Django ModelForm Example to Save into Database

Hi there, today we will see Django ModelForm Example. If you remember the last post, we saw how to implement ListView and DetailsView using generic views. We created a page to take an input of the title and description of a product and then displayed it using ListView and DetailsView.

The point which I am concerned with is that we had to configure the saving of the data into the database ourselves in the last post. Now what if I told you that we don’t need to manage the database operations by our own in this post. Django will do it all for us. Not only that, it will also create forms (without writing actual html form ), allow us to update(using UpdateView class) and delete the data(using DeleteView class) on the database without actually having to write any subsequent code for database related tasks.

Yeah, Model forms along the with class based views are meant for the purposes mentioned above. It pretty much simplifies the things for a developer doing database related tasks. I know this just increased your energy level to learn Model forms. So, without any delay, let’s get started.

To learn Model forms, we’ll take the same example as in the previous post which you must go through before moving ahead in this post. It will help you get a good grasp over class based views.The link is given below.

Django Class Based Views for Implementing List and DetailsView

Django ModelForm Example Overview

We will be doing the following in this Django ModelForm Example

Create a Page for entry of a Product information(title, price and description) and save it into the db(which will be done automatically by model forms).
Create the index page where we would view the product entries in an unordered list.
On the index page, with each product entry, we would also add the delete and update buttons and configure their functions.

Now that you know what we will be dealing with in this post, let’s start coding the app.

Django ModelForm Example

Creating a new Django Project

Run your Windows PowerShell in Administrator Mode and run the following command to navigate into the desktop directory :


cd ~/Desktop

cd ~/Desktop

Run the command below to start a project new django project:


 django-admin startproject website

django-admin startproject website

As you do, you will see a folder on your desktop containing the django files named website
Open the folder in any Django IDE or any text editor will work fine.
Run the command below to change the directory of PowerShell to the folder “website”:


cd website

cd website

Creating a new App inside the Project

Run the command below to start a new app into your project.


python manage.py startapp modelforms

python manage.py startapp modelforms

Here, modelforms is the name of your app. As your run the above command, a folder named modelforms will show up in the website folder.

Coding the App

Creating Model

As usual, we need to deal with some data (title, price and desciption). So, we need to create the model of the data and implement that model into the sqlite db of django.
To do so, look for the file models.py in your app folder and add the code below:-


from django.db import models

# Create your models here.
from django.urls import reverse


class Product(models.Model):

    product_title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    product_price = models.CharField(max_length=5)
    product_desc = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    # on submit click on the product entry page, it redirects to the url below. 
    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return reverse('modelforms:index')

from django.db import models

# Create your models here.

from django.urls import reverse

class Product(models.Model):

product_title = models.CharField(max_length=100)

product_price = models.CharField(max_length=5)

product_desc = models.CharField(max_length=100)

# on submit click on the product entry page, it redirects to the url below.

def get_absolute_url(self):

return reverse('modelforms:index')

The function get_absolute_url in the above code simply returns the url to which the the product entry page is forwaded once the submit button is hit. In this case, it will return to the index page after the product entry.
To generate the form, model forms simply access the the models.py. The names of the parameters here become the respective labels in the form followed by a input box.

Registering Model

Now we need to register the above model into the admin.py file in the users folder. To do so, add the following code to the admin.py file present in your app folder.


from django.contrib import admin

# Register your models here.
from modelforms.models import Product

admin.site.register(Product)

from django.contrib import admin

# Register your models here.

from modelforms.models import Product

admin.site.register(Product)

By now, the model of the database is ready. But we need to implement this database into the SQLite db. Doing so the SQLite db will create its own model of the same dataset. To do so, open the Windows PowerShell and the follow the commands given below.

Making Migrations

Make sure that the shell is navigated into the website folder and run the following command.


python manage.py makemigrations modelforms

python manage.py makemigrations modelforms

Next, run the command below to actually implement it into the database.


python manage.py migrate

python manage.py migrate

By now, the database is created into the sqlite db.

