ModelChoiceFields as CharFields in Django

Today I was creating the submission form for the new iBegin.com homepage. In this we use a lot of JavaScript to make the process more clean. One such use, was an autocomplete on Cities and Categories. To do this, and to keep validation, you need to use a ModelChoiceField, but using a ModelChoiceField with a TextInput doesn’t work. So, I give you an InlineModelChoiceField in Django.

from django import newforms as forms

class InlineModelChoiceField(forms.ModelChoiceField):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        kwargs['widget'] = kwargs.pop('widget', forms.widgets.TextInput)
        super(InlineModelChoiceField, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def clean(self, value):
        if not value and not self.required:
            return None
        try:
            return self.queryset.filter(name=value).get()
        except self.queryset.model.DoesNotExist:
            raise forms.ValidationError("Please enter a valid %s." % (self.queryset.model._meta.verbose_name,))

Mar 24th, 2008