Day Log App in Django Part 3: Create a DayLog

• projects • notes • python • django • series • daylogapp

This post will discuss how to implement the creation of a Daylog through a form.

Table of Contents

Steps

Show the form

Create test

Add the following in daylog/tests/py:

def test_create_view(self):
    response = self.client.get(reverse('daylog:create'))

    self.assertEqual(response.context['action'], 'daylog:store')
    self.assertEqual(response.context['operation'], 'create')

Set URL

daylog/create is the path to the form page with alias and view method create.

url(r'^create/$', views.create, name='create'),

Create create method

def create(request):
    return render(request, 'daylog/form.html', {
        'action': 'daylog:create',
        'operation': 'create',
    })

Create page


{% extends 'daylog/base.html' %}

{% block content %}
<div class="card">
    <h3 class="card-header">{{ operation | capfirst }} Day Log</h3>

    <div class="card-block">

        <form action="{% if action %}{% url action %}{% endif %}" method="post"
            enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
            {% csrf_token %}

            {% if operation == 'update' %}
                <input type="hidden" value="PUT" name="_method">
            {% endif %}

            <div class="container">
                <div class="form-group row">
                    <label for="title" class="col-sm-2 col-form-label text-right">Title</label>
                    <div class="col-sm-10">
                        <textarea class="form-control" id="title" name="title"
                            placeholder="Describe your log" required
                            {% if operation == 'view' %}readonly{% endif %}
                            >{% if daylog %}{{ daylog.title }}{% endif %}</textarea>
                    </div>
                </div>

                <div class="form-group row">
                    <label for="slug" class="col-sm-2 col-form-label text-right">Slug</label>
                    <div class="col-sm-10">
                        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="slug" name="slug"
                            placeholder="example-daylog-slug" required
                            {% if operation == 'view' or operation == 'update' %}readonly{% endif %}
                            value="{% if daylog %}{{ daylog.slug }}{% endif %}">
                    </div>
                </div>

                <div class="form-group row">
                    <label for="location" class="col-sm-2 col-form-label text-right">Location</label>
                    <div class="col-sm-10">
                        <input type="text" class="form-control" id="location" name="location"
                            placeholder="Location of log" required
                            {% if operation == 'view' %}readonly{% endif %}
                            value="{% if daylog %}{{ daylog.location }}{% endif %}">
                    </div>
                </div>

                <div class="form-group row">
                    <label for="log_at" class="col-sm-2 col-form-label text-right">Date of log</label>
                    <div class="col-sm-10">
                        <input type="date" class="form-control" id="log_at" name="log_at"
                            placeholder="Date of log" required
                            {% if operation == 'view' %}readonly{% endif %}
                            value="{% if daylog %}{{ daylog.log_at  }}{% endif %}">
                    </div>
                </div>

                <div class="form-group row">
                    <label class="col-sm-2 col-form-label text-right">Category</label>
                    <div class="col-sm-10">
                        <div class="form-check">
                            <label class="form-check-label">
                                <input class="form-check-input" type="radio"
                                    name="category" id="category" value="Adequate" required
                                    {% if operation == 'view' %}disabled{% endif %}
                                    {% if daylog and daylog.category == "Adequate" %}checked{% endif %}>
                                Adequate
                            </label>
                        </div>
                        <div class="form-check">
                            <label class="form-check-label">
                                <input class="form-check-input" type="radio"
                                    name="category" id="category" value="Minor" required
                                    {% if operation == 'view' %}disabled{% endif %}
                                    {% if daylog and daylog.category == "Minor" %}checked{% endif %}>
                                Minor
                            </label>
                        </div>
                        <div class="form-check">
                            <label class="form-check-label">
                                <input class="form-check-input" type="radio"
                                    name="category" id="category" value="Major" required
                                    {% if operation == 'view' %}disabled{% endif %}
                                    {% if daylog and daylog.category == "Major" %}checked{% endif %}>
                                Major
                            </label>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>

                {% if operation != 'view' %}
                <div class="form-group row">
                    <div class="offset-sm-2 col-sm-10">
                        <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
                        <button type="reset" class="btn btn-danger">Reset</button>
                    </div>
                </div>
                {% endif %}
            </div><!-- .container -->

        </form>

    </div><!-- .card-block -->

    <div class="card-footer text-center">
        <a href="/daylog" class=" btn btn-primary btn-sm">Back</a>
    </div>

</div><!-- .card -->

{% endblock %}

test_create_view() should pass after.

