Using Django, how do I set a ModelForm field value dynamically in the template? - forms

Question

I'm trying to utilize a checkbox field to create a model instance for a user selected favorite. The last piece I need in order for this to work properly is to set the default value in one of the form fields equal to the value in a loop. Would I do this with the initialize argument, in the views.py file, in the form itself, or in the template? Here is the associated code:
Apologies for the HTML class tags
models.py
class ReportDirectory(models.Model):
report_name = models.CharField(max_length=300, unique=True, blank=False)
report_desc = models.TextField()
report_type = models.CharField(max_length=300)
report_loc = models.TextField()
slug = models.SlugField(unique=True, max_length=300)
last_update = models.DateTimeField(null=True)
main_tags = models.CharField(max_length=300)
# Renames the item in the admin folder
def __str__(self):
return self.report_name
class Favorite(models.Model):
directory_user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
user_report = models.ForeignKey(ReportDirectory, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
favorited = models.BooleanField(default=False)
def __str__(self):
return str(self.directory_user)+" - "+str(self.user_report)
forms.py
from django import forms
from .models import Favorite
class FavoriteForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Favorite
fields = '__all__'
widgets = {
'favorited': forms.CheckboxInput(attrs={
'type':'checkbox',
'name':'checkbox',
'onchange':'submit()'
})
}
views.py
from django.shortcuts import render,redirect
from django.views import generic
from .models import ReportDirectory, Favorite
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from .forms import FavoriteForm
def report_directory(request):
favorite = Favorite.objects.filter(directory_user=request.user.id, favorited=True)
reports = ReportDirectory.objects.exclude(favorite__directory_user=request.user.id, favorite__favorited=True)
favform = FavoriteForm(initial={'directory_user':request.user},)
context = {
'reports':reports,
'favorite':favorite,
'favform':favform
}
if request.method == 'POST':
form = FavoriteForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
form.save()
return redirect('/report_directory')
return render(request, 'counter/report_directory.html',context)
html
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="gls-table-expand">Favorite</th>
<th onclick="sortTable(1)" class="gls-table-expand">Report Type</th>
<th onclick="sortTable(2)" class="gls-table-expand">Report Name</th>
<th class="gls-table-expand">Report Description</th>
<th onclick="sortTable(3)" class="gls-table-expand">Last Updated</th>
<th class="gls-table-expand">Main Tags</th>
<th onclick="sortTable(4)" class="gls-table-expand">View Count</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody id="myTable">
{% for r in reports.all %}
<tr report-name="{{ r.report_name }}">
<td>
<form method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
{{ favform.favorited }}
</form>
</td>
<td><span><img img width="20" height="20"
{% if r.report_type == 'Tableau' %}
src=" {% static 'images/tableau_icon.svg' %}"
{% elif r.report_type == 'Excel' %}
src=" {% static 'images/excel_icon.svg' %}"
{% elif r.report_type == 'Box' %}
src=" {% static 'images/excel_icon.svg' %}"
{% elif r.report_type == 'Internal Report' %}
src=" {% static 'images/www_icon.svg' %}"
{% endif %}
></span> {{ r.report_type }}</td>
<td>{{ r.report_name }}</td>
<td>{{ r.summary }}</td>
<td><p class="gls-text-meta gls-margin-remove-top">{{ r.last_update_format }}</p></td>
<td>{{ r.main_tags }}</td>
<td>{% get_hit_count for r %}</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</tbody>

Answer 1

I found a solution to dynamically iterate through the template and complete the ForeignKey (selection) field. I needed to set the for iterator equal to the selection option
<form method="POST" id="{{ r.report_name }}">
{% csrf_token %}
<p hidden>
{{ favform.directory_user }}
<select name="user_report" required="" id="id_user_report">
<option value="{{ r.id }}" selected></option>
</select>
</p>
{{ favform.favorited }}
</form>
I feel like I'm working against Django forms, however, and not with the infrastructure...