Django Hidden Foreign Key in form using Meta model

Question

I am working on a cookbook website using django and have run into a problem with a foreign key field in my form

the problem is that when i create my recipe i need to have a foreign key pointing to the cookbook that created this recipe but I don't want the user creating the recipe to see the original_cookbook field (they shouldn't have to)

I believe I need to use a widget (HiddenInput) but am I getting confused with the examples given on other sites. Also my friend mentioned something about setting an initial value in the original_cookbook view

tl;dr: I want to point the fk to the users cookbook while keeping the original_cookbook field hidden.

relevant code:

form:

class RecipeForm(forms.ModelForm):

    class Meta:
        model = Recipe

model:

class Recipe(models.Model):
    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name
    original_cookbook = models.ForeignKey(Cookbook)
    #cookbooks = models.ManyToManyField('Cookbook', related_name = 'recipes')
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    author = models.CharField(max_length= 100)
    picture = models.ImageField(upload_to = 'Downloads', blank=True)
    pub_date = models.DateTimeField('date published', auto_now_add=True, blank=True)
    ingredients = models.TextField()
    steps = models.TextField()
    prep_time = models.IntegerField()
    TYPE_CHOICES= (
    ('SW', 'Sandwich'),
    ('AP', 'Appetizers'),
    ('SD', 'Sauces and Dressings'),
    ('SS', 'Soups and Salads'),
    ('VG', 'Vegetables'),
    ('RG', 'Rice, Grains and Beans'),
    ('PA', 'Pasta'),
    ('BR', 'Breakfast'),
    ('MT', 'Meat'),
    ('SF', 'Seafood'),
    ('BP', 'Bread and Pizza'),
    ('DT', 'Desserts'),
    )
    type = models.CharField(max_length = 2, choices=TYPE_CHOICES)

    def index_queryset(self):
        return self.objects.all()

view:

def createrecipe(request):
    if not request.user.is_authenticated():
        return HttpResponseRedirect('/index/')
    else:
        if request.method == 'POST':
            form = RecipeForm(request.POST)
            if form.is_valid():
                recipe = form.save()
                user = request.user
                cookbooks = user.cookbooks
                cookbook = cookbooks.all()[0]
                cookbook.recipes.add(recipe)
                return HttpResponseRedirect('/account')
        else:
            form = RecipeForm()

        return render_to_response('cookbook/createrecipe.html',
                                    {'form':form},
                              context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Answer 1

Add exclude = ('original_cookbook',) to your form's Meta class.

Then, in your if form.is_valid() code, do something like:

....
recipe = form.save(commit=False)
recipe.original_cookbook = whatever_that_is
recipe.save()
...