Now comes the section where the real magic happens.

Configuring the Views

Yes, the class based views reduce our efforts to quite an extent.
So, look for the file views.py in your app folder and add the following code:-


from django.views import generic
from django.views.generic.edit import CreateView, UpdateView, DeleteView
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse_lazy

# Create your views here.
from modelforms.models import Product

# view for the index page
class IndexView(generic.ListView):
    # name of the object to be used in the index.html
    context_object_name = 'product_list'
    template_name = 'modelforms/index.html'

    def get_queryset(self):
        return Product.objects.all()

# view for the product entry page
class ProductEntry(CreateView):
    model = Product
    # the fields mentioned below become the entry rows in the generated form
    fields = ['product_title', 'product_price', 'product_desc']

# view for the product update page
class ProductUpdate(UpdateView):
    model = Product
    # the fields mentioned below become the entyr rows in the update form
    fields = ['product_title', 'product_price', 'product_desc']

# view for deleting a product entry
class ProductDelete(DeleteView):
    model = Product
    # the delete button forwards to the url mentioned below.
    success_url = reverse_lazy('modelforms:index')

from django.views import generic

from django.views.generic.edit import CreateView, UpdateView, DeleteView

from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse_lazy

# Create your views here.

from modelforms.models import Product

# view for the index page

class IndexView(generic.ListView):

# name of the object to be used in the index.html

context_object_name = 'product_list'

template_name = 'modelforms/index.html'

def get_queryset(self):

return Product.objects.all()

# view for the product entry page

class ProductEntry(CreateView):

model = Product

# the fields mentioned below become the entry rows in the generated form

fields = ['product_title', 'product_price', 'product_desc']

# view for the product update page

class ProductUpdate(UpdateView):

model = Product

# the fields mentioned below become the entyr rows in the update form

fields = ['product_title', 'product_price', 'product_desc']

# view for deleting a product entry

class ProductDelete(DeleteView):

model = Product

# the delete button forwards to the url mentioned below.

success_url = reverse_lazy('modelforms:index')

In the above code, we made use of following classes in the views:-
generic.ListView- To fetch the data from the db and display it using the html.
CreateView- To create the form corresponding to the model of the data as in models.py
UpdateView- To create the form for the update of the product info and update the db accordingly.
DeleteView- To delete the selected product entry from the db.

By now, the backend of the app is ready.

It’s time to write some htmls i.e working on the templates for this project.

Creating UI for Django model forms example

Firstly create a directory named templates into the folder modelforms.
Now, in the templates folder, create another directory named modelforms and it should be like /modelforms/templates/modelforms/.
In the modelforms folder present in templates directory, create a new HTML file called product_form.html and add the following code:-


 <h3>Add a New Product</h3>

{% if error_message %}
    <p><strong>{{ error_message }}</strong></p>
{% endif %}
<form action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {% include 'music/form-template.html' %}
    <div class="form-group">
        <div class="col-sm-offset-2 col-sm-10">
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Submit</button>
        </div>
    </div>
</form>

<h3>Add a New Product</h3>

{% if error_message %}

<p><strong>{{ error_message }}</strong></p>

{% endif %}

{% csrf_token %}

{% include 'music/form-template.html' %}

<button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Submit</button>

</div>

</form>

In the same directory, create another html file named index.html and add the code below .This will act as a home page and display the list of product_entries.


{% if product_list %}

    {% for product in product_list %}

    <ul>

    <li>
        <h2> Product-Title:{{ product.product_title }}</h2>
        <h2>Price:${{ product.product_price }}</h2>
        <h2>Description:{{ product.product_desc }} </h2>
           <form action="{% url 'modelforms:product-delete' product.id %}" method="post" style="display: inline;">
            {% csrf_token %}
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">Delete</button>
        </form>
           <form action="{% url 'modelforms:product-update' product.id  %}" method="post" style="display: inline;">
            {% csrf_token %}
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">Update</button>
        </form>


