Question

Hello I am working on a simple form. The form submits fine but if I refresh the page it resubmits the data. Seems the form is holding the data after submit and I assume since after the submit the request method is post. Question is what is the best way after the submit to clear the form in Django. After the submit the form variables should not be holding the values anymore. Thanks

def testimonials(request, template_name="testimonials.html"):
reviews = Reviews.objects.all()
if request.method == 'POST':
    form = forms.ReviewsForm(data = request.POST)
    # create a new item

    if form.is_valid(): # All validation rules pass
        # Process the data in form.cleaned_data
        # ...
        if form.is_valid():
            nameIn = form.cleaned_data['name']
            reviewIn = form.cleaned_data['review']
            newReview = Reviews(name = nameIn, review = reviewIn)
            newReview.save()
            return render_to_response(template_name, locals(), context_instance=RequestContext(request))

else:
    # This the the first page load, display a blank form
    form = forms.ReviewsForm()

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

Answer 1

Typically, you would issue a redirect after processing a form/POST request (this is common web development practice to avoid the resubmission issue you mentioned). So instead of a render_to_response, you might issue a HttpResponseRedirect like so:

if form.is_valid(): 
        # Process form as desired here
        # Simple example; use reverse() to avoid hard-coding URLs
        return HttpResponseRedirect('/success/')

Check out the using a form in view for a skeleton of how forms are typically processed.