Question

I am trying to check and see if there is a duplicate entry in the database before adding an entry. Here are my current models —

class Education(models.Model):
    school = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    class_year = models.IntegerField(max_length=4, blank=True, null=True, choices=YEAR)
    degree = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True, null=True)

class UserProfile(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, unique=True)
    employments = models.ManyToManyField(Employment)

On the form, a user must enter a school. Class year and degree are optional. To check for duplicate entries, right now I have —

if form.is_valid() and request.POST['school']:
    school = form.cleaned_data['school']
    try:
        school_object = Education.objects.get(school=form.cleaned_data['school'],
                                              class_year=form.cleaned_data['class_year'],
                                              degree = form.cleaned_data['degree'])
    except (Education.DoesNotExist):
        school_object = Education(school=form.cleaned_data['school'],
                                  class_year=form.cleaned_data['class_year'],
                                  degree = form.cleaned_data['degree'])
        school_object.save()
        profile.educations.add(school_object)
        profile.save()

I am getting an ValueError if the class_date is not filled out. How to fix this and also when checking for duplicates? Thank you.

Answer 1

First, unless you’ve got a great reason you really shouldn’t be accessing post variables without sending them through a form.

from django import forms
class MyForm(forms.form):
  school = forms.CharField()
  degree = forms.CharField(required=False)
  class_year = forms.CharField(required=False)

  def clean(self):
    if not self.cleaned_data.has_key('degree'):
      self.cleaned_data['degree'] = None
    if not self.cleaned_data.has_key('class_year'):
      self.cleaned_data['class_year'] = None
    return self.cleaned_data

Then when you’re processing the view:

...
if request.method == "POST":
  form = MyForm(request.POST)
  if form.is_valid():
    try:
      # NOTE that the objects.get method will raise MultipleObjectsReturned if the
      # database has more than one object that matches the query
      my_object = Education.objects.get(school=form.cleaned_data['school'], 
        class_year=form.cleaned_data['class_year'], 
        degree = form.cleaned_data['degree'])
    except Education.DoesNotExist:
      my_object = Education(school=form.cleaned_data['school'], 
        class_year=form.cleaned_data['class_year'], 
        degree = form.cleaned_data['degree'])
else:
  form = MyForm()
...