How to add the logged in user's username with django

Question

I am building a basic blog site with Django which currently asks for the writer to define his/her name when making blog. However, I would want the site to automatically put in the logged in user's username in the author field of my models.

Here's my views.py ( AddPostView should be the relevant class):

class HomeView(ListView):
    model = Post
    template_name = 'community.html'
    ordering = ['-id']

class ArticleDetailView(DetailView):
    model = Post
    template_name = 'articles_details.html'

class AddPostView(CreateView):
    model = Post
    form_class = PostForm
    template_name = 'add_post.html'
    #fields = '__all__'

And here's my forms.py :

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = ['title','author', 'body', 'image']

        widgets = {
            'title': forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
            'author': forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
            'body': forms.Textarea(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
        }

And models.py :

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    author = models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True)
    #author = models.ForeignKey(User, null=True, blank=True, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    body = models.TextField()
    date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    image = models.ImageField(null=True, blank=True, upload_to='images/qpics')

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title + ' - ' + self.author

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return reverse('community')

I do get that I have to remove the author from forms.py and change it accordingly into models.py and write a code in views.py but i can't find a working solution to my problem. Most of the answers online are for class based views and do not work for me.

Little help will be appreciated. THANKS!

Answer 1

not sure why you commented out the author field as FK but you can do it this way:

class AddPostView(CreateView):
    model = Post
    form_class = PostForm
    template_name = 'add_post.html'
 
    def get_form_kwargs(self, *args, **kwargs):
        kwargs = super().get_form_kwargs(*args, **kwargs)
        kwargs['name'] = self.request.user.username
        return kwargs

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = ['title','author', 'body', 'image']
    
    def __init__(self, name, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.field['author'].widget.attrs.update({'class': 'form-control',
                                                  'value': f'{name}'})      

<form method="POST">
    {{ form.author }}
</form>

another short way is to render form input manually inside template

<form method="POST">
    <input type="text" id="id_author" name="author" maxlength="255" value="{{user.username}}" class="form-control">
</form>

Answer 2

I think you're on the right track. You'll want to have your Post.author be a ForeignKey to the User model. Set this value in the view's form_valid() method to ensure that it doesn't get tampered with by a bad actor during form presentation.

models.py

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    author = models.ForeignKey(User, null=True, blank=True, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    body = models.TextField()
    date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    image = models.ImageField(null=True, blank=True, upload_to='images/qpics')

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title + ' - ' + self.author

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return reverse('community')

forms.py

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = ['title', 'author', 'body', 'image']

        widgets = {
            'title': forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
            # Hide the author field in the form, we'll overwrite it later
            'author': forms.HiddenInput(),
            'body': forms.Textarea(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
        }

views.py

class AddPostView(CreateView):
    model = Post
    form_class = PostForm
    template_name = 'add_post.html'

    def form_valid(self, form):
        # Set the form's author to the submitter if the form is valid
        form.instance.author = self.request.user
        super().form_valid(form)

For bonus points, you can also set the author within Django Admin using a similar approach:

admin.py

@admin.register(Post)
class PostAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin)
    form = PostForm

    def save_model(self, request, obj, form, change):
        obj.author = request.user
        super().save_model(request, obj, form, change)