django.forms FileField does not allow empty files.

[James Henstridge]

The FileField.clean() method raises ValidationError if the uploaded file is empty.

While this is useful in many cases, there are times when it is useful to allow empty files. Since the check is mixed in with the other validation checks, it isn't very easy to disable the check in a subclass without reimplementing the entire clean() method.

It would be nice if FileField could be directly configured to disable the empty check.

[Sasha Romijn]

I've been asked offline why I called the parameter allow_empty_file.

The consideration for this is to have a clear distinction between "must you upload a file, for the form validation to succeed" and "must the file be greater than 0 bytes". By calling it "blank", as suggested, for me this would feel like the former, where allow_empty file clearly refers to the latter.

[James Henstridge]

The attached patch looks like it would suit my needs. The documentation change looks slightly wrong: it says that FileField has a single optional argument (allow_empty_file). But looking at the code, there is a second optional argument (max_length).

[Flaviu Simihaian]

I updated the patch, test, and docs for 1.3.

[Chris Beaven]

In [16090]:

Fixed #13584 -- Optionally allow empty files with django.forms.FileField. Thanks for the patch erickr and closedbracket.

[Jacob]

Milestone 1.3 deleted