python - MultiValueDictKeyError generated in Django after POST request on login page

Question

I'm trying to build a login page. I'm running Django 1.6.1. I've largely been following the tutorial at www.fir3net.com/Django/django.html. For convenience I will repost a lot of it here.

Error Message:

Request Method: GET
Request URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/login/

Database In Use: SQLite3 

Django Version: 1.6.1
Python Version: 2.7.4
Installed Applications:
('django.contrib.admin',
 'django.contrib.auth',
 'django.contrib.contenttypes',
 'django.contrib.sessions',
 'django.contrib.messages',
 'django.contrib.staticfiles',
 'django.contrib.contenttypes',
 'bookmarks')
Installed Middleware:
('django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.RemoteUserMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware')


Traceback:
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in get_response
  114.                     response = wrapped_callback(request, *callback_args, **callback_kwargs)
File "/home/tatenda/Documents/Programming/Django/Progs/django_bookmarks/bookmarks/views.py" in login_user
  17.   username = request.POST['username']
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/utils/datastructures.py" in __getitem__
  301.             raise MultiValueDictKeyError(repr(key))

Exception Type: MultiValueDictKeyError at /login/
Exception Value: "'username'"

View Code (I understand that several of the import functions called here are superfluous to my immediate problem. Mostly they are redundant code from trying to follow previous tutorials on how to do this):

from django.http import*
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response, redirect
from django.template import RequestContext
from django.template import Context
from django.template.loader import get_template
from django.http import HttpResponse, Http404
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login, logout
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt, csrf_protect
from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required

def login_user(request):

    username = password = ''
    username = request.POST['username']
    password = request.POST['password']
    user = authenticate(username=username, password = password)
    if user is not None:
        if user.is_active:
            login(request, user)
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/main_page/')
    return render_to_response('base.html', context_instance = RequestContext(request))

@login_required(login_url = '/login/')
def main_page(request):
    template = get_template('main_page.html')
    variables = Context ({
        'head_title':'Django Bookmarks',
        'page_title':'Welcome to Django Bookmarks',
        'page_body':'Where you store and share bookmarks!'
    })
    output = template.render(variables)
    return HttpResponse(output)

def user_page(request, username):
    try:
        user = User.objects.get(username=username)
    except:
        raise Http404('Requested user not found.')

    bookmarks = user.bookmark_set.all()
    template = get_template('user_page.html')
    variables = Context({
        'username':username,
        'bookmarks': bookmarks
    })
    output = template.render(variables)
    return HttpResponse(output)

@csrf_exempt
def login_page(request):

    username = request.POST['username']
    password = request.POST['password']
    user = authenticate(username=username, password=password)
    if user is not None:
        if user.is_active:
            login(request,user)
            template = get_template('main_page.html')
            variables = Context ({
                'head_title':'Django Bookmarks',
                'page_title':'Welcome to Django Bookmarks',
                'page_body':'Where you store and share bookmarks!'
            })
            output = template.render(variables)
            return HttpResponse(output)
        else:
            raise Http404('Disabled account, please contact administrator.')
    else:
        raise Http404('Invalid login.')

Info from urls.py file:

from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.contrib import admin
from bookmarks.views import*

admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^$', main_page),
    (r'^user/(w+)/$', user_page),
    url(r'^login/$', login_user),
)

Base Template Used to Create Login Page (the file is named base.html):
Note - the CSS styling is bootstrap based

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        {% block head %}
            <link rel = "stylesheet" href = "style.css" />
            <title> {% block title %}{% endblock %} - My Webpage</title></div>
        {% endblock %}
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id = "content">{% block content %}{% endblock %}</div>
        <div id = "footer">
            {% block footer %}
                &copy; Copyright 2011 by <a href="http://domain.invalid/">you</a>
            {% endblock %}
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

HTML Code for the Login Page (the file is named login.html):

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block main %}
    <div id = "login">
        <form class = "form-horizontal" name = "LoginForm" action = "/login/" method = "post">
        {% csrf_token %}
        {% if next %}
            <input type = "hidden" name = "next" value = "{{ next }}" />
        {% endif %}
        <div class = "control-group">
            <label class = "control-label" for = "username">Username</label>
            <div class = "controls">
                <input type = "text" id = "username" placeholder = "Username">
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class = "control-group">
            <label class = "control-label" for = "password">Password</label>
            <div class = "controls">
                <input type = "password" name = "password" id = "password" placeholder = "Password">
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class = "control-group">
            <div class = "controls">
                <button type = "submit" class = "btn">Login</button>
            </div>
        </div>
        </form>
    </div>
{% endblock %}

Answer 1

I had the same error, and i did this and it worked. Change:

username = request.POST['username']
password = request.POST['password'] 

to:

username = request.POST.get('username')
password = request.POST.get('password')

The above handles both the POST and GET methods that may result. I hope this helped.