Classed-Base-Views (CBV) Register, Login and Logout

Let's see how simple the registration, login and logout can be with Classed-Base-Views. For styling I use mostly bootstrap and one custom style sheet.

I assume you know how to create a Django project and an application. Otherwise check out the official Django documentation.

I have created a Django project with the apps named: "accounts" and "ui".
In the application "accounts" I have all code for the user, registration, login and logout.
The "ui" application contains the base_layout.html template with the navigation bar and all static files like styles.css, just in case I need additional styling.

# project tree

.
├── accounts
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── apps.py
│   ├── forms.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── migrations
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── templates
│   │   ├── login_page.html
│   │   └── register.html
│   ├── tests.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── views.py
├── db.sqlite3
├── project
│   ├── asgi.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py
├── manage.py
└── ui
    ├── admin.py
    ├── apps.py
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── media
    │   └── images
    ├── migrations
    ├── models.py
    ├── static
    │   └── css
    │       └── styles.css
    ├── templates
    │   ├── base_layout.html
    ├── tests.py
    ├── urls.py
    └── views.py

Add the applications in the project/settings.py file:

 # project/settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    "django.contrib.admin",
    "django.contrib.auth",
    "django.contrib.contenttypes",
    "django.contrib.sessions",
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    # custom applications
    "accounts",
    "ui",
]

In the same file, we will define the location for the static files. In my case the static folder/directory is located in the application "ui" (check out the tree in the beginning). So, we have to set the location of the static directory like:

# project/settings.py

STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "ui/static")]
STATIC_URL = "static/"

---

For Login and Logout, I used just the urls.py file in my app "accounts" to create the views:

# app/urls.py

from django.urls import path
from django.contrib.auth.views import LoginView, LogoutView

from .views import RegisterView

app_name = "accounts"

urlpatterns = [
    path("", LoginView.as_view(template_name="login_page.html"), name="login"),
    path("logout/", LogoutView.as_view(), name="logout"),
    # add custom RegisterView to path
    path("register/", RegisterView.as_view(), name="register"),

]

from django.contrib.auth.views import LoginView, LogoutView: we import the LoginView and LogoutView from Django. If you want to see what this view is doing check out the GitHub of Django. (You can follow the path provided in the import statement: django/contrib/auth/views. You have to click on the contrib folder, after auth folder, then views and you will find the code of the views.)

template_name="login_page.html": This template_name points to the file in app accounts/template/login_page.html

name="login": this name is important, we name the view, so we can reference it later in our project.

Do not forget to include the urls of the application "accounts" in your project/urls.py file:

# project/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('accounts.urls', namespace='accounts')),
]

That is not all. We have to set some variables into the project/settings.py file:

# project/settings.py

LOGIN_URL = "accounts:login"
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = "<app_name>:<view_name>"
LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL = LOGIN_URL

LOGIN_URL: points to the application and view name to call.
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL: this variable tells which view to call after the login is successful.
LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL: here you tell where the user will be redirected to after successful logout.

With this lines of code the Login and Logout is done. Now the RegisterView is missing.

# accounts/views.py

from django.views.generic.edit import CreateView

from .forms import RegisterForm

class RegisterView(CreateView):
    form_class = RegisterForm
    template_name = "register.html"
    success_url = reverse_lazy("<app_name>:<view_name>")

    def form_valid(self, form):
        user = form.save()

        if user:
            login(self.request, user)

        return super().form_valid(form)

I used a CreateView to register a new user in my database.
form_class: here you tell which form the view is displaying and using for the validation.
success_url: if form is validated this url will be called.

In form_valid I save the form and store it in a variable named user. The user will be logged in and the success_url will be called.

# accounts/forms.py

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

from .models import User


class RegisterForm(UserCreationForm):
    """Form to register User"""

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ["username", "password1", "password2"]

This form will display a username and twice the password. The form is inherited from UserCreationForm.

And that's it.