Question

I have modeled a class called ConversationHistory. Whenever an instance is created I wish to set the current date and current time.

class ConversationHistory(models.Model):
    contact_date        = models.DateField(_(u"Conversation Date"),      blank=True)
    contact_time        = models.DateTimeField(_(u"Conversation Time"),  blank=True)

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(ConversationHistory, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.contact_date    = datetime.datetime.now()
        self.contact_time    = datetime.datetime.now()

The idea is that the user can later still adjust the date and time as two different fields.

I am now a bit lost how to make the time field only to show and accept time, rather than date and time. I recon it is not possible to have a time field without datetime, but then how would I show only the time in the form?

Answer 1

If you want only time, TimeField is what you need:

class ConversationHistory(models.Model):
    contact_date = models.DateField(_(u"Conversation Date"), blank=True)
    contact_time = models.TimeField(_(u"Conversation Time"), blank=True)

You can take advantage of the auto_now_add option:

class TimeField([auto_now=False, auto_now_add=False, **options])

A time, represented in Python by a datetime.time instance. Accepts the
same auto-population options as DateField.

If you use the auto_now_add, it will automatically set the field to now when the object is first created.

class ConversationHistory(models.Model):
    contact_date = models.DateField(_(u"Conversation Date"), auto_now_add=True, blank=True)
    contact_time = models.TimeField(_(u"Conversation Time"), auto_now_add=True, blank=True)