Develop Reference

Can't disable ForeignKey referential integrity check in Django 1.9

I have a model with two entities, Person and Code. Person is referenced by Code twice, a Person can be either the user of the code or the approver.
What I want to achieve is the following:
if the user provides an existing Person.cusman, no further action is needed.
if the user provides an unknown Person.cusman, a helper code looks up other attributes of the Person (from an external database), and creates a new Person entity.
I have implemented a function triggered by pre_save signal, which creates the missing Person on the fly. It works fine as long as I use python manage.py shell to create a Code with nonexistent Person.
However, when I try to add a new Code using the admin form or a CreateView descendant I always get the following validation error on the HTML form:
Select a valid choice. That choice is not one of the available choices.
Obviously there's a validation happening between clicking on the Save button and the Code.save() method, but I can't figure out which is it. Can you help me which method should I override to accept invalid foreign keys until pre_save creates the referenced entity?
models.py
class Person(models.Model):
cusman = models.CharField(
max_length=10,
primary_key=True)
name = models.CharField(max_length=30)
email = models.EmailField()
def __unicode__(self):
return u'{0} ({1})'.format(self.name, self.cusman)
class Code(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(
Person,
on_delete=models.PROTECT,
db_constraint=False)
approver = models.ForeignKey(
Person,
on_delete=models.PROTECT,
related_name='approves',
db_constraint=False)
signals.py
#receiver(pre_save, sender=Code)
def create_referenced_person(sender, instance, **kwargs):
def create_person_if_doesnt_exist(cusman):
try:
Person = Person.objects.get(pk=cusman)
except Person.DoesNotExist:
Person = Person()
cr = CusmanResolver()
Person_details = cr.get_person_details(cusman)
Person.cusman = Person_details['cusman']
Person.name = Person_details['name']
Person.email = Person_details['email']
Person.save()
create_Person_if_doesnt_exist(instance.user_id)
create_Person_if_doesnt_exist(instance.approver_id)
views.py
class CodeAddForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Code
fields = [
'user',
'approver',
]
widgets = {
'user': TextInput,
'approver': TextInput
}
class CodeAddView(generic.CreateView):
template_name = 'teladm/code_add.html'
form_class = CodeAddForm

You misunderstood one thing: You shouldn't use TextField to populate ForeignKey, because django foreign keys are populated using dropdown/radio button to refer to the id of the object in another model. The error you got means you provided wrong information that doesn't match any id in another model(Person in your case).
What you can do is: not using ModelForm but Form. You might have some extra work to do after you call form.is_valid(), but at least you could code up your logic however you want.

Django admin search and edit foreign fields

I've got a two part question regarding Django Admin.
Firstly, I've got a Django model Classified that has a foreign key field from another table Address. On setting data, I've got no issues with any of the fields and all fields get saved correctly.
However, if I want to edit the foreign field in the entry in Classified, it doesn't display the old/existing data in the fields. Instead it shows empty fields in the popup that opens.
How do I get the fields to display the existing data on clicking the + so that I can edit the correct information?
Secondly, I'm sure I've seen search fields in Django Admin. Am I mistaken? Is there a way for me to implement search in the admin panel? I have over 2 million records which need to be updated deleted from time to time. It's very cumbersome to manually go through all the pages in the admin and delete or edit those.
Adding Model Code:
Classified
class Classified(models.Model):
id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
name = models.CharField(max_length=256)
contact_person = models.CharField(max_length=300, blank=True)
email = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True)
address = models.ForeignKey(Address)
subcategory = models.ForeignKey(Subcategory)
Address
class Address(models.Model):
id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
build_add = models.CharField(max_length=255)
street_add = models.CharField(max_length=255)
area = models.CharField(max_length=255)
city = models.ForeignKey(Cities)

The + means just that - add a new instance of the related object and relate the object you're editing to that. Because you're adding a new object it will be blank to start. If you want to be able to edit existing related objects from another object's admin you need to use inlines.
In your app's admin.py have something like:
from django.contrib import admin
from yourapp.models import Address, Classified
class AddressInline(admin.TabularInline):
model = Address
class ClassifiedAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
inlines = [AddressInline,]
admin.site.register(Classified, ClassifiedAdmin)
Adding search from there is really easy.
...
class ClassifiedAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
inlines = [AddressInline,]
search_fields = [
'field_you_want_to_search',
'another_field',
'address__field_on_relation',
]
...
Note the double underscore in that last one. That means you can search based on values in related objects' fields.
EDIT: This answer is right in that your foreignkey relationship is the wrong way round to do it this way - with the models shown in your question Classified would be the inline and Address the primary model.

what does exclude in the meta class of django mean?

