Remove technical terms from InlineForeignKeyField/ModelMultipleChoiceField error messages

[Jon Dufresne]

Some error messages in django.forms.models use technical jargon that is often very confusing to normal web users. For example, the words "foreign key" and "primary key". I think the error messages should target a general web audience instead of developers.

Scenario: A ModelForm is used to submit GET requests. A user copies a URL with a query string and passes it to a friend. Upon entering the URL, a typo is introduced. This typo results in an error that could read:

"123a" is not a valid value for a primary key.

Most web users have no idea what a primary key is and therefore will be confused by what steps to take to fix the error. I think Django should avoid technical database terms in user facing error messages.

I'm proposing the following changes, but I'm very open to alternative phrasing that would give a more useful error message in more situations:

"%(pk)s" is not a valid value for a primary key.

Becomes

"%(pk)s" is not a valid value.

And

The inline foreign key did not match the parent instance primary key.

Becomes

The inline value did not match the parent instance.

[Jon Dufresne]

​PR

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In 7edeeb74:

Fixed #27957 -- Removed technical terms from InlineForeignKeyField/ModelMultipleChoiceField error messages.