UpdateView Class Based Views Django (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 19 Nov, 2025

An UpdateView is a built-in class-based view used to edit an existing record in the database. It automatically handles fetching the record, showing a pre-filled form, validating input, and saving changes.

• Specify the model that contains the record to be updated.
• Define the form fields that should appear in the update form.
• Provide the template used to render the form.
• Set a success URL to redirect after the update is saved.

**Example: Consider a project named 'geeksforgeeks' having an app named 'geeks'. After you have a project and an app, let's create a model of which we will be creating instances through our view.

In **geeks/models.py:

Python `

from django.db import models

declare a new model with a name "GeeksModel"

class GeeksModel(models.Model):

# fields of the model
title = models.CharField(max_length = 200)
description = models.TextField()

# renames the instances of the model with their title name
def __str__(self):
    return self.title

`

After creating this model, we need to run two commands in order to create Database for the same.

Python manage.py makemigrations
Python manage.py migrate

Now, create instances of this model using the Django shell by running the following command in the terminal:

Python manage.py shell

Next enter following commands:

_>>> from geeks.models import GeeksModel
_>>> GeeksModel.objects.create( title="title1", description="description1")
_>>> GeeksModel.objects.create(title="title2", description="description2")
_>>> GeeksModel.objects.create(title="title3", description="description3")

Now that the backend setup complete, verify that instances have been created by visiting:

To create an UpdateView, it is only necessary to specify the model. Django’s UpdateView will then look for a template named app_name/modelname_form.html. Here, expected template path is **geeks/templates/geeks/geeksmodel_form.html.

Next, create the class-based view in **geeks/views.py:

Python `

from django.views.generic.edit import UpdateView

Relative import of GeeksModel

from .models import GeeksModel

class GeeksUpdateView(UpdateView): # specify the model you want to use model = GeeksModel

# specify the fields
fields = [
    "title",
    "description"
]
success_url ="/"

`

Now, create a url path to map the view in **geeks/urls.py:

Python `

from django.urls import path

importing views from views.py

from .views import GeeksUpdateView urlpatterns = [ # is identification for id field, can also be used path('/update', GeeksUpdateView.as_view()), ]

`

Next, create a template in **templates/geeks/geeksmodel_form.html:

html `

`

Now, visit the corresponding page to verify that the UpdateView is working as expected.