initial value for ModelForm field not working

Question

I'm tring to set the user field as the logged-in user, but it's returning None . Here's my model:

class Post(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, blank=True, null=True)
    title = models.TextField(max_length=76)
    date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
    content = models.TextField(null=False, default='')
    image = models.FileField(null=True, blank=True)
    category = models.CharField(max_length=20, choices=CATEGORY_CHOICES, default='1')

my form:

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    content = forms.CharField(widget=PagedownWidget)
    title = forms.TextInput(attrs={'placeholder': 'title'})

    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = [
            'title',
            'content',
            'category',
            'image',
            'id',
            'user'
        ]

and my view where users make a post using a form:

def post(request):
    allauth_login = LoginForm(request.POST or None)
    allauth_signup = SignupForm(request.POST or None)
    if request.user.is_authenticated():
        data = {'user': request.user}
        form_post = PostForm(request.POST, request.FILES, initial=data)
        if form_post.is_valid():
            category = form_post.cleaned_data['category']
            for a, b in CATEGORY_CHOICES:
                if a == category:
                    category = b
                    form_post.save()
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/%s' % category)
        else:
            form_post = PostForm()

        context = {
            'allauth_login': allauth_login,
            'allauth_signup': allauth_signup,
            'form_post': form_post
        }

        return render(request, 'post.html', context)
    else:
        return HttpResponseRedirect("/accounts/signup/")

When I actually render the form in my template, {{ obj.user }} returns None . Any idea why?

{% for obj in Post.objects.all() %}
    {{ obj.title }} #works
    {{ obj.content }} #works

    ...

    {{ obj.user }} #does not work

{% endfor %} 

Answer 1

You are initializing form incorrectly. If request method is not POST form will contain errors.

Try this:

form_post = PostForm(request.POST or None, request.FILES or None, initial=data) 

UPDATE

You can also try to do it this way. Remove user field from form and in view do this:

if form_post.is_valid():
    instance = form_post.save(commit=False)
    instance.user = request.user
    instance.save()   

Answer 2

I think you mixed up with initial and bound form with data . In your case, I'm guessing you're trying to save post with valid user first, and then redirect to the page to show the new post with user.

So it should be:

def post(request):
    allauth_login = LoginForm(request.POST or None)
    allauth_signup = SignupForm(request.POST or None)
    if request.user.is_authenticated():
        data = request.POST.copy()
        data['user'] = request.user
        form_post = PostForm(data, request.FILES)
        if form_post.is_valid():
            category = form_post.cleaned_data['category']
            for a, b in CATEGORY_CHOICES:
                if a == category:
                    category = b
                    form_post.save()
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/%s' % category)
        else:
            form_post = PostForm()

        context = {
            'allauth_login': allauth_login,
            'allauth_signup': allauth_signup,
            'form_post': form_post
        }

        return render(request, 'post.html', context)
    else:
        return HttpResponseRedirect("/accounts/signup/")

For initial -- These values are only displayed for unbound forms : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/forms/api/#django.forms.Form.initial