Capturing Radio Button Choices in Django Sessions

There are a few issues with your current implementation that need to be addressed to properly capture and save the radio button selection.

Issues with Your Current Form

1. Radio Button Names: Each radio button has a different name attribute (normal, heroic, etc.). For radio buttons to work as a group, they should all have the same name.

2. ID Attributes: All your radio buttons have the same id="power", which is invalid HTML. IDs must be unique on a page.

3. Form Action: Your form action set_power_level{{value}} doesn't appear to be a valid URL pattern.

4. Separate Forms: You have two separate forms, but the radio button selection isn't connected to the "Next" button form.

Solution

1. Fix the HTML Form

HTMLCopied
<form method="POST" action="{% url 'choose_genre' %}">
    {% csrf_token %}
    <fieldset>
        <legend>Choose Power Level</legend>
        <input type="radio" name="power_level" id="power_normal" value="Normal">
        <label for="power_normal">Normal</label>


        <input type="radio" name="power_level" id="power_heroic" value="Heroic">
        <label for="power_heroic">Heroic</label>


        <input type="radio" name="power_level" id="power_epic" value="Epic">
        <label for="power_epic">Epic</label>


        <input type="radio" name="power_level" id="power_superhuman" value="Superhuman">
        <label for="power_superhuman">Superhuman</label>

    </fieldset>
    <button type="submit">Next</button>
</form>

Key changes:

• Combined both forms into one
• All radio buttons now share the same name="power_level"
• Each radio button has a unique ID
• The form submits directly to the next page

2. Update Your View to Capture the Selection

PYTHONCopied
def choose_power_level(request):
    context = {}
    if request.method == "GET":
        # Just display the form
        return render(request, 'htdocs/choose_power_level.html', context)
    
    # Handle form submission
    return render(request, 'htdocs/choose_power_level.html', context)

def choose_genre(request):
    if request.method == "POST":
        # Get the selected power level from the form
        power_level = request.POST.get('power_level')
        
        # Save it to the session
        if power_level:
            request.session['campaign_power_level'] = power_level
    
    # Continue with rendering the genre page
    context = {
        'selected_power_level': request.session.get('campaign_power_level', '')
    }
    return render(request, 'htdocs/choose_genre.html', context)

Using Sessions vs Context

• Sessions are appropriate here since you need to persist data across multiple requests/pages. Sessions are stored server-side and can be accessed in any view.
• Context is only for passing data to a template during a single render operation and doesn't persist between requests.

For a multi-step form like yours, sessions are the right approach.

Additional Tips

1. You can check if a session value exists with:

   PYTHONCopied
   if 'campaign_power_level' in request.session:
       # Do something with request.session['campaign_power_level']

2. Remember that sessions are only saved when modified directly:

   PYTHONCopied
   # This modifies the session
   request.session['campaign_power_level'] = power_level
   
   # This would NOT be detected as a modification
   power_levels = request.session.get('power_levels', {})
   power_levels['campaign'] = 'Epic'  # This change won't be saved automatically
   
   # You would need to explicitly set it back or mark as modified
   request.session['power_levels'] = power_levels
   # OR
   request.session.modified = True

3. If you want to pre-select a radio button based on a previous selection, you can add a checked attribute in your template:

   HTMLCopied
   <input type="radio" name="power_level" value="Normal" 
          {% if request.session.campaign_power_level == "Normal" %}checked{% endif %}>

Using sessions is definitely the right approach for your multi-page form scenario.