Create a sign up page in Django

Creating a form

Django already has a User model which can create, remove and edit users. We will use all the built in functionality. We therefore only need to create a form. So in a new python ('.py') document enter the following:

from django import forms
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm

class UserRegistrationForm (UserCreationForm):
    email = forms.EmailField(required=True)
    first_name = forms.CharField(required=True)
    last_name = forms.CharField(required=True)

    class Meta:
        model=User
        fields = [
            'username',
            'first_name',
            'last_name',
            'email',
            'password1',
            'password2',
            ]

Now save this in the 'users' app folder, and call it 'forms.py'.

Create a view

Now in the 'views.py' file within your 'users' app folder, add the following import:

from .forms import UserRegistrationForm
from django.contrib import messages

Also add the 'redirect' to the current import:

from django.shortcuts import render, redirect

Now we need to declare the view, enter the following:

def register(request):
    if request.method=='POST':
        form = UserRegistrationForm(request.POST)
    else:
        form = UserRegistrationForm()
        return render(request, 'users/register.html', {'form':form})

The if statement is to check if the page has form data or not. If it doesn't the form will be empty, and if it does we grab the data and put it into the form.

Check the data

Now we have a form, and have the form data we need to check the form. So after the line 'form = UserRegistrationForm(request.POST)' add the following code:

if form.is_valid():
   username = form.cleaned_data.get('username')
   email = form.cleaned_data.get('email')
   first_name = form.cleaned_data.get('first_name')
   last_name = form.cleaned_data.get('last_name')
   form.save()
   messages.success(request, 'Your account has been created! Now you can login!')
   return redirect('login')
else:
   form = UserRegistrationForm(request.POST)
   messages.success(request, 'Error in creating your account, the form is not valid!')
   return render(request, 'users/register.html', {'form':form})

This code will check the form is valid, if it is then the data is cleaned from the form and finally saved. A message is created to tell you the account was created. If the form isn't valid it will retain the form data and display a message to say the form was invalid.

Final view

This should be your final view:

def register(request):
    if request.method=='POST':
        form = UserRegistrationForm(request.POST)
            if form.is_valid():
                username = form.cleaned_data.get('username')
                email = form.cleaned_data.get('email')
                first_name = form.cleaned_data.get('first_name')
                last_name = form.cleaned_data.get('last_name')
                form.save()
                messages.success(request, 'Your account has been created! Now you can login!')
                return redirect('login')
            else:
                form = UserRegistrationForm(request.POST)
                messages.success(request, 'Error in creating your account, the form is not valid!')
                return render(request, 'users/register.html', {'form':form}) 
    else:
        form = UserRegistrationForm()
        return render(request, 'users/register.html', {'form':form})

Register template

In the 'templates' folder in the 'users' app, copy the 'login.html' and duplicate it. Change the name to 'register.html'.

Edit your new 'register.html' and change references to 'Login' to 'Register':

{% extends "MyApp/base.html" %}

{% block content %}
<h2>Register</h2>
<form method="post">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {{ form.as_p }}
    <button type="submit">Register</button>
</form>
{% endblock %}

Set URL

Now in the 'urls.py' file in the project folder (mine is called 'MyProject'), add the following import statement:

from users import views as user_views

add the new path in the 'urlpatterns':

path('register', user_views.register, name='register'),

Testing

Now run the 'manage.py' and use 'RunServer'. You should be able to add 'register' to the address bar to see the new register form:

Finally

Now we have a working registration form, we can use it as a link in our 'base.html' in the 'MyApp' templates folder. Find this code:

<li><a href="#"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span> Sign Up</a></li>
<li><a href="{% url 'login' %}"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-log-in"></span> Login</a></li>

Now we can add a url into the 'Sign Up' link:

<li><a href="{% url 'register' %}"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span> Sign Up</a></li>
<li><a href="{% url 'login' %}"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-log-in"></span> Login</a></li>