Django database learn itself

Question

Hey guys.

I have a system that relies on other models but want to make it a little more open-ended as my users demand a bit more sometimes.

currently for arguments sake I have 2 authors in an Author model.

john, james

When a user adds a book, and the Author is not available, how do I add a other field in the form, that if selected, then generates an extra field where the user can enter the name of the Author and the form handling is in such a way that the new Author gets added and selected on submission?

MODELS.PY

class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=30)

FORMS.PY

class AuthorForm(ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Author

VIEWS.PY

def new(request, template_name='authors/new.html'):

if request.method == 'POST':
    form = AuthorForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
    if form.is_valid():
        newform = form.save(commit=False)
        newform.user = request.user
        newform.save()

        return HttpResponseRedirect('/')

else:
    form = AuthorForm()

context = { 'form':form, }

return render_to_response(template_name, context,
    context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Answer 1

assuming your book model is this:

class Book(models.Model):
    author = models.ForeignKey(Author)
    #etc.

try something like this:

class BookForm(ModelForm):
    other = forms.CharField(max_length=200, required=False)

    def clean(self, *args, **kwargs):
        other = self.cleaned_data.get('other')
        author = self.cleaned_data.get('author')
        if author is None or author == '': 
            self.cleaned_data['author'] = Author(name=other).save()

        return self.cleaned_data

    class Meta:
        model = Book

If author would be a manytomanyfield:

class BookForm(ModelForm): other = forms.CharField(max_length=200, required=False)

def clean(self, *args, **kwargs):
    other = self.cleaned_data.get('other')
    author = self.cleaned_data.get('author')
    if other is not None or other != '':
        for newauthor in other.split(','): #separate new authors by comma. 
            self.cleaned_data['author'].append(Author(name=newauthor).save())

    return self.cleaned_data

class Meta:
    model = Book