    </li>


    </ul>

{% endfor %}

    {% else %}
    <h1>No product entries found on the database.</h1>


{% endif %}
     <form action="{% url 'modelforms:product-entry'  %}" method="post" style="display: inline;">
            {% csrf_token %}
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">Make a Product entry here</button>
        </form>

{% if product_list %}

{% for product in product_list %}

<ul>

<li>

<h2> Product-Title:{{ product.product_title }}</h2>

<h2>Price:${{ product.product_price }}</h2>

<h2>Description:{{ product.product_desc }} </h2>

{% csrf_token %}

<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">Delete</button>

</form>

{% csrf_token %}

<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">Update</button>

</form>

</li>

</ul>

{% endfor %}

{% else %}

<h1>No product entries found on the database.</h1>

{% endif %}

{% csrf_token %}

<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">Make a Product entry here</button>

</form>

In the same directory, create one last html file named form-template.html and add the code below .This will serve as a base template for each field in the form. You can see this included in the html of the file product_form.html:-


{% for field in form %}
    <div class="form-group">
        <div >
            <span class="text-danger la">{{ field.errors }}</span>
        </div>
        <label  >{{ field.label_tag }}</label>
        <div class="col-sm-10">{{ field }}</div>
    </div>
{% endfor %}

{% for field in form %}

<div >

<span class="text-danger la">{{ field.errors }}</span>

</div>

<label >{{ field.label_tag }}</label>

<div class="col-sm-10">{{ field }}</div>

</div>

{% endfor %}

We’re almost done. The UI and backend both are ready. We just need to link the broken ends by configuring the urls. To do so, create a file named urls.py in your app folder and add the code below:-


from django.conf.urls import url

from modelforms import views

app_name = 'modelforms'

urlpatterns = [

    # /modelforms/
    url(r'^$', views.IndexView.as_view(), name='index'),

    # modelforms/product/entry
    url(r'^product/entry/$',views.ProductEntry.as_view(),name='product-entry'),

    # modelforms/product/2
    url(r'^product/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/$', views.ProductUpdate.as_view(), name='product-update'),

    # modelforms/product/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/delete
    url(r'^album/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/delete$', views.ProductDelete.as_view(), name='product-delete'),

]

from django.conf.urls import url

from modelforms import views

app_name = 'modelforms'

urlpatterns = [

# /modelforms/

url(r'^$', views.IndexView.as_view(), name='index'),

# modelforms/product/entry

url(r'^product/entry/$',views.ProductEntry.as_view(),name='product-entry'),

# modelforms/product/2

url(r'^product/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/$', views.ProductUpdate.as_view(), name='product-update'),

# modelforms/product/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/delete

url(r'^album/(?P<pk>[0-9]+)/delete$', views.ProductDelete.as_view(), name='product-delete'),

]

Follow the comments to understand the url patterns in the above code.

Finalizing project

In the folder website, there’s a file called urls.py. Update that file with code given below:-


from django.conf.urls import url, include
from django.contrib import admin

urlpatterns = [

    url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
    url(r'^modelforms/',include('modelforms.urls'))

]

from django.conf.urls import url, include

from django.contrib import admin

urlpatterns = [

url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),

url(r'^modelforms/',include('modelforms.urls'))

]

Just one last step. Mention your app into the INSTALLED APPS category in the file settings.py in your website folder as shown below:-


INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'modelforms.apps.ModelformsConfig',# this line is added
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]

INSTALLED_APPS = [

'modelforms.apps.ModelformsConfig',# this line is added

'django.contrib.admin',

'django.contrib.auth',

'django.contrib.contenttypes',

'django.contrib.sessions',

'django.contrib.messages',

'django.contrib.staticfiles',

]

That’s it. We are done coding the app.

