Question

I have a Model as follows:

class TankJournal(models.Model):     user = models.ForeignKey(User)     tank = models.ForeignKey(TankProfile)     ts = models.IntegerField(max_length=15)     title = models.CharField(max_length=50)     body = models.TextField() 

I also have a model form for the above model as follows:

class JournalForm(ModelForm):     tank = forms.IntegerField(widget=forms.HiddenInput())       class Meta:         model = TankJournal         exclude = ('user','ts') 

I want to know how to set the default value for that tank hidden field. Here is my function to show/save the form so far:

def addJournal(request, id=0):     if not request.user.is_authenticated():         return HttpResponseRedirect('/')      # checking if they own the tank     from django.contrib.auth.models import User     user = User.objects.get(pk=request.session['id'])      if request.method == 'POST':         form = JournalForm(request.POST)         if form.is_valid():             obj = form.save(commit=False)              # setting the user and ts             from time import time             obj.ts = int(time())             obj.user = user              obj.tank = TankProfile.objects.get(pk=form.cleaned_data['tank_id'])              # saving the test             obj.save()      else:         form = JournalForm()      try:         tank = TankProfile.objects.get(user=user, id=id)     except TankProfile.DoesNotExist:         return HttpResponseRedirect('/error/') 

Answer 1

You can use Form.initial, which is explained here.

You have two options either populate the value when calling form constructor:

form = JournalForm(initial={'tank': 123}) 

or set the value in the form definition:

tank = forms.IntegerField(widget=forms.HiddenInput(), initial=123)