Log in user using either email address or username in Django

Question

I am trying to create an auth backend to allow my users to log in using either their email address or their username in Django 1.6 with a custom user model. The backend work

Answer 1

Those who are still struggling. Because of following multiple tutorials, we end up with this kind of a mess. Actually there are multiple ways to create login view in Django. I was kinda mixing these solutions in my Django predefined method of log in using

def login_request(request):
    form = AuthenticationForm()
    return render(request = request,
              template_name = "main/login.html",
              context={"form":form})

But now I have worked around this problem by using this simple approach without modifying the authentication backend.

In root directory (mysite) urls.py

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

In your app directory urls.py

urlpatterns = [
    path('accounts/login/', views.login_view, name='login'),
]

In views.py

def login_view(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        userinput = request.POST['username']
        try:
            username = User.objects.get(email=userinput).username
        except User.DoesNotExist:
            username = request.POST['username']
        password = request.POST['password']
        user = auth.authenticate(username=username, password=password)

        if user is not None:
            auth.login(request, user)
            messages.success(request,"Login successfull")
            return redirect('home')
        else:
            messages.error(request,'Invalid credentials, Please check username/email or password. ')
    return render(request, "registration/login.html")

Finally, In templates (registration/login.html)

  
SIGN IN
    

      {% csrf_token %}
      

        Username or Email:
        
      
       

        Password:
        
      
      Sign In   
        Forgot Password?
        
      
Don't have an account? 
        REGISTER NOW
        
 
    

This is the easiest solution I came up with.