How to disable a field in an UpdateView

Using Django Forms & APIs
1

I have a model called Stuff:

# models.py
class Stuff(models.Model):
    owner = models.ForeignKey(...)
    ... some other fields ...

I intend to use an UpdateView to let owners edit their stuff:

# views.py
class StuffUpdateView(UpdateView):
    model = Stuff
    fields = '__all__'
    template_name_suffix = "_update"

Is there a way to set owner.disabled=True from the view?

For the context, I started with the design below, which works but is not as robust and django-nic as the UpdateView.

# models.py
class StuffForm(ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Stuff
        fields = "__all__"

# views.py
def update(request, pk):
    stuff, created = Stuff.objects.get_or_create(pk=pk)
    if created:
        stuff.save()
    form = StuffForm(instance=stuff)
    form.fields.get('owner').disabled = True
    return render(request, 'some_template.html', {'form': form})
2

First,

This isn’t necessary at all. The get_or_create saves the newly-created stuff in the database. You can safely remove those two lines.

But no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with how you’re disabling the field.

As a matter of style, I would probably write form.fields['owner'].disabled = True because if that field didn’t exist you’d get an error anyway.

3

Thanks Ken.

I removed the calls to save() after get_or_create(...).

Regarding the use of UpdateView, I ended up with the following solution:

# views.py
class StuffUpdateView(UpdateView):
    model = Stuff
    form_class = StuffForm
    form_class.base_fields['owner'].disabled = True
    template_name_suffix = "_update"

I find it a bit awkward to declare and use a StuffForm only to disable one field, but at least it works.

4

If that field is always going to be disabled in that form, you can define it as disabled within the form. That would be a lot cleaner than what you have here.

(The docs already warn you about changing the base_fields attribute, and putting any type of code like that at the class level is a general anti-pattern.)