92

In my django powered app there is only one obvious case where "IntegrityError" can arise.
So, how can I catch that error and display a message using templates?

Vadim Kotov
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Rajat Saxena
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8 Answers8

193

Just use try and catch.

from django.db import IntegrityError
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response

try:
    # code that produces error
except IntegrityError as e:
    return render_to_response("template.html", {"message": e.message})

If you want you can use the message in your template.

EDIT

Thanks for Jill-Jênn Vie, you should use e.__cause__, as described here.

Community
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Joe
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  • Thanks, I couldn't figure out why "from MySQLdb import IntegrityError" wasn't doing the trick. The call stack seemed to show that was the library raising the error, yet it somehow gets moved to django.db. Grr. – Julian Nov 06 '13 at 19:33
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    As pointed out in the [docs of v1.6](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/ref/exceptions/#database-exceptions), `e.__cause__` is preferred, as per [PEP 3134](http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3134/). – Jill-Jênn Vie Aug 06 '14 at 19:42
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    If you don't get message, try this : e.args – Jay Modi Feb 29 '16 at 06:51
  • e.message did not work for me, but e.args[1] did do the job – Edgar Navasardyan May 15 '16 at 09:37
  • @blissini - I've changed the link to point to the dev documentation – Tony Sep 26 '16 at 13:10
  • Does doing a try/catch slow things down? – natab Dec 21 '16 at 21:15
  • No. There are very few cases where try-catch will slow things down. – Joe Dec 22 '16 at 09:24
  • @EdgarNavasardyan, were you passing other values to `IntegrityError`? the expression `IntegrityError('some message')` has `some message` at `e.args[0]`. – lsh Jan 15 '17 at 12:20
16

If you're using class-based views with the CreateView mixin, you'll want to try the call to the superclass's form_valid, for example:

from django.db import IntegrityError
...
class KumquatCreateView(CreateView):
    model = Kumquat
    form_class = forms.KumquatForm
    ...
    def form_valid(self, form):
        ...
        try:
            return super(KumquatCreateView, self).form_valid(form)
        except IntegrityError:
            return HttpResponse("ERROR: Kumquat already exists!")

You can use a template, render_to_response etc. to make the output nicer, of course.

Daniel Holmes
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Chirael
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4

I would validate it with ModelForm. For example:

You got model:

class Manufacturer(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(default='', max_length=40, unique=True)

And ModelForm:

class ManufacturerForm(forms.ModelForm):

    def clean(self):
        cleaned_data = super(ManufacturerForm, self).clean()
        name = cleaned_data.get('name')
        if Manufacturer.objects.filter(name=name).exists():
            raise forms.ValidationError('Category already exists')

    class Meta:
        model = Manufacturer

In this case when you submit name that is unique. You'll get validation error before IntegrityError. 'Category already exists' message will be shown in your form in template

3

Simplest solution: write a middleware implementing process_exception that only catches IntegrityError and returns an HttpResponse with your rendered template, and make sure this middleware is after the default error handling middleware so it is called before (cf https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/middleware/#process-exception for more).

Now if I was you, I wouldn't assume such a thing as "there is only one obvious case where "IntegrityError" can arise", so I strongly recommand you do log the exception (and send email alerts) in your middleware.

Tony
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bruno desthuilliers
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2

I did it like this

from django.db import IntegrityError
from django.shortcuts import render

from .models import Person
from .forms import PersonForm

class PersonView(View):

def get(self, request):
    pd = PersonForm()
    return render(request, "app1/my_form.html", context={ 'form': pd })



def post(self, request):
    pd = PersonForm(request.POST)


    if pd.is_valid():
        name = pd.cleaned_data['name']
        age = pd.cleaned_data['age']
        height = pd.cleaned_data['height']

        p = Person()
        p.name = name
        p.age = age
        p.height = height
        try:
            p.save()
        except IntegrityError as e:
            e = 'this data already exists in the database'
            return render(request, "app1/my_form.html", context={ 'form': pd, 'e': e})

        context = {
        'person': {
            'name': name,
            'age': age,
            'height': height,
        },
        'form': pd
        }

    else:
        print("Form is invalid")
        context = { 'form': pd }

    return render(request, "app1/my_form.html", context=context)

in the template ,i can access the erroe as {{ e }}

Luke Marak
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1

For class-based views you can catch the error, add it to the error list and use FormMixin.form_invalid to re-render the form template, just as if standard validation failed:

class YourView(CreateView):
    ...

    def form_valid(self, form):
        try:
            return super().form_valid(form)
        except IntegrityError as e:
            form.add_error(None, e)
            return self.form_invalid(form)
totoro84
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0

This is how I did it - simple ternary use.simple IntegrityError use

raven88
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  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/33092659) – Imperial_J Nov 08 '22 at 03:16
-3

Just import IntegrityError

from django.db import IntegrityError

and use it inside try/Except

try:
    //Do what is needed to be done
 except IntegrityError as e:
    //return what is supposed to be returned

Thanks @Soren I just Edited my answer

Ahmed Adewale
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