Setting initial Django form field value in the __init__ method

Question

Django 1.6

I have a working block of code in a Django form class as shown below. The data set from which I'm building the form field list can include an initial value for any of the fields, and I'm having no success in setting that initial value in the form. The if field_value: block below does indeed populate the initial form dictionary attribute, but the initial value is not being displayed. Note that (in case you are wondering) the .initial attribute does not exist until after the super() call.

Can this be done?

If so, what I'm not doing right to make this work?

Thanks!

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):     id = kwargs.pop('values_id', 0)     super(LaunchForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)     # Lotsa code here that uses the id value     # to execute a query and build the form     # fields and their attributes from the      # result set      if field_value:         self.initial[field_name] = field_value 

Answer 1

I had that exact same problem and I solved it doing this:

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):     instance = kwargs.get('instance', None)      kwargs.update(initial={         # 'field': 'value'         'km_partida': '1020'     })      super(ViagemForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)      # all other stuff