botcatcher will not activate

Using Django
1

I have a web page with 3 forms each with their own submit button. On the second form I’m trying to implement a botcatcher by creating a hidden field and checking it’s length. I can’t seem to get this to work. To test the code I use chrome developer tools and add a value attribute to the hidden field and then submit the page. Here are the relevant files:

form_page.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
{% load static %}
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static 'basicapp/style.css' %}">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/css/bootstrap.min.css" >
            <title>Forms</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h2>welcome to our first form</h2>
        <div class="container">
            <div class="jumbotron">
                <form  name='form001' method="post">
                    {% csrf_token %}
                    {{ form.as_p }}
                    <input type='submit' class="btn btn-primary" name='whichForm' value="Submit">
                </form>
            </div>
            <div class='jumbotron'>
                <form   method="post">
                    {% csrf_token %}
                    {{ form1.as_p }}
                    <input type='submit' class="btn btn-primary" name='whichForm' value="Submit1">
                </form>
            </div>
            <div class='jumbotron'>
                <form   method="post">
                    {% csrf_token %}
                    {{ form2.as_p }}
                    <input type='submit' class="btn btn-primary" name='whichForm' value="Submit2">
                </form>
            </div>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

views.py

from django.shortcuts import render
from . import forms
# Create your views here.

def index(request):
    return render(request,'basicapp/index.html')

def myform_view(request):
    form = forms.MyForm()
    form1 = forms.MyForm1()
    form2 = forms.MyForm2()

    if request.method == 'POST':
        if request.POST['whichForm'] == 'Submit':
            temp = forms.MyForm(request.POST)
        elif request.POST['whichForm'] == 'Submit1':            
            temp = forms.MyForm1(request.POST)
        elif request.POST['whichForm'] == 'Submit2':
            temp = forms.MyForm2(request.POST)

        if form.is_valid():
            print("VALIDATION SUCCESS!")
            print("NAME: " + temp.cleaned_data['name'])
            print("EMAIL: " + temp.cleaned_data['email'])
            print("TEXT: " + temp.cleaned_data['text'])

    return render(request,'basicapp/form_page.html',{'form':form,
                                                 'form1':form1,
                                                 'form2':form2})

forms.py

from django import forms

class MyForm(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField()
    email = forms.EmailField()
    text = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea)

class MyForm1(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField()
    email = forms.EmailField()
    text = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea)
    botcatcher =forms.CharField(required=False,widget=forms.HiddenInput)

    def clean_botcatcher(self):
        botcatcher = self.cleaned_data['botcatcher']
        if len(botcatcher) > 0:
            raise forms.ValidationError("GOTCHA BOT!")
        return botcatcher

class MyForm2(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField()
    email = forms.EmailField()
    text = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea)
2

So what’s not working? Is the form submitting that field back to the server? Is the form not getting that field? Is it failing the test?

3

Hi, I didn’t realize that form.is_valid() is what triggers the validation. The abstractions in django are very powerful but a little harder to master. Thanks for replying.