Question

I want to set the default value of my forms ‘author’ field (models.ForeignKey(User)) to the currently logged in user. I want to do this before the entry is saved so when creating an entry the user does not have to select themselves in order for the form to validate.

I tried setting the value in my form init function, but there is not reference to the request object so it seems impossible?

I am not using the django admin panel for this application.

Answer 1

Dynamic initial values worked for me, for a default Django form view:

if request.method == 'POST': 
    form = ContactForm(request.POST) 
    if form.is_valid(): # All validation rules pass
        # Process the data in form.cleaned_data
        return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/') # Redirect after POST
else:
    form = ContactForm(initial={'author': request.user }) 

return render_to_response('contact.html', {
    'form': form,

This sets the initial value in the author drop-down for an unbound form, the user could still change it whilst editing.