Ajax django POST requests ends prematuraly

Question

I have data that is being submitted from a webpage. I try to re-validate the data on the server side before inserting to DB. For some reason the POST code isn't entirely executed. It reaches the validation with datetime.date() and returns. I am not getting any error or anything.

Screen prints:

New assignment added

Expected screen prints:

New assignment added

Test2

Submit here

The code below is for the view.py:

def addStudent(request, assignment, studentID= -1):
         #Check if POST
         if request.method == 'POST':
                 errors = []
                 print "New assignment added"
                 #Verify exam date is future and end date is after start
                 if request.POST['startD'] <= datetime.date():
                         print "Error"
                         errors.append("Please verify date is in the future")
                 print "Test2"
                 if request.POST['endD'] < request.POST['startD']:
                         errors.append("Please verify end date>start date.")
                 print "Submit here"
                 return
     return render(request,.....)

The following is the code that calls it:

    $.ajax({type: 'POST',
                  url:'/assignment/newassignment/{{university}}/',
                  data:{
                       csrfmiddlewaretoken:'{{ csrf_token }}',
                       studentName:$("#studentName").val(),
                       startD:$("#startDate").val(),
                       endD:$("#endDate").val()},
                  async:true});

Disclaimer: The code cannot be a form since visual manipulation is done by the user on the page. Several calls with the ajax are done for each student.

Update : Tried the following debugging:

if request.POST['startD']:
                        print "date.today():"+str(date.today())
                        print "request:"+str(request.POST['startD'])
                        print "myDate:"+str(datetime.strptime(request.POST['startD'], "%Y-%m-%d"))

The first 2 statements are printed and the third isn't

Screen prints:

date.today():2016-03-24

request:2016-03-30

IMPORTANT : from datetime import datetime

Answer 1

I'd imagine you're getting a server error since you're trying to compare values passed across as strings ( startD / endD ) to dates. You need to convert them to dates before the comparisons

start = request.POST.get('startD')
if start:
    start_date = datetime.strptime(request.POST.get('startD'), "%Y-%m-%d")
    if start_date <= datetime.date():