Save form data in Django

Question

I'm trying to set up a form in Django and save the data to my database, without using a ModelForm. My form is working, but the part I am stuck on is how to process the form data and save it within the view. As you can see, after 'if form.is_valid():' I am stuck and cannot think of the right code.

# models.py

from django.db import models

class Listing(models.Model):
    business_name = models.CharField(max_length=80)
    business_email = models.EmailField()
    business_website = models.CharField(max_length=80)
    business_phone = models.CharField(max_length=80)

# forms.py

from django import forms

class NewBusinessForm(forms.Form):
    business_name = forms.CharField(label='Business Name', max_length=100)
    business_phone = forms.CharField(label='Phone Number', max_length=100)
    business_email = forms.EmailField(label='Email Address', max_length=100)
    business_website = forms.CharField(label='Web Site', max_length=100)

# views.py

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.http import HttpResponseRedirect
from .forms import NewBusinessForm

def new_business(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = NewBusinessForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            # process form data
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/')

    else:
        form = NewBusinessForm()

    return render(request, 'directory/new.html', {'form': form})

Answer 1

You need to create the object and set all fields manually. Here is an example.

def new_business(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = NewBusinessForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            # process form data
            obj = Listing() #gets new object
            obj.business_name = form.cleaned_data['business_name']
            obj.business_email = form.cleaned_data['business_email']
            obj.business_phone = form.cleaned_data['business_phone']
            obj.business_website = form.cleaned_data['business_website']
            #finally save the object in db
            obj.save()
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/')
        ....

Note that saving object may fail if field values do not follow the constraint. So you need to take care of that.