Can I have a Django form without Model

Question

Can I have a Form in my template which is not backed by a model. I do not need to store the data just need that data to generate a POST request of my own in the view.

Template - The form with text fields. View - get data from form, and generate another request.

Flow --> Form submit takes to a url which calls the view "

def form_handle(request):     if request.method=='POST'     form = request.POST      #blah blah encode parameters for a url blah blah      #and make another post request 

but this puts only the csrf token into the form variable. Is there some way I can access those text fields of the template in my form_handle view?

I know how to do it with a model but couldn't figure this out!

Answer 1

Yes. This is very much possible. You can read up on Form objects. It would be the same way you would treat a ModelForm, except that you are not bound by the model, and you have to explicitly declare all the form attributes.

def form_handle(request):     form = MyForm()     if request.method=='POST':         form = MyForm(request.POST)         if form.is_valid():             cd = form.cleaned_data             #now in the object cd, you have the form as a dictionary.             a = cd.get('a')      #blah blah encode parameters for a url blah blah      #and make another post request     #edit : added ": "  after    if request.method=='POST' 

and

class MyForm(forms.Form): #Note that it is not inheriting from forms.ModelForm     a = forms.CharField(max_length=20)     #All my attributes here 

In the template:

<form action="{% url form_handle %}" method="POST">{% csrf_token %}     {{form.as_p}}     <button type="submit">Submit</button> </form>