[Django]-Python Django – Keep user log in session between views

I would try rearranging the context_processors and put auth on top. If that doesn’t work, can you please post your custom authentication backend?

settings.py:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                # Put auth on top
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Additionally, I would make the following changes to cleanup your views a little:

views.py:

from django.contrib import messages
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse

def log_in(request):
    form = LogIn(request.POST or None)

    if form.is_valid():
        email = form.cleaned_data['email']
        password = form.cleaned_data['password']
        user = authenticate(email=email, password=password)

        # May also help with your dilemma
        if user is not None:
            login(request, user)
            # Be sure to change this to the appropriate template name
            return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('template_name'))
        else:
            messages.warning(request, "Username or password is incorrect.")
    return render(request, 'events/log_in.html', {'form':form})

def log_in_success(request):
    # "{}".format(value) is a more reliable string substitution
    return HttpResponse("{} has logged in!".format(request.user))

– – – EDIT:

I would remove your custom backend and override the functions on your form instead. It’ll save you a lot of trouble going forward.

class RegistrationForm(forms.ModelForm):
    password1 = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput(),
                                label="Password")
    password2 = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput(),
                                label="Password (again)")
    class Meta:
        model = Student
        fields = ('firstname', 'lastname', 'email', 'password1', 'password2', 'is_second_year')

    def clean_password2(self):
        # Check that the two password entries match
        password1 = self.cleaned_data.get("password1")
        password2 = self.cleaned_data.get("password2")
        email = self.cleaned_data.get("email")
        if password1 and password2:
            if password1 != password2:
                raise forms.ValidationError("Passwords don't match")
        return password2

    def clean_email(self):
        email = self.cleaned_data["email"]
        if email and Student.objects.filter(email=email):
            raise forms.ValidationError("This email has already been registered")
        return email


class LogIn(forms.Form):
    email = forms.EmailField(label="Email")
    password = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput(), label="Password")

You have to define your bakend into the settings.AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS list:

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = ['my_app.student_backend.StudentBackend']

Otherwise the get_user method in django.contrib.auth which contains the following lines:

user = None
...
if backend_path in settings.AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS:
    backend = load_backend(backend_path)
    user = backend.get_user(user_id)
    ...
return user or AnonymousUser()

would return AnonymousUser()

Optionally you can set your backend when calling login method (if there are more than one auth backends):

    if form.is_valid():
        email = form.cleaned_data.get("email")
        password = form.cleaned_data.get("password")
        user = authenticate(email=email, password=password)
        login(request, user, 'my_app.student_backend.StudentBackend')
        print request.user.email
        return HttpResponseRedirect('/log_in_success/')

This will save the given backend for this user into the session.