[Django]-Disabled field is not passed through – workaround needed

I used jQuery to solve the problem by removing disabled from all inputs before submitting.

$('#my_form').submit(function(){
    $("#my_form :disabled").removeAttr('disabled');
});

Used answer from another SO answer

You can put it in the form class like this:

class MyForm(forms.Form):

    MY_VALUE = 'SOMETHING'
    myfield = forms.CharField(
        initial=MY_VALUE,
        widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'disabled': 'disabled'})

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):

        # If the form has been submitted, populate the disabled field
        if 'data' in kwargs:
            data = kwargs['data'].copy()
            self.prefix = kwargs.get('prefix')
            data[self.add_prefix('myfield')] = MY_VALUE
            kwargs['data'] = data

        super(MyForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs) 

The way it works, is it tests to see if any data has been passed in to the form constructor. If it has, it copies it (the uncopied data is immutable) and then puts the initial value in before continuing to instantiate the form.

I solved such problem without touching the backend part, all you need is to add specific class to your fieldA in the forms.py with ‘visibility:hidden’ property.

self.fields['fieldA'].widget.attrs['class'] = 'visibility_hidden_class'

then, in the template your form.fieldA will be hidden but not lost in post request

{{ form.fieldA.label_tag }}
{{ form.fieldA }}
<input type="text" value="{{ form.fieldA.value }}" disabled />

so you will still have your form.fieldA in request form data. And visually your field will be always populated with the form.fieldA.value.

I faced with similar problem and this is how I solved it.

I set field as hidden:

self.fields['fieldA'].widget.attrs['style'] = 'display:none;'

In template I show field value separately:

{{ form.fieldA.label_tag }}
{{ form.fieldA }}
{{ form.fieldA.value }}
{{ form.fieldA.errors }}

In case of fieldA is a select menu:

{{ form.fieldA.label_tag }}
{{ form.fieldA }}
{% for value, title in form.fields.fieldA.choices %}
    {% if value == form.fieldA.value %}
        {{ title }}
    {% endif %}
{% endfor %}
{{ form.fieldA.errors }}

I had to solve a similar issue. I was using like dynamic formset to generate new rows, so once you select the product it was shown as disabled, but I needed to get the value on the form in the view. Jquery and JavaScript were easier for me, so I generate a pre – send event removing the disabled on the selector that I use in my formsets. I was using the widget select2 for this setup, so it does work with select2 too.

Of course, the send button id = "postForm" and the id of the form id = "contractForm".

$('#postForm').click(function(e) {
            e.preventDefault();
            $('select[id^="id_p_v"][id$="product"]').each(function(){
                // getIdNumber returns the digit value from id_field-n- in formset value
               // p_v was the prefix of formset 
                var id = getIdNumber($(this).attr('id'));
                // I have an empty form for new forms so skip that one actually on send doesn't matter really. (form POST) but anyway skip
                if(id != null){
                    $(this).prop("disabled", false);
                }
            });
            $('#contractForm').submit();
          });

I know this is an old question, but I recently encountered this problem myself. I think the simplest solution is to use ‘initial’ in the init definition:

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    super(MyModelUpdateForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
    self.fields['fieldA'].disabled = True
    self.fields['fieldA'].initial = self.instance.fieldA

This assumes the instance already exists, of course. You may want to add an ‘if’ clause if necessary.

When you use disabled attribute the data does not go on POST, you can use readonly that hinder the user from changing the field but sends the value on POST.

In models.py add blank=True.

Example:

class myModel(models.Model):
      myField = models.CharField(max_length=30, blank=True)