Resolving #41

hackathon_starter/hackathon/views.py

@@ -52,3 +52,44 @@ def register(request):
     return render(request,
             'hackathon/register.html',
             {'user_form': user_form, 'registered': registered} )
+
+def user_login(request):
+
+    # If the request is a HTTP POST, try to pull out the relevant information.
+    if request.method == 'POST':
+        # Gather the username and password provided by the user.
+        # This information is obtained from the login form.
+                # We use request.POST.get('<variable>') as opposed to request.POST['<variable>'],
+                # because the request.POST.get('<variable>') returns None, if the value does not exist,
+                # while the request.POST['<variable>'] will raise key error exception
+        username = request.POST.get('username')
+        password = request.POST.get('password')
+
+        # Use Django's machinery to attempt to see if the username/password
+        # combination is valid - a User object is returned if it is.
+        user = authenticate(username=username, password=password)
+
+        # If we have a User object, the details are correct.
+        # If None (Python's way of representing the absence of a value), no user
+        # with matching credentials was found.
+        if user:
+            # Is the account active? It could have been disabled.
+            if user.is_active:
+                # If the account is valid and active, we can log the user in.
+                # We'll send the user back to the homepage.
+                login(request, user)
+                return HttpResponseRedirect('/hackathon/')
+            else:
+                # An inactive account was used - no logging in!
+                return HttpResponse("Your Django Hackathon account is disabled.")
+        else:
+            # Bad login details were provided. So we can't log the user in.
+            print "Invalid login details: {0}, {1}".format(username, password)
+            return HttpResponse("Invalid login details supplied.")
+
+    # The request is not a HTTP POST, so display the login form.
+    # This scenario would most likely be a HTTP GET.
+    else:
+        # No context variables to pass to the template system, hence the
+        # blank dictionary object...
+        return render(request, 'hackathon/login.html', {})