Submit the form

Create test

Three test cases will check for: valid, empty and invalid forms submitted.

First, create_daylog() is updated to use a dictionary of raw Daylog data for reuse.

def get_daylog_data():
    return {
        "title": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet",
        "slug": "lorem-ipsum",
        "location": "ABC XYZ-112233",
        "log_at": "2017-01-01",
        "category": Daylog.CATEGORY_ADEQUATE,
    }

def create_daylog():
    daylog = get_daylog_data()
    return Daylog.objects.create(
        title = daylog["title"],
        slug = daylog["slug"],
        location = daylog["location"],
        log_at = daylog["log_at"],
        category = daylog["category"],
    )

  • Valid Daylog

    from django.test import Client, TestCase

...

def test_create_and_submit_with_valid_daylog(self):
    test_daylog = get_daylog_data()
    response = self.client.post(reverse('daylog:create'), test_daylog, follow=True)

    db_daylog = Daylog.objects.get(slug = test_daylog['slug'])

    self.assertEqual(test_daylog['title'], db_daylog.title)
    self.assertEqual(test_daylog['slug'], db_daylog.slug)
    self.assertEqual(test_daylog['location'], db_daylog.location)
    self.assertEqual(test_daylog['log_at'], db_daylog.log_at.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'))
    self.assertEqual(test_daylog['category'], db_daylog.category)

    for message in response.context['messages']:
        self.assertEqual(message.message, "Day Log created.")
        self.assertEqual(message.extra_tags, "info")
        break;

  • Empty Daylog

    def test_create_and_submit_with_empty_daylog(self):
    response = self.client.post(reverse('daylog:create'), {})

    self.assertTrue("title" in response.context['errors'])
    self.assertTrue("slug" in response.context['errors'])
    self.assertTrue("location" in response.context['errors'])
    self.assertTrue("log_at" in response.context['errors'])
    self.assertTrue("category" in response.context['errors'])

  • Invalid Daylog

    def test_create_and_submit_with_existing_slug_and_log_at(self):
    create_daylog()

    test_daylog = get_daylog_data()
    response = self.client.post(reverse('daylog:create'), test_daylog)

    self.assertTrue("slug" in response.context['errors'])
    self.assertTrue("log_at" in response.context['errors'])

In the valid and invalid test cases, the Django flash messages are used to validate the method. This is under the django.contrib library.

Update create method

We add a catch for POST requests in the create method to contain the actual processing:

from django.contrib import messages

from .forms import DaylogForm
...
def create(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        daylog_form = DaylogForm(request.POST)
        if daylog_form.is_valid():
            daylog_form.save()
            messages.info(request, "Day Log created.", "info")
            return get_list(request)
        else:
            return render(request, 'daylog/form.html', {
                'daylog': request.POST,
                'errors': daylog_form.errors
             })

    return render(request, 'daylog/form.html', {
        'action': 'daylog:create',
        'operation': 'create',
    })

Django has an available model-form mapping system class called ModelForm. This is used for the validation of fields.

Create daylog/forms.py:

from django import forms

from .models import Daylog

class DaylogForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Daylog
        fields = "__all__"

The tests should pass after.

Standardize date format

I wanted to set all values of log_at to use the format YYYY-MM-DD. In order to set this globally for models.DateField() instances, just add these in api/settings.py in the “Internalization” section:

USE_L10N = False
...
DATE_FORMAT = 'Y-m-d'

References

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