How do I access the request object or any other variable in a form's clean() method?
The answer by Ber - storing it in threadlocals - is a very bad idea. There's absolutely no reason to do it this way.
A much better way is to override the form's __init__
method to take an extra keyword argument, request
. This stores the request in the form, where it's required, and from where you can access it in your clean method.
class MyForm(forms.Form):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
self.request = kwargs.pop('request', None)
super(MyForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
def clean(self):
... access the request object via self.request ...
and in your view:
myform = MyForm(request.POST, request=request)
UPDATED 10/25/2011: I'm now using this with a dynamically created class instead of method, as Django 1.3 displays some weirdness otherwise.
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = MyCustomForm
def get_form(self, request, obj=None, **kwargs):
ModelForm = super(MyModelAdmin, self).get_form(request, obj, **kwargs)
class ModelFormWithRequest(ModelForm):
def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
kwargs['request'] = request
return ModelForm(*args, **kwargs)
return ModelFormWithRequest
Then override MyCustomForm.__init__
as follows:
class MyCustomForm(forms.ModelForm):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
self.request = kwargs.pop('request', None)
super(MyCustomForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
You can then access the request object from any method of ModelForm
with self.request
.
For what it's worth, if you're using Class Based Views, instead of function based views, override get_form_kwargs
in your editing view. Example code for a custom CreateView:
from braces.views import LoginRequiredMixin
class MyModelCreateView(LoginRequiredMixin, CreateView):
template_name = 'example/create.html'
model = MyModel
form_class = MyModelForm
success_message = "%(my_object)s added to your site."
def get_form_kwargs(self):
kw = super(MyModelCreateView, self).get_form_kwargs()
kw['request'] = self.request # the trick!
return kw
def form_valid(self):
# do something
The above view code will make request
available as one of the keyword arguments to the form's __init__
constructor function. Therefore in your ModelForm
do:
class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = MyModel
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
# important to "pop" added kwarg before call to parent's constructor
self.request = kwargs.pop('request')
super(MyModelForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)