Why is username required when I set email as username

Using Django Forms & APIs
1

I have a Vue front end and Django backend

I am using a custom user model:

from django.utils import timezone
from django.db import models
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin, BaseUserManager

today = timezone.now()

class UserManager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, email, password, username=None, role=None):
        user = self.model(email=self.normalize_email(email))
        user.set_password(password)
        user.created_at = today
        user.save()
        return user

    def create_superuser(self, email, password, role, username=None):
        user = self.model(email=self.normalize_email(email))
        user.set_password(password)
        user.role = role
        user.is_staff = True 
        user.is_active = True
        user.is_superuser = True
        user.save()
        return user

class User(AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin):
    EM = 'EM'
    SM = 'SM'
    DH = 'DH'
    ROLES = [
        (EM, 'Executive Management'),
        (SM, 'Senior Management'),
        (DH, 'Department Head'),
      ]
    
    objects = UserManager()
    role = models.CharField(max_length=2, choices=ROLES, default=US, blank=True)
    username = models.CharField(max_length=100, unique=True, blank=True, null=True)
    email = models.EmailField(max_length=255, unique=True)
    slug = models.SlugField()
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    is_staff = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    email_verified_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=False, null=True, blank=True)
    confirmed = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True, verbose_name="Created at")
    updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True, verbose_name="Updated at")

    class Meta:
        verbose_name = "User"
        verbose_name_plural = "Users"
        ordering = ["username"]
        db_table = "users"

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return f"{self.slug}"

    USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
    REQUIRED_FIELDS = ['role']

I am trying to get an authentication token but the response I get is username is required. Why is it required if I set the username field to email?

I am using this code top get the token:

from rest_framework.authtoken.views import ObtainAuthToken
from rest_framework.authtoken.models import Token
from rest_framework.response import Response

class CustomAuthToken(ObtainAuthToken):

    def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        serializer = self.serializer_class(data=request.data,
                                           context={'request': request})
        serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=True)
        user = serializer.validated_data['user']
        token, created = Token.objects.get_or_create(user=user)
        return Response({
            'token': token.key,
            'user_id': user.pk,
            'email': user.email
        })
2

Hey there!

Are you’re even using the username field? If you don’t want the username field, you can just set it to None on the class, and then set USERNAME_FIELD = "email" on the class as well.

This is not related, but this line may not work as you expect:

You’re using this variable value inside your functions, and this value is only calculated once, when your server starts and imports this module. You should either:

  • move this variable to the function that uses it;
  • add the auto_now_add on the created_at field from your User model
3

I want to use the username field later. I set USERNAME_FIELD to email in my code

4

Ok, does that solves the issue?

5

no because I had it like that from the start

This part is the cause of the headache

The obtain_auth_token view will return a JSON response when valid username and password fields are POSTed to the view using form data or JSON:

6

Alright, can you post the traceback here then?

7

There is no traceback sir I am using a Vue front end calling the api

8

Ok, You’re probably receiving a 400 BAD REQUEST on your frontend.
It looks like you’re using the serializer_class from the ObtainAuthToken view.

Looking at the source code of the AuthTokenSerializer it expects a username field.
How does your POST data looks like?

9

I am sending an email and password. I know it’s expecting a username and that is my whole problem. How do I change it so it asks for an email. I thought that is what I did when I put in the model that the username must be the email.

10

You can define a custom serializer_class on your view that inherits from the AuthTokenSerializer and sets the source attribute on the username field to email.

11

how do I do that please I am new to Django and really not sure on how to do that

12

Here are the docs for:
serializers;
source attribute;

The target serializer to inherit is: rest_framework.authtoken.serializers.AuthTokenSerializer

13

Ok thank you I will have a look