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Operation of standard Django view, form and template code to update a model

I am trying to understand how a very regularly used code-form in Django views.py actually works. I see the following (or a variation) used a lot, but I can’t find a line-by-line explanation of how the code works – which I need if I am to use it confidently and modify when needed.
Can you let me know if I have understood how Django processes these various components? If not, please indicate where I have misunderstood.
I will start with the model then introduce urls.py the view and the form. I will go through the relevant parts of the code. I will consider:
The model:
#models.py
class CC_Questions(models.Model):
# defining choices in Model : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/ref/models/fields/
personality = [
('IF','IF'),
('IT','IT'),
('EF','EF'),
('ET','ET'),
]
q_text = models.CharField('Question text', max_length=200)
#C1_Type = models.CharField('Choice 1 Type', max_length=2)
C1_Type = models.CharField(choices=personality, max_length=2)
Choice1_text = models.CharField('Choice 1 text', max_length=100)
#C2_Type = models.CharField('Choice 2 Type', max_length=2)
C2_Type = models.CharField(choices=personality, max_length=2)
Choice2_text = models.CharField('Choice 2 text', max_length=100)
#
def __str__(self):
return self.q_text[:20]
The url
#
#urls.py
app_name = ‘polls’
urlpatterns = [
…..
# ex: /polls/p2create
path('p2create/', p2_views.p2create, name='p2create'),
…
The view:
#views.py
from.forms import Anyform
#
def p2create(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = AnyForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
form.save()
return redirect('/polls/p2')
else:
form = AnyForm()
context = {'form' : form}
return render(request, 'pollapp2/create.html', context)
#
The form:
#forms.py
#
….
from django import forms
from .models import ….. CC_Questions …
…….
class AnyForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = CC_Questions
fields = ['q_text', 'Choice1_text', 'Choice2_text','C1_Type','C2_Type']
The template:
#
# Create.html
#
…..
{% load widget_tweaks %}
…..
<form method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
…
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-5">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="Choice1_text ">Choice 1</label>
{% render_field form.Choice1_text class="form-control" %}
<label for="C1_type">Type 1</label>
{% render_field form.C1_Type class="form-control" %}
…….
Does the code operate as follows?
The user enters URL in browser: http://localhost:8000/polls/p2create/
The urls.py picks the view to execute
path('p2create/', p2_views.p2create, name='p2create'),
views.py runs the view:
def p2create(request):
Now, as no form has yet been "identified" or "loaded" (??) the following test fails:
if request.method == 'POST':
so the Else clause executes
else:
form = AnyForm()
that "sets" the variable form to "AnyForm()"
The following line creates a dictionary, named context, that creates a key 'form' that is linked with the value form (=Anyform)
context = {'form' : form}
The following line searches for create.html in the template directory, passing the directory context as a parameter
return render(request, 'pollapp2/create.html', context)
Then template, create.html, displays various input boxes (??) from :
<label for="Choice1_text ">Choice 1</label>
{% render_field form.Choice1_text class="form-control" %}
When the submit button is pressed on the displayed page, this "passes back" (??) the {% render_field .. %} values to the view (?????)
<form method="POST">
...
<div class="col-lg-4">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-info">Submit</button>
</div>
...
</form>
the view is executed again (????) , but this time request method is set to "POST" because of the form method="POST" in the template (?????)
if request.method == 'POST':
Now the same form , AnyForm , is "reloaded" (????) but with the parameter value "POST"
if request.method == 'POST':
form = AnyForm(request.POST)
Now if the form is valid (I have no idea what a "valid" or "invalid" form is)
if form.is_valid():
then all the values "captured" in the template by (???)
<label for="Choice1_text ">Choice 1</label>
{% render_field form.Choice1_text class="form-control" %}
(??????)
are written by the view (?????)
form.save
to the corresponding fields in the ModelForm (?????)
class Meta:
model = CC_Questions
fields = ['q_text', 'Choice1_text', 'Choice2_text','C1_Type','C2_Type']
The view then redirects and loads the home page in the browser
return redirect('/polls/p2')

