Class Based Form View

class LadderAddView(CreateView):

    def form_valid(self, form):
        instance = form.save(commit=False)
        instance.author = self.request.user
        response = super(LadderAddView, self).form_valid(form)
        EditHistoryModel(
            date_created=datetime.datetime.now(),
            author=self.request.user,
            ladder=self.object,
        ).save()
        return response

class LadderEditView(SchoolMarksMixin, UpdateView):

    def form_valid(self, form):
        response = super(LadderEditView, self).form_valid(form)
        try:
            history = EditHistory.objects.get(
                author=self.request.user, ladder=self.object
            )
        except EditHistory.DoesNotExist:
            history = LadderEditHistory()
        history.date_created = datetime.datetime.now()
        history.author = self.request.user
        history.ladder = self.object
        history.save()
        return response

Old

From A better pattern for Django form logic

from django.views.generic import FormView

from myapp.forms import MyForm

class MyView(FormView):

    template_name = 'edit_something.html'
    form_class = MyForm
    success_url = '/success/' # you should use `reverse`, but let's stay focused.

    def form_valid(self, form):
        """
        This is what's called when the form is valid.
        """
        return HttpResponseRedirect(self.get_success_url())

    def form_invalid(self, form):
        """
        This is what's called when the form is invalid.
        """
        return self.render_to_response(self.get_context_data(form=form))