I came across this code:
drinker/models.py:
from django.db import models
from django.db.models.signals import post_save
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
class Drinker(models.Model):
user = models.OneToOneField(User)
birthday = models.DateField()
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.name
drinker/forms.py:
from django import forms
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.forms import ModelForm
from drinker.models import Drinker
class RegistrationForm(ModelForm):
username = forms.CharField(label=(u'User Name'))
email = forms.EmailField(label=(u'Email Address'))
password = forms.CharField(label=(u'Password'), widget=forms.PasswordInput(render_value=False))
password1 = forms.CharField(label=(u'Verify Password'), widget=forms.PasswordInput(render_value=False))
class Meta:
model = Drinker
exclude = ('user',)
def clean_username(self):
username = self.cleaned_data['username']
try:
User.objects.get(username=username)
except User.DoesNotExist:
return username
raise forms.ValidationError("That username is already taken, please select another.")
def clean(self):
if self.cleaned_data['password'] != self.cleaned_data['password1']:
raise forms.ValidationError("The passwords did not match. Please try again.")
return self.cleaned_data
My Question is about the inner class meta which as two attributes:
model=Drinker
exclude=('user`,)
I have a not-so-clear understanding of how this meta class work. I have read the documentation but I am still confused. Can you kindly explain what those two lines mean and what their purpose is?
Thanks

The exclude attribute tells Django what fields from the model not to include in the form.
Quoting the Selecting fields to use section of the model form documentation:
2. Set the exclude attribute of the ModelForm’s inner Meta class to a list of fields to be excluded from the form.
The model line simply tells Django what model to take the fields from; together the two lines tell Django to give RegistrationForm fields based on all fields on the Drinker model, except 'user'. For the given Drinker model, that's birthday and name.
These fields are added to the other form fields already defined on the form. If the Drinker model gained more fields, those would automatically be part of the form too.
See the Overriding the default fields section of the same chapter:
When you explicitly instantiate a form field like this, it is important to understand how ModelForm and regular Form are related.
ModelForm is a regular Form which can automatically generate certain fields. The fields that are automatically generated depend on the content of the Meta class and on which fields have already been defined declaratively. Basically, ModelForm will only generate fields that are missing from the form, or in other words, fields that weren’t defined declaratively.
The inner Meta class is just a convenient way to create a namespace for such configuration on your form class for the Django framework to find. All Django now has to do is introspect Form.Meta and see what attributes are defined there.
Note that using exclude can lead to security problems. From the same documenation:
It is strongly recommended that you explicitly set all fields that should be edited in the form using the fields attribute. Failure to do so can easily lead to security problems when a form unexpectedly allows a user to set certain fields, especially when new fields are added to a model. Depending on how the form is rendered, the problem may not even be visible on the web page.
The alternative approach would be to include all fields automatically, or blacklist only some. This fundamental approach is known to be much less secure and has led to serious exploits on major websites (e.g. GitHub).

fields = exclude() and fields = '__all__' - means display all the fields
exclude = ('password',) - means exclude password field
fields = ('user','email',) - means display only email field and userfield

in short : fields you want to show up in the form should be mentioned in 'fields' attribute ex:
fields = '__all__' #will show all the fields from the model in the form
'exclude' does the opposite
exclude = ['title'] # don't show the title field

Django: combine two ForeignKeys into one field

I need to implement the following:
The user shall be presented with a form that will have a drop down choice menu consisting of property names. There are two types of properties: general properties, i.e. properties common for all users and custom properties, i.e. properties that each user has defined prior to that. The models would look something like that:
class GeneralPropertyName(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
class CustomPropertyName(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
The drop down menu should have all general properties and only those custom properties that pertain to the user.
First question: how to define such a model?
I need to: 1. somehow unify both properties, 2. take only those items from CustomPropertyName that pertain to the user
class SpecData(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
selection_title = models.CharField(max_length=20)
property = ForeignKey(GeneralPropertyName) ??UNIFY??? ForeignKey(CustomPropertyName)
Second, is there anything special that needs to be done with ModelForm?
class SpecDataForm(ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = SpecData
And the 3rd question is what needs to be done in the view? I will need to use inline formsets since I will have a few dynamic forms like that.
def index(request):
user = User.objects.get(username=request.user.username)
specdataFormSet = inlineformset_factory(User, SpecData, form=SpecDataForm, extra=30)
...
specdata_formset = specdataFormSet(instance=user, prefix='specdata_set')
...
Thanks.
EDIT: Adjusted juliocesar's suggestion to include formsets. Somehow I am getting the following error message: Cannot resolve keyword 'property' into field. Choices are: id, name, selection_title, user
def index(request):
user = User.objects.get(username=request.user.username)
user_specdata_form = UserSpecDataForm(user=user)
SpecdataFormSet = inlineformset_factory(User, SpecData, form=user_specdata_form, extra=30)