Ok, So with the help of the references (mentioned below) and the workflow suggested by you, let us first see, the Django MVT workflow and then address the various questions asked in between the post.
WebForms with Django MVT in brief:
Prepare data of several different types for display in a form.
Render data as HTML.
Edit, enter data using a convenient interface.
Validate and clean up the data.
Return data to the server.
Save, delete or pass on for further processing.
The URL:
When a user requests a page from your Django-powered site, this is the algorithm the system follows to determine which Python code to execute. Which is handled by our views.py. From the frontend, if the request is not 'POST', then it is a GET request, hence the else part of the handling function in the views.py executes. This you have mentioned already.
The View: - Form data sent back to a Django website is processed by a view, generally, the same view which published the form. This allows us to reuse some of the same logic. To handle the form we need to instantiate it in the view for the URL where we want it to be published.
If we use request.POST, as in this line:
form = AnyForm(request.POST)
It transforms the form into a bound form (Form bound with data). Read more about it here.
Questioned By You (QBY) - When the submit button is pressed on the displayed page, this "passes back" (??) the {% render_field .. %} values to the view (?????)
So, yes, If the action attribute is not mentioned in the form then the data will be passed to the view responsible for displaying the form.
QBY - the view is executed again (????), but this time request method is set to "POST" because of the form method="POST" in the template (?????)
The button type submit, submits the form and make the request a POST request. The Django template sends that submitted data in the request.POST.
QBY - Now the same form, AnyForm, is "reloaded" (????) but with the parameter value "POST"
Here, if the return method at the end of the POST condition is HttpResponseRedirect it will redirect the user to the mentioned URL page, but if the same HTML is used to be rendered then the form will be displayed as a bound form. (It depends upon the requirements)
QBY - Now if the form is valid (I have no idea what a "valid" or "invalid" form is)
Form.is_valid()
The primary task of a Form object is to validate data. With a bound Form instance, call the is_valid() method to run validation and return a boolean designating whether the data was valid. If yes, then the data is being saved in the model.
QBY - then all the values "captured" in the template by (???)
All the values are sent to views in the request.POST. We can check it by
print(request.POST)
QBY - are written by the view (?????), form.save to the corresponding fields in the ModelForm (?????)
Save method is called on the Django ModelForm instance in order to save the data to the database. Calling save would run the validation check. A ValueError will be raised if the data in the form doesn't validate.
This saved data can now be processed further.
References:
[https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/forms/][2]
[https://www.tangowithdjango.com/book/chapters/models_templates.html][3]
[https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/ref/forms/api/][4]

Django - render only partial / change context / change form after POST without refresh

I need some help with django
I have kind of landing page with form, which need to have 3 different states.
Flow looks like this: enter email -> check database for user with that email -> render login or register form, still in same template.
Code looks like this:
.html
// lots of code
<form method="POST" id="form">
{{ form.as_p }}
{% csrf_token %}
<input type="submit" value="send">
</form>
// lots of code
and in views.py i have render method with context
return render(
request,
'apply.html',
context,
)
where in context i placed simple standard django form like:
class ApplyForm(forms.Form):
email = forms.CharField()
phone = forms.CharField()
Is there and way to change ApplyForm to LoginForm or RegisterForm after sending POST from first one, without refreshing whole page?
I though about injecting all three forms to context, sending some ajax request, and then differentiate which form should be displayed, but I'm not sure how could it be done...
thanks in advance!

View function is not being called after submitting form in django

I have made a simple form inside a html file whose path is www.site.com/posts/5. Whenever the form is submitted, it redirects back to the same page i.e www.site.com/posts/5 displaying a message given by user in the form.
However, whenever the form is submitted it doesn't call the foobar view.
The urls.py, views.py and html files are as follows:-
urls.py
urlpatterns = [
path('posts/<int:foo>',user_views.display, name="display",
path('posts/<int:foo>',user_views.foobar, name="makefoo"),
]
views.py
def foobar(request, foo):
#do something
html file
<form name="fooform" action= "{% url 'makefoo' 5 %}" method = "post">
{% csrf_token %}
<input type="text" name="FOO_BODY" maxlength="300" required>
<input type="submit" value="comment">
<input type="reset" value="clear">
</form>
Edit : user_views is just from user import views as user_views

You can not attach two views to the same URL. The {% url ... %} template tag, only generates a URL for that path. But if there is a "url clash", then it is possible that the requests ends up in the other view.
You thus should define another URL, or encode the post logic in the display view. In case of a POST request, you can thus first take the necessary steps, and then for example return a redirect to the page, such that we can again render the page:
def display(request, foo):
if request.method == 'POST':
# do something
return redirect(display, foo=foo)
#do something else (original code)
return HttpResponse(..)
This is the famous Post/Redirect/Get web development design pattern [wiki]. This is usually better than returning a HTTP response directly in the POST, since if the user performs a refresh, the POST will be performed a second time.

