Insert into table from arbitrary number of checkboxes in Django - html

Question

I'm building a Django application that will be used to schedule downloads. I've cleaned some government data that's pretty large, so people won't necessarily want to download all of it at the same time. They might also want to have it delivered via S3 buckets, etc. So I figured the easiest way to get the data to them would be to have a series of check boxes that iterate through what I have available and then let them press a button that would populate a database and have the server where the data they are stored on do the heavy lifting of uploading to a bucket and providing them the link, etc.
Where I'm having an issue is I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to get data from the checkboxes, of all things.
Here's what I have tried so far. I've included the snippets from the files I believe to be pertinent:
models.py
class UserDownload(m.Model):
user = m.ForeignKey(
settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,
on_delete=m.CASCADE
)
download_source = m.TextField(max_length=200)
download_configuration = JSONField()
download_queued_utc = m.DateTimeField()
download_link_generated = m.DateTimeField()
download_link = m.TextField()
bls-download.html
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% load static i18n %}
{% block title %}Data Sources List {% endblock title %}
...
{% for source in row_list %}
<div class="block">
{{ source.0 }} - {{ source.1.database_description }}
</div>
<table>
{% for file in source.1.file_list %}
<tr>
<td style="color:#0000ff"><input type="checkbox" id="{{ file.file_name }}" name="{{ file.file_name}}" value=
"{{ file.file_name }}">
<label for="{{ file.file_name }}"> {{ file.file_name }}</label></td>
<td style="color:#0000ff">{{ file.description }}</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</table>
<br>
{% endfor %}
</div>
<h2 style="margin-top: 20px;">Please indicate your desired delivery method</h2>
<div class="block">
<input type="radio" id="SQLite" name="ExportAs" value="SQLite">
<label for="ExportAs">SQLite</label><br>
<input type="radio" id="CSV" name="ExportAs" value="CSV">
<label for="ExportAs">Excel</label><br>
<input type="radio" id="S3" name="ExportAs" value="S3">
<label for="ExportAs">CSV</label><br>
<input type="radio" id="SFTP" name="ExportAs" value="SFTP">
<label for="ExportAs">SFTP</label><br>
</div>
<form action="post">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary btn-block submit col-md-2">Schedule Download</button>
</form></div>
</div>...
{% endblock content %}
views.py
class BLSDownloadView(CreateView):
template_name = "data/bls-download.html"
model = UserDownload
def post(self, request):
if request.method == 'POST':
print(request)
def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
data = super().get_context_data(**kwargs)
row_list = [
{
"database_id": "ap",
"file_name": "All Files",
"description": None,
"database_description": "Average Price Data",
},
{
"database_id": "ap",
"file_name": "ap.data.0.Current",
"description": "All current year-to-date data",
"database_description": "Average Price Data",
},
{
"database_id": "ap",
"file_name": "ap.data.1.HouseholdFuels",
"description": "All household fuels data",
"database_description": "Average Price Data",
},
{
"database_id": "ap",
"file_name": "ap.data.2.Gasoline",
"description": "All gasoline data",
"database_description": "Average Price Data",
},
{
"database_id": "ap",
"file_name": "ap.data.3.Food",
"description": "All food data",
"database_description": "Average Price Data",
},
...
]
data['row_list'] = list()
database_dict = dict()
for row in row_list:
if not database_dict.get(row.get('database_id').upper()):
database_dict[row.get('database_id').upper()] = {
'database_description':row.get('database_description'),
'file_list': list()
}
file_cols = {'file_name': row.get('file_name'),
'description': row.get('description')}
database_dict[row.get('database_id').upper()]['file_list'].append(
file_cols
)
for k, v in database_dict.items():
data['row_list'].append([k, v])
return data
I feel like there's something incredibly obvious that I must be missing because I don't get anything when I click the Schedule Download button. I'm assuming that either/both:
I'm incorrectly capturing the post data. (Ultimately, I'd capture it and convert it to JSON and then insert into the table)
The HTML form isn't appropriately getting the data from the forms.
Ideally, I'd like it so that I don't have to specify which checkboxes I'm pulling in because I'll want to use this for other pages too, so if I can make the submit download button simply collect all of the form data, it would be re-useable and I won't have to make say, a boolean value for every possible checkbox I want.
EDIT:
Also tried this variation of the bls-download.html, which puts the form tag above the loop so all the tickboxes are in the same form:
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% load static i18n %}
{% block title %}Data Sources List {% endblock title %}
...
<form action="post">
{% for source in row_list %}
<div class="block">
{{ source.0 }} - {{ source.1.database_description }}
</div>
<table>
{% for file in source.1.file_list %}
<tr>
<td style="color:#0000ff"><input type="checkbox" id="{{ file.file_name }}" name="{{ file.file_name}}" value=
"{{ file.file_name }}">
<label for="{{ file.file_name }}"> {{ file.file_name }}</label></td>
<td style="color:#0000ff">{{ file.description }}</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</table>
<br>
{% endfor %}
</div>
<h2 style="margin-top: 20px;">Please indicate your desired delivery method</h2>
<div class="block">
<input type="radio" id="SQLite" name="ExportAs" value="SQLite">
<label for="ExportAs">SQLite</label><br>
<input type="radio" id="CSV" name="ExportAs" value="CSV">
<label for="ExportAs">Excel</label><br>
<input type="radio" id="S3" name="ExportAs" value="S3">
<label for="ExportAs">CSV</label><br>
<input type="radio" id="SFTP" name="ExportAs" value="SFTP">
<label for="ExportAs">SFTP</label><br>
</div>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary btn-block submit col-md-2">Schedule Download</button>
</form></div>
</div>...
{% endblock content %}

Answer 1

The first thing I see is that you should put your <input> elements inside your <form> tag. When you submit a form, it only submits its own inputs - in case you have multiple different forms in a document, for instance.