a number of Fields and performs these tasks:
display HTML inputs,
collect and validate data when user submits it,
if fields don't validate, return the values along with error messages to HTML,
if all fields validate, provide form.cleaned_data dictionary as a convenient way to access these values in view.
With these values, I could then manually create a new instance of a MyModel and save it. Of course, I would have to define a Field in the Form for every Field in MyModel model.
This means that, basically, I could do something like this:
(forgive me for not testing this code, so I can't vouch that it's 100% correct)
models.py:
class MyModel(models.Model):
field1 = models.CharField(max_length=40, blank=False, null=False)
field2 = models.CharField(max_length=60, blank=True, null=True)
forms.py:
class FormForMyModel(forms.Form):
form_field1 = forms.CharField(max_length=40, required=True)
form_field2 = forms.CharField(max_length=60, required=False)
views.py:
def create_a_my_model(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = FormForMyModel(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
my_model = MyModel()
my_model.field1 = form.cleaned_data.get('form_field1', 'default1')
my_model.field2 = form.cleaned_data.get('form_field2', 'default2')
my_model.save()
else:
form = FormForMyModel()
context_data = {'form': form}
return HttpResponse('templtate.html', context_data)
(this could be written with a few lines of code less, but it's meant to be as clear as possible)
Notice there are no relation between model Fields and form Fields! We have to manually assign values to MyModel instance when creating it.
The above example outlines generic form workflow. It is often needed in complex situations, but not in such a simple one as is this example.
For this example (and a LOT of real-world examples), Django can do better than that...
You can notice two annoying issues in the above example:
I have to define Fields on MyModel and Fields on FormForMyModel separately. However, there is a lot of similarity between those two groups (types) of Fields, so that's kind of duplicate work. The similarity grows when adding labels, validators, etc.
creating of MyModel instance is a bit silly, having to assign all those values manually.
This is where a ModelForm comes in.
These act basically just like a regular form (actually, they are extended from regular forms), but they can save me some of the work (the two issues I just outlined, of course :) ).
So back to the two issues:
Instead of defining a form Field for each model Field, I simply define model = MyModel in the the Meta class. This instructs the Form to automatically generate form Fields from model Fields.
Model forms have save method available. This can be used to create instance of model in one line in the view, instead of manually assigning field-by-field.
So, lets make the example above with a ModelForm:
models.py:
class MyModel(models.Model):
field1 = models.CharField(max_length=40, blank=False, null=False)
field2 = models.CharField(max_length=60, blank=True, null=True)
forms.py:
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm): # extending ModelForm, not Form as before
class Meta:
model = MyModel
views.py:
def create_a_my_model(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = MyModelForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
# save the model to database, directly from the form:
my_model = form.save() # reference to my_model is often not needed at all, a simple form.save() is ok
# alternatively:
# my_model = form.save(commit=False) # create model, but don't save to database
# my.model.something = whatever # if I need to do something before saving it
# my.model.save()
else:
form = MyModelForm()
context_data = {'form': form}
return HttpResponse('templtate.html', context_data)
Hope this clears up the usage of Django forms a bit.
Just one more note - it is perfectly ok to define form Fields on a ModelForm. These will not be used in form.save() but can still be access with form.cleaned_data just as in a regular Form.

Have you tried working with ModelForms before? As I understand, you're looking to create a form based on the model you created right?
Lets say your model is called Temp. You can create a form that correlates with this model (and your question) like this:
forms.py
from django.forms import ModelForm
class TempForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Temp
The ModelForm will automatically map the selections/choices from your model to a form version.
If you plan on using this in a template later, doing something like this will automatically create a drop-down menu with choices:
<form>
<label for="id_size">Size</label>
{{ form.size }}
</form>
Hope that answers your question!

Simply use CharField in your modelform as below:
SIZES_CHOICES = (
('size1', 'M'),
('size2', 'L'),
)
size = models.CharField(max_length=100, choices=SIZES_CHOICES, default=size1)
in the above code, size1 is the value which will be going to store in your database as name 'size1' and in the drop-down menu, there will be an option is 'M' of right side.you can mentioned any name to these options.