You can use a GenericForeignKey to handle it, but you still need more to solve your further questions about forms and view.
I have made an example of how you solve your problem (logged user can select from General properties and his Custom properties, non-logged user only can select General properties). I used model inheritance for the properties (In your sample code it seems that a CustomPropertyName is a PropertyName with other fields). I think inheritance is an easier and a more basic concept than ContentTypes and it fits to your needs.
NOTE: I remove some code like imports to simplify the code.
1) models.py file:
class PropertyName(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.name
class CustomPropertyName(PropertyName): # <-- Inheritance!!
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.name
class SpecData(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
selection_title = models.CharField(max_length=20)
property = models.ForeignKey(PropertyName)
NOTES: The field SpecData.property points to PropertyName since all properties are saved in the PropertyName's database table.
2) forms.py file:
from django import forms
from django.db.models import Q
from models import SpecData, PropertyName
def UserSpecDataForm(user=None):
UserPropertiesQueryset = PropertyName.objects.filter(Q(custompropertyname__user=None) | Q(custompropertyname__user__id=user.id))
class SpecDataForm(forms.ModelForm):
property = forms.ModelChoiceField(queryset=UserPropertiesQueryset)
class Meta:
model = SpecData
exclude = ('user',)
return SpecDataForm
NOTES: The trick here is to generate the form SpecDataForm dynamically, by filtering properties according the user specified in the parameter.
3) views.py file:
from forms import UserSpecDataForm
def index(request):
if request.POST:
form = UserSpecDataForm(request.user)(request.POST) # instance=user
if form.is_valid():
spec_data = form.save(commit=False)
spec_data.user = request.user
spec_data.save()
else:
form = UserSpecDataForm(request.user)()
return render_to_response('properties.html', {'form': form}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))
NOTES: Nothing special here, just a call to form.UserSpecDataForm(request.user) that returns the form class and then instantiate. Also setted the logged-in user to the object returned on save since It was excluded in the form to not show in front-end.
Following this basic example you can do the same with formsets if you need it.
UPDATE:
Formset can be used by adding following code to the view:
user_specdata_form = UserSpecDataForm(user=request.user)
SpecdataFormSet = inlineformset_factory(User, SpecData, form=user_specdata_form, extra=30)
The complete project sample can be downloaded from http://ge.tt/904Wg7O1/v/0
Hope this helps

1a) have you looked into django's ContentType framework this will allow you to have generic foreign keys and you can put restrictions on what types of models are acceptable to store in.
1b) I think that the validation for accepting what type of foreign key is acceptable shouldn't be in your model but should be part of your form validation before saving.
2) If you do use a model form you're going to have to define your own custom widget for the propery field. This means you're probably going to have to write you're own render function to render the html from the field. You should also define your own validation function on the form to make sure that only the appropriate data is acceptable to save.
3) I don't think you'll have to do anything you aren't already doing in the views

Use GenericForeignKey:
class SpecData(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
selection_title = models.CharField(max_length=20)
content_type = models.ForeignKey(ContentType)
object_id = models.PositiveIntegerField()
property = GenericForeignKey('content_type', 'object_id')
You can use this to combine the two fields(type & id) into a single choice field.

One way is that you have only one model, make user nullable:
class PropertyName(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User, null=True, blank=True)
name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
class SpecData(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
selection_title = models.CharField(max_length=20)
property = ForeignKey(PropertyName)
So, if user is not set, it is a general property. If it is set, it is related to this user.
However, please note that if you need unique property names, that NULL != NULL.
Of course, the suggested GenericForeignKey solution is better for some cases.
Also, you can easily make the normal (non-model) form with that you describe and separate form logic from model logic.

Django Form based on multiple models

If I have two models in Django application like this:
class Author(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
class Book(models.Model):
author = models.ForeignKey(Author)
title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
How can I create a single form that allows you add both an Author and a Book simultaneously. If the author exists in the system, I could simply display the book Form and link that to the author but it is very often that I need to allow my users to create the book and the author simultaneously.
How can I do this?
Thanks.

You can write a custom form, which will check if the author exists in the system use existing, if no, create new with provided name.
class CustomForm(forms.ModelForm):
author = forms.CharField()
def save(self, commit=True):
author, created = Author.objects.get_or_create(name=self.cleaned_data['author'])
instance = super(CustomForm,self).save(commit=commit)
instance.author = author
if commit:
instance.save()
return instance
class Meta:
model=Book
Not sure this code is working, but I suppose it can explain my idea.

You can create a view that handles multiple forms - see http://collingrady.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/editing-multiple-objects-in-django-with-newforms/ for an excellent example.
You'd have to ensure that the rendering of the form objects are done in the template with only one tag and one submit button.