Question

I have a simple form and a view that are doing something as basic as:

from annoying.decorators import ajax_request

@require_POST
@login_required
@ajax_request
def my_view(request):
    form = MyForm(request.POST)
    if form.is_valid():
        form.save(request.user)
        return {"ok": True}
    return {"ok": False, "errors": form.errors}

forms.py:

class MyForm(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField(max_length=250)

    def clean_name(self):
        cleaned_data = self.cleaned_data

        name = cleaned_data.get('name', '')
        if MyModel.objects.filter(name__iexact=name).exists():
            raise forms.ValidationError(_(u"This already exists."))
        return cleaned_data

    def save(self, user):
        obj, created = MyModel.objects.get_or_create(name=self.cleaned_data["name"], user=user)
        return obj

But I have a problem at getting the self.cleaned_data in form.save method.
at the MyForm.clean_name my self.cleaned_data is cool.

But at form.save level, the self.cleaned_data = {‘name’: {…}}
Same for self.cleaned_data[‘name’]. wait for it.. but also self.cleaned_data[‘name’][‘name’][‘name’][‘name’][‘name’]…[‘name’][‘name’]

type(self.cleaned_data) and it’s keys is dict

what could make my code behave like that?

Answer 1

Your problem is that clean_<fieldname> should be returning the cleaned value, not the entire cleaned_data dictionary:

def clean_name(self):
    cleaned_data = self.cleaned_data

    name = cleaned_data.get('name', '')
    if MyModel.objects.filter(name__iexact=name).exists():
        raise forms.ValidationError(_(u"This already exists."))
    return name