How do I filter ForeignKey choices in a Django ModelForm?

ForeignKey is represented by django.forms.ModelChoiceField, which is a ChoiceField whose choices are a model QuerySet. See the reference for ModelChoiceField.

So, provide a QuerySet to the field's queryset attribute. Depends on how your form is built. If you build an explicit form, you'll have fields named directly.

form.rate.queryset = Rate.objects.filter(company_id=the_company.id)

If you take the default ModelForm object, form.fields["rate"].queryset = ...

This is done explicitly in the view. No hacking around.

In addition to S.Lott's answer and as becomingGuru mentioned in comments, its possible to add the queryset filters by overriding the ModelForm.__init__ function. (This could easily apply to regular forms) it can help with reuse and keeps the view function tidy.

class ClientForm(forms.ModelForm):
    def __init__(self,company,*args,**kwargs):
        super (ClientForm,self ).__init__(*args,**kwargs) # populates the post
        self.fields['rate'].queryset = Rate.objects.filter(company=company)
        self.fields['client'].queryset = Client.objects.filter(company=company)

    class Meta:
        model = Client

def addclient(request, company_id):
        the_company = get_object_or_404(Company, id=company_id)

        if request.POST:
            form = ClientForm(the_company,request.POST)  #<-- Note the extra arg
            if form.is_valid():
                form.save()
                return HttpResponseRedirect(the_company.get_clients_url())
        else:
            form = ClientForm(the_company)

        return render_to_response('addclient.html', 
                                  {'form': form, 'the_company':the_company})

This can be useful for reuse say if you have common filters needed on many models (normally I declare an abstract Form class). E.g.

class UberClientForm(ClientForm):
    class Meta:
        model = UberClient

def view(request):
    ...
    form = UberClientForm(company)
    ...

#or even extend the existing custom init
class PITAClient(ClientForm):
    def __init__(company, *args, **args):
        super (PITAClient,self ).__init__(company,*args,**kwargs)
        self.fields['support_staff'].queryset = User.objects.exclude(user='michael')

Other than that I'm just restating Django blog material of which there are many good ones out there.

To do this with a generic view, like CreateView...

class AddPhotoToProject(CreateView):
    """
    a view where a user can associate a photo with a project
    """
    model = Connection
    form_class = CreateConnectionForm


    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        context = super(AddPhotoToProject, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
        context['photo'] = self.kwargs['pk']
        context['form'].fields['project'].queryset = Project.objects.for_user(self.request.user)
        return context
    def form_valid(self, form):
        pobj = Photo.objects.get(pk=self.kwargs['pk'])
        obj = form.save(commit=False)
        obj.photo = pobj
        obj.save()

        return_json = {'success': True}

        if self.request.is_ajax():

            final_response = json.dumps(return_json)
            return HttpResponse(final_response)

        else:

            messages.success(self.request, 'photo was added to project!')
            return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('MyPhotos'))

the most important part of that...

    context['form'].fields['project'].queryset = Project.objects.for_user(self.request.user)

, read my post here

A good way to limit the choices for a ForeignKey field of a ModelForm at run time (e.g. in a CreateView), is to set limit_choices_to for base_fields['field_name'] by overriding get_form_class() in the view.

For example when creating a Client, to limit the choices of Rate to those for the Company identified in the URL:

class ClientCreateView(LoginRequired, CreateView):
    model = Client
    fields = '__all__'
    
    def get_form_class(self):
        modelform = super().get_form_class()
        modelform.base_fields['rate'].limit_choices_to = {'company': self.kwargs['company']}
        return modelform

According to the Django documentation, you can apply filters to your default queryset using the __init__ method of the model form.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/contrib/admin/#django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.formfield_for_foreignkey

class CountryAdminForm(forms.ModelForm):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.fields['capital'].queryset = self.instance.cities.all()

class CountryAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    form = CountryAdminForm