How to make the user in a model default to the current user

Question

I want to do this so I can hide it in the admin view mainly but also because when I save an instance I don't want to be filling it every time

I have the following:

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

class ClientDetails(models.Model):
    created_by = models.ForeignKey(User)
    ...

How do I make created_by default to the currently logged in user?

Answer 1

Hello @kartik,

You have to override get_changeform_initial_data method in your model Admin class in admin.py as follows:

# admin.py

class ClientDetailsAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    def get_changeform_initial_data(self, request):
        get_data = super(ClientDetailsAdmin, self).get_changeform_initial_data(request)
        get_data['created_by'] = request.user.pk
        return get_data

admin.site.register(ClientDetails, ClientDetailsAdmin)

In such way you obtain the most elegant solution since the created_by field is filed up when you create new record.

Hope this works!