An idiom to use the same view function to create or edit an object?

Question

Here is the skeleton of my (first!) Django app:

# models.py
class Task(models.Model):
    description = models.CharField(max_length = 200)
    ...

# forms.py
class AddTaskForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Task

I then created two views using AddTaskForm: one to create a new instance, the other to edit an existing one. I was able to refactor those two views (and the function they call) into one, but I'm not sure I got the best possible result...

# urls.py:
(r'^yata/add_task/$',              'yata.views.edit'),
(r'^yata/(?P<task_id>\d+)/edit/$', 'yata.views.edit'),

# views.py
def edit(request, task_id = None):
    t = get_object_or_404(Task, pk=task_id) if task_id else None
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = AddTaskForm(request.POST, instance=t)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/yata/')
    else:
        form = AddTaskForm(instance = t)

    # Either the form was not valid, or we've just created it
    d = {'form': form}
    if task_id:
        # The template needs the id to decide if the form's action
        # is .../add_task or .../{{id}}/edit
        d['id'] = t.id
    return render_to_response('yata/edit.html', d, 
        context_instance=RequestContext(request))

And here is the corresponding part of the template:

# edit.html
{% if id %}
    <form action="/yata/{{ id }}/edit/" method="post">
{% else %}
    <form action="/yata/add_task/" method="post">
{% endif %}
{{ form.as_p }}
<input type="submit" value="Save!" />
</form>

Is there a better Django idiom to handle this 'add or create' issue? Or can this be considered a correct way?

Answer 1

I have looked at your code and I think that it actually looks pretty clean and straight forward. However, I would suggest that you make it more DRY by using reverse() to figure out what action to assign to the form.

views.py:

if task_id:
    action = reverse(edit, args=[task_id])
else:
    action = reverse(edit)
d['action'] = action

edit.html:

<form action="{{ action }}" method="post">
    {{ form.as_p }}
    <input type="submit" value="Save!" />
</form>

Answer 2

You don't need set "action" for form directly.

# views.py
def edit(request, task_id = None):
    t = get_object_or_404(Task, pk=task_id) if task_id else None

    form = AddTaskForm(request.POST or None, instance=t)
    if form.is_valid():
        form.save()
        return HttpResponseRedirect('/yata/')

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

# edit.html
<form action="" method="post">
    {{ form.as_p }}
    <input type="submit" value="Save!" />
</form>