Why won't my view load in properly? (Django)

Question

I am extremely new to Django's framework and recently finished the introductory series on their website, and I have tried adding a new view in which I use a form to create an object.

The problem is, whenever I access the view, it immediately executes the HttpResponseRedirect(), and second of all it does not even return a response.

views.py

def create(request):
    context = {
        'questionfields': Question.__dict__,
    }
    submitbutton = request.POST.get('Create', False)
    if submitbutton:
        new_question = Question(question_text=request.POST.get('question_text', ''), pub_date=timezone.now())
        if new_question.question_text == '':
            context = {
                'questionfields': Question.__dict__,
                'error_message': "No poll question entered."
            }
            del new_question
            return render(request, 'polls/create.html', context)
        else:
            return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('create'))

create.html

{% extends "polls/base.html" %}

{% block title %}Create a Poll{% endblock title %}
{% block header %}Create:{% endblock header %}

{% load custom_tags %}

{% block content %}
{% if error_message %}<p><strong>{{ error_message }}</strong></p>{% endif %}

<form action="{% url 'polls:create' %}" method="post"> {% csrf_token %}

   {% for field in questionfields %}
   {% if field == 'question_text'  %}
   <label for="{{ field }}">{{ field|capfirst|replace }}:</label>
   <input type="text" name="{{ field }}" id="{{ field }}">
   <br>
   {% else %}
   {% endif %}
   {% endfor %}
   <br>
   <input type="submit" value="Create" name="submit">

</form>
{% endblock content %}

I attempted to make it so if I enter text into the question_text input, when I click the submit button it creates a Question object with question_text being the entered text and the pub_date being the present time.

However, it merely gives a failed redirect.

I don't fully understand how the render() function works in a view and how its positioning in the logic affects the rendering of the view, so please excuse any of my mistakes.

I would like to know why it does not carry out any of the code from submitbutton... to else: , and how to fix this to get the view to work as intended. If anyone could help with my rendering and view problem it would be great.

Error image

Answer 1

You're using recursive here

return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('create'))

In case it fails, it will redirect to this Create function again, and fail, and redirect again, again....

Try to do it like this:

def create(request):
    context = {
        'questionfields': Question.__dict__,
    }
    submitbutton = request.POST.get('Create', False)
    if submitbutton:
        new_question = Question(question_text=request.POST.get('question_text', ''), pub_date=timezone.now())
        if new_question.question_text == '':
            context = {
                'questionfields': Question.__dict__,
                'error_message': "No poll question entered."
            }
            del new_question
    # Just render the page here with the initial context
    return render(request, 'polls/create.html', context)