Django: creating an empty file in views.py

Question

I want to create a new file with the same name as the object I am creating. I want to create a new "structure object" with the name str in the database and at the same time a new file called str in the designated uploading folder. When I do that I get an AttributeError of 'file' object has no attribute '_committed' Here are my codes:

views.py:

def create(request):
    print request.POST
    filename = request.POST['name'] 
    f = open(filename, "w")
    structure = Structure(name=request.POST['name'], file=f)
    structure.save()
    return redirect('/structures')

models.py:

class Structure(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=120)
    file = models.FileField(upload_to='structures')
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add = True)
    updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now = True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

urls.py: url(r'^create$', views.create),

template:

<div class="col-md-12">
    <div class="panel panel-primary">
        <div class="panel-heading">
            <h3 class="panel-title">Créer une nouvelle structure</h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
        <form class="form-horizontal" action="/create", method="post">
        {% csrf_token %}
          <fieldset>
            <div class="form-group">
              <label for="name" class="col-lg-6 control-label">Nom de la structure</label>
              <div class="col-lg-6">
                <input type="text" name="name" id="name">
              </div>
            </div>
            <div class="form-group">
              <div class="col-lg-10 col-lg-offset-2" align="center">
                <button type="submit" value="Create" class="btn btn-primary">Créer</button>
              </div>
            </div>
          </fieldset>
        </form>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

The code was working just fine until I added the file creating lines in the views.py

And this is a screenshot of the error I am getting:

Environment:


Request Method: POST
Request URL: http://localhost:8000/create

Django Version: 1.8
Python Version: 2.7.13
Installed Applications:
('apps.structure',
 'django.contrib.admin',
 'django.contrib.auth',
 'django.contrib.contenttypes',
 'django.contrib.sessions',
 'django.contrib.messages',
 'django.contrib.staticfiles')
Installed Middleware:
('django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware')


Traceback:
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in get_response
  132.                     response = wrapped_callback(request, *callback_args, **callback_kwargs)
File "/home/kaiss/Documents/proj/apps/structure/views.py" in create
  27.   structure.save()
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in save
  710.                        force_update=force_update, update_fields=update_fields)
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in save_base
  738.             updated = self._save_table(raw, cls, force_insert, force_update, using, update_fields)
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in _save_table
  822.             result = self._do_insert(cls._base_manager, using, fields, update_pk, raw)
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in _do_insert
  861.                                using=using, raw=raw)
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/manager.py" in manager_method
  127.                 return getattr(self.get_queryset(), name)(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/query.py" in _insert
  920.         return query.get_compiler(using=using).execute_sql(return_id)
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py" in execute_sql
  962.             for sql, params in self.as_sql():
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py" in as_sql
  920.                 for obj in self.query.objs
File "/home/kaiss/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/fields/files.py" in pre_save
  313.         if file and not file._committed:

Exception Type: AttributeError at /create
Exception Value: 'file' object has no attribute '_committed'

Edit: I didn't show the full trace of the bug: it tells me that the bug is located when I save the object to the database: structure.save()

Answer 1

I think, you need to pass a File object for the corresponding field of type FileField upon saving.

From Django docs on saving/retrieving a file:

When you access a FileField on a model, you are given an instance of FieldFile as a proxy for accessing the underlying file. The API of FieldFile mirrors that of File .

FieldFile.save(name, content, save=True)

Note that the content argument should be an instance of django.core.files.File , not Python's built-in file object. You can construct a File from an existing Python file object like this:

 from django.core.files import File f = open('/path/to/hello.world') myfile = File(f) 

Thus, you might want to try:

from django.core.files import File

def create(request):
    print request.POST
    filename = request.POST['name'] 
    f = open(filename, "w")
    structure = Structure(name=request.POST['name'], file=File(f))
    structure.save()
    return redirect('/structures')