Running the App

Now lets try running the app. Make sure your development server is running. If not you can use the following command in your Windows PowerShell to run your development server.


python manage.py runserver

python manage.py runserver

Django Model Forms Example

Now go to the url http://127.0.0.1:8000/modelforms/ to see your list of product entries:-

As expected, since the database is empty, it says no product entries found on the database. So, go ahead and hit the “Make a Product entry here” button and it will to take you to the product_entry page as shown in the image below:-

Fill the form shown in the image above and hit the submit button. It shall take you to the index page and you will find the product entry you just made in the product_list as shown in the image below:-

In the above image, the delete and update buttons can be seen.So, go ahead and hit the delete button and you will see the result as shown below. Hitting the delete button simply deletes that particular data from the database.

If you would have hit the update button, you would have been welcomed by the product entry page. And the data which you entered newly for the product overwrites the previous one.

Great! It worked out just as expected.
You successfully followed this post till the end with full enthusiasm. Congratulations, you are a true django learner. And if you are having some troubles get the source code of this Django ModelForm Example from below.

[sociallocker]Django ModelForm Example Source Code[/sociallocker]

So thats all for this Django ModelForm Example friends. Stay tuned for more Django Tutorials. And please do share the post if you found it helpful. Thank You 🙂

10 thoughts on “Django ModelForm Example to Save into Database”

Prateek Chaudhary

June 21, 2017 at 1:06 pm

Its very good tutorial .
Sushant

June 25, 2017 at 8:28 am

and what’s that in product-form.html file,

{% include ‘music/form-template.html’ %}

music ?
Sushant

June 25, 2017 at 8:36 am

i’m also getting an error in the INSTALLED APPS file, ‘modelforms.apps.ModelformsConfig’,# this line is added
no module named apps.
sabi

September 6, 2017 at 6:43 pm

{% include ‘music/form-template.html’ %} gives error.Replace music to modelforms.
javed malik

February 2, 2018 at 8:38 am

i’m also getting the same ERROR.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘modelforms.urls’

why people upload the Wrong code.
- AMARTYA BHATTACHARYYA
  
  April 27, 2018 at 10:38 pm
  
  url(r”^modelforms/”, include(‘modelforms.urls’))
  
  you have to include as above
naresh

March 19, 2018 at 5:11 am

TemplateDoesNotExist at /modelforms/

modelforms/index.html, modelforms/product_list.html

Request Method: GET
Request URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/modelforms/
Django Version: 2.0.1
Exception Type: TemplateDoesNotExist
Exception Value:

modelforms/index.html, modelforms/product_list.html

Exception Location: C:\Users\Naresh\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\django\template\loader.py in select_template, line 47
Python Executable: C:\Users\Naresh\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda3\python.exe
Python Version: 3.6.1
Python Path:

[‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\Desktop\\website’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\python36.zip’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\DLLs’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\Sphinx-1.5.6-py3.6.egg’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\win32’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\win32\\lib’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\Pythonwin’,
‘C:\\Users\\Naresh\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\Anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\setuptools-27.2.0-py3.6.egg’]

Server time: Mon, 19 Mar 2018 05:09:10 +0000
JINKA RANGA BHARATH

August 12, 2018 at 4:42 pm

Nice tutorial
Vishwas

May 15, 2019 at 9:32 pm

Hi Manish,
Steps you have provided is working for me. I have not used your html forms.
M

October 27, 2019 at 9:48 am

Dear all
First thanks for this and all the other great tutorials.

A small advice from my side. For 24 hours it was driving me crazy that when I tried to start the runserver it gave me an error message about the urlCONF in the website’s url.py. But as I tested again and again I finally found that it was neither the website’s url.py or the app’s url.py. Instead the problem was with the app’s views.py. There we had this import of django.core.urlresolvers for reverse_lazy. And this seems to be a depricated module. As I found here, it had to be changed to django.urls. And voila, it worked and the runserver could be started.
Best regards
M

Django ModelForm Example Overview

We will be doing the following in this Django ModelForm Example

Django ModelForm Example

Creating a new Django Project

Creating a new App inside the Project

Coding the App

Registering Model

Making Migrations

Configuring the Views

Creating UI for Django model forms example

Finalizing project

Running the App

Django Model Forms Example

10 thoughts on “Django ModelForm Example to Save into Database”

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