How to automatically login a user after registration in django

Question

This is what I am currently using for registration:

def register(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = UserCreationForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            new_user = form.save()
            messages.info(request, "Thanks for registering. Please login to continue.")
            return HttpResponseRedirect("/dashboard/")
    else:
        form = UserCreationForm()
    return render_to_response("accounts/register.html", {
        'form': form,
    }, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Is it possible not to require the user to login manually after creating an account, but rather simply to log them in automatically? Thanks.

edit: I had tried the login() function without success. I believe the problem is that AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS was not set.

Answer 1

Using the authenticate() and login() functions:

from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login

def register(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = UserCreationForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            new_user = form.save()
            messages.info(request, "Thanks for registering. You are now logged in.")
            new_user = authenticate(username=request.POST['username'],
                                    password=request.POST['password'])
            login(request, new_user)
            return HttpResponseRedirect("/dashboard/")