Django best practice. Forms

Question

I have a question related to forms in django(i'm new on it) Look. Here i have form that looks like:

class ProccessAgentForm(forms.Form):
    agent_id = forms.HiddenInput()
    main_name = forms.IntegerField()
    company_name = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    company_state = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    company_city = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    company_country = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    company_post_code = forms.IntegerField()
    agent_first_name = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    agent_last_name = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    agent_phone = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    agent_fax = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    agent_email = forms.EmailField()
    agent_city = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    agent_post_code = forms.IntegerField()
    agent_state = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    agent_country = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    signer_first_name = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    signer_last_name = forms.CharField(max_length=60)
    signer_title = forms.CharField(max_length=60)

And i parsed it like(i know it's not the best choice):

form = ProccessAgentForm(request.POST)
    if form.is_valid():
        ....
    designated_company = DesignatedCompany()
    designated_company.pdf_link = copyright_agent.pdf_link
    designated_company.name = request.POST['company_name']
    designated_company.address = company_address
    designated_company.city = request.POST['company_city']
    designated_company.post_code = request.POST['company_post_code']
    designated_company.state = request.POST['company_state']
    designated_company.country = request.POST['company_country']
    designated_company.save()

    agent = DesignatedAgent()
    agent.company = designated_company
    agent.first_name = request.POST['agent_first_name']
    agent.last_name = request.POST['agent_last_name']
    agent.email = request.POST['agent_email']
    agent.address = agent_address
    agent.city = request.POST['agent_city']
    agent.country = request.POST['agent_country']
    agent.post_code = request.POST['agent_post_code']
    agent.state = request.POST['agent_state']
    agent.fax = request.POST['agent_fax']
    agent.phone = request.POST['agent_phone']
    agent.save()

and so on... How can i make it more readable? Should i split logic to forms ? I know about model Forms, but here i have foreign keys as you saw. I'd appreciate for more detailed response :)

Answer 1

How can i make it more readable?

First you can make it safer by using your form's cleaned_data instead of request.POST - it will contain cleaned up, sanitized, and eventually correctly typed values instead of the raw strings from the request's body.

A bit unrelated but while we're at it: a postal code (zip code) is NOT an integer, it's a string (eventually containing only numeric characters depending on the country).

Then you could use objects.create() and pass your data directly instead of creating a blank model instance, assigning all attributes manually and then saving it:

data = form.cleaned_data
designated_company = DesignatedCompany.objects.create(
    pdf_link=copyright_agent.pdf_link,
    name=data['company_name'],
    address=company_address,
    city=data['company_city'],
    # etc
    )

And finally : just use a pair of ModelForms instead.

Should i split logic to forms ?

The answer is in the question.

I know about model Forms, but here i have foreign keys as you saw.

And ? How is it a problem ? Exclude fields you don't want / can't use now from the ModelForm and use the commit=False flag when saving the second form so you can add the missing parts yourself.

You can even facade both forms and all this inner working in a "form-like" class of your own (a class that doesn't inherhit from Form but has the same API - at least the parts your interested in - and delegates to your CompanyForm and AgentForm) so the view's code don't have to bother...

Answer 2

You can use ModelForm to automatically generate forms that create model instances on save, like this:

class DesignatedCompanyForm(ModelForm):
     class Meta:
         model = DesignatedCompany
         fields = ['name', 'city', 'post_code', 'state', 'country']

There is also CreateView that doesn't require separate form:

class DesignatedCompanyCreate(CreateView):
    model = DesignatedCompany
    fields = ['name', 'city', 'post_code', 'state', 'country']

(snippets aren't tested, some fixes could be needed)