Hi,

Have hit a huge roadblock trying to implement a custom, dynamic form into
my django project. Although I am more familiar with using ModelForms, I
need to use BaseForm to work with the structure I already have in place.

I have a dictionary of objects inside of my Model 'Photographer' that I am
trying to pass into my form. The objects from 'Photographer' will be a drop
down option for the user to select from, then will become part of an
instance of another model 'A' after the user submits the form. I cannot
figure out how to include the objects from 'Photographer' into my form,
given the following form structure:

    class AForm(BaseForm):
        def __init__(self, data=None, files=None, instance=None,
auto_id='id_%s',
                     prefix=None, initial=None, error_class=ErrorList,
                     label_suffix=':', empty_permitted=False):

            if not instance:
                raise NotImplementedError("Instance must be provided")

            self.instance = instance
            object_data = self.instance.fields_dict()
            self.declared_fields = SortedDict()
            self.base_fields = fields_for_a(self.instance)

            # if initial was provided, it should override the values from
instance
            if initial is not None:
                object_data.update(initial)

            BaseForm.__init__(self, data, files, auto_id, prefix,
object_data,
                              error_class, label_suffix, empty_permitted)

            cleaned_data = self.cleaned_data

            # save fieldvalues for self.instance
            fields = field_list(self.instance)

            for field in fields:
                if field.enable_wysiwyg:
                    value = unicode(strip(cleaned_data[field.name]))
                else:
                    value = unicode(cleaned_data[field.name])

            return self.instance

For a more full representation of the problem in general, including all of
the models and a lot of the view code, please see my stack overflow
question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11548992/adding-values-to-complex-....

I cannot thank you enough for any advice given. I have been struggling with
this issue for over a month, sadly. I appreciate any commentary.

Thank you!

what is going on here:
    self.base_fields = fields_for_a(self.instance) ?

--
Regards,
Anton Baklanov

Hi Anton,

Thank you very much for your response. The 'fields_for_a' is generating the
form fields for the instance of the model 'A'. The author admits that it
might not be the prettiest implementation, but fully functional.

def fields_for_a(instance):
    # generate a sorted dict of fields corresponding to the Field model
    # for the A instance
    fields_dict = SortedDict()
    fields = field_list(instance)
    # this really, really should be refactored
    for field in fields:
        if field.field_type == Field.BOOLEAN_FIELD:
            fields_dict[field.name] = forms.BooleanField(label=field.label,
required=False, help_text=field.help_text)
        elif field.field_type == Field.CHAR_FIELD:
            widget = forms.TextInput
            fields_dict[field.name] = forms.CharField(label=field.label,
required=field.required, max_length=field.max_length,
help_text=field.help_text, widget=widget)

.........................(etc)................

             fields_dict[field.name] = field_type(label=field.label,
                                                 required=field.required,
                                                 help_text=field.help_text,

 max_length=field.max_length,
                                                 widget=widget)

    return fields_dict

I am hoping to add an additional field, "Photographers" (from the
'Photographer' model) to AForm so that users can select a Photographer to
become part of an instance of the 'A' model.

Does that make sense?

Thank you very much for any ideas!

Here are my models, if you are interested:

    class Photographer(models.Model):
        name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
        models = models.ManyToManyField('Model')

    class Model(models.Model):
        model = models.CharField(max_length=20, blank=False)
        series = models.ForeignKey('Series', null=True, blank=True)

    class A(models.Model):
        user = models.ForeignKey(User)
        photographer = models.ForeignKey('Photographer', blank=True,
null=True)
        model = models.ForeignKey('Model', blank=True, null=True)

Thanks folks

Thanks for the advice Anton,

Does anyone have any advice or references on extending my form to include
an extra field? After searching and reading for days, I'm still lost on how
to make it happen?

Thanks!
Nick_B