As mentioned in the comment by #williem, you have two path() defined in the urls.py.
Always First matching route will be picked up from the url route table. So whenever r^'posts/' is requested it will call the display() from the user_views, so it will never go to foobar(). Either remove the route with display() or change the sequence. Also, I assume you imported the user_views.
Reference:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/topics/http/urls/

How forms work in django

I am sure this is a silly question but I am trying to understand how forms work in django and I am confused about the action attribute in the template and the httpresponseredirect in views.py
I have the following template:
<form action="/play_outcomes/output/" method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form }}
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
And the following view:
def getinput(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = get_data(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
down = form.cleaned_data['get_down']
ytg = form.cleaned_data['get_ytg']
yfog = form.cleaned_data['get_yfog']
return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/')
else:
form = get_data()
return render(request, 'play_outcomes/getinput.html', {'form': form})
And finally in forms.py
class get_data(forms.Form):
get_down = forms.IntegerField(label = "Enter a down")
get_ytg = forms.IntegerField(label = "Enter yards to go")
get_yfog = forms.IntegerField(label = "Enter yards from own goal")
When I go to play_outcomes/getinput my form comes up. When I press 'submit' it directs shows the play_outcomes/output page, presumably because that is what is specified by the <form action variable.
Anyway, my question is what is the purpose of the return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/') after it has checked form.is_valid(). This is TRUE so it must execute this code. But this return seems redundant.
Please can someone enlighten me on what the return in the views.py is doing

Try replacing the form action with action="". Everything should continue working normally, since your view handles both GET requests (to show an empty form) and POST requests (to process when a form is submitted). When you press "Submit", your browser is sending the form data back to the exact same place it got the original web page from. Same URL, same view (getinput()), same template file (play_outcomes/getinput.html).
Normally, right before that HttpResponseRedirect() part, you'd include some logic to save the content of that form, email a user, do some calculation, etc. At that point, since the user is all done with that page, you typically redirect them to somewhere else on your site.
Edit: empty action

A way to render content to a base template

I have a base template which contains header, footer and a block "content" which then I override in different CBVs.
There is little "user-space" divinside a header where I want to keep user's info in case he is logged in and a login form if he is a guest.
Right now the only way that comes in mind is to create a django app and use it as a tag. But I think there is a better solution. Because as far as I know tags can slow down django project in future.
Also I think that maybe I would like to manipulate this div from a view which renders a child template. For example I calculate and display some value on a page but also I want to display it in a "user-space" div as well. I think this can be achieved by pushing data to the user's session and then using this while rendering "user-space" div from another code.

Assuming you have django.contrib.auth.user in your INSTALLED_APPS, you can access the user's login status using user.is_authenticated():
{% if user.is_authenticated %}
<div>Welcome back, {{ user.username }} | <a href='/logout/'>Logout</a></div>
{% else %}
<div>
<form action='/login/' method='POST'>
{{ csrf_token }}
{{ login_form }}
<input type='submit'>
</form>
</div>
{% endif %}
Edit:
In response to your comment:
Let's suppose client does a POST request by which we calculate some number - total price. And I need to display it in that div.
As documented
Define your view:
from django.shortcuts import render
from .forms import MyForm
def simple_view(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
# create a form instance and populate it with data from the request:
form = MyForm(request.POST)
# check whether it's valid:
if form.is_valid():
# process the data in form.cleaned_data as required
result = form.cleaned_data['some_input'] * 50
return render(request, 'my_template.html', {'result': result})
# if a GET (or any other method) we'll create a blank form
else:
form = MyForm()
return render(request, 'my_other_template.html', {'form': form})
Display result in your template:
<!-- my_template.html -->
<div>{{ result }}</div>
Maybe you need to be more specific with your question, this is what I think you are looking for though. You should put logic like you are describing into a view, not a template.