Django UpdateView generic class

Question

How can I access the object passed by the user inside a generic view class?

In template, when the user clicks the link:

<td><a href="{% url 'update_peon' pk=item.pk %}"><button class="btn btn-warning">Edit</button></a></td>

this goes to urls.py:

url(r'^update_peon/(?P<pk>\d+)$', views.UpdatePeon.as_view(), name='update_peon'),

and my view:

   class UpdatePeon(generic.UpdateView):

        login_required = True
        template_name = 'appform/Peons/peon_form.html'
        model = Person
        form_class = PersonForm
        success_url = reverse_lazy('view_peons')

I would like to access the item.attr1 or at least item.pk inside the class so I could change the model and form accordingly, something like:

   class UpdatePeon(generic.UpdateView):

        login_required = True
        template_name = 'appform/Peons/peon_form.html'

        if item['attr1'] == "Attribute1":
            model = model1
            form = model1Form
        else:
             etc

        success_url = reverse_lazy('view_peons')

I know how to do it in a normal function based class or even if I rewrite a class based view from scratch but I don't want to do that.

Answer 1

class UpdatePeon(generic.UpdateView):
    if item['attr1'] == "Attribute1":
        model = model1
        form = model1Form
    else:
        ...

You can't put code in the class body like this. It runs when the module is loaded, before you have access to the request .

You should override a specific method. For example you can override get_form_class to change the form class used by the view. Inside the view, you can access the object being updated with self.object .

class UpdatePeon(generic.UpdateView):
    def get_form_class(self):
        if self.object.pk == 1:
            return MyForm
        else:
            return OtherForm

You may find the ccbv website useful for exploring the update view methods .