Create a Change Password View in Django

Creating a “change password” feature is an essential part of any web application’s security system. In Django, creating a “change password” view is a straightforward process, and this tutorial will guide you through the steps. Step 1: Create the Change Password Form The first step is to create a form that will allow users to change their password. Here’s an example of what the form might look like:

from django import forms

class ChangePasswordForm(forms.Form):
    old_password = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput())
    new_password = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput())
    confirm_password = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput())

The ChangePasswordForm form requires the user to input their old password, new password, and confirm password. The widget=forms.PasswordInput() attribute sets the input type to password, which will display asterisks or circles instead of plain text. Step 2: Create the Change Password View Next, create the view that will handle the password change request. In this example, we’ll use Django’s built-in PasswordChangeForm and PasswordChangeView classes.

from django.contrib.auth.forms import PasswordChangeForm
from django.contrib.auth.views import PasswordChangeView
from django.urls import reverse_lazy

class ChangePasswordView(PasswordChangeView):
    form_class = PasswordChangeForm
    success_url = reverse_lazy('home')
    template_name = 'change_password.html'

The PasswordChangeView takes care of validating the form and updating the user's password. Here, we set the form_class to PasswordChangeForm, which is a built-in Django form for changing passwords. The success_url attribute specifies where to redirect the user after successfully changing their password. The template_name attribute specifies the name of the template to use for the view. Step 3: Add the URL Pattern Now that the form and view are created, add the URL pattern to the urls.py file:

from django.urls import path
from .views import ChangePasswordView

urlpatterns = [
    path('change-password/', ChangePasswordView.as_view(), name='change_password'),
]

Here, we create a URL pattern for the ChangePasswordView and set the name attribute to change_password. Step 4: Create the Change Password Template The final step is to create the change_password.html template that will render the form. Here's an example of what the template might look like:

{% extends 'base.html' %}

{% block content %}
  
Change Password
  

    {% csrf_token %}
    {{ form.as_p }}
    
  
{% endblock %}

This template extends a base template and uses the form.as_p template tag to render the form. The {% csrf_token %} template tag is necessary for security reasons. That’s it! With these steps, you have created a “change password” feature for your Django web application. Users can now update their passwords using the form you created in the ChangePasswordForm class and the view you created in the ChangePasswordView class.