django: valueerror on optional field

Question

This is my first django project, I'm not sure why I'm getting an error 'The 'image2' attribute has no file associated with it.' when those fields are optional. How can I fix this?

model

class LinksContent(models.Model):
    author = models.ForeignKey(Author, on_delete=models.DO_NOTHING, default= True)
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    somecontent = HTMLField(blank = True)
    image = models.ImageField(upload_to = 'images/%Y/%m/%d/')
    image2 = models.ImageField(upload_to = 'images/%Y/%m/%d/', blank = True)
    image3 = models.ImageField(upload_to = 'images/%Y/%m/%d/', blank = True)
    image4 = models.ImageField(upload_to = 'images/%Y/%m/%d/', blank = True)
    links = (
    ('faculties', 'faculties'),
    ('admission', 'admission'),
    ('resources', 'resources'),
    ('staff', 'staff'),
    ('research', 'research'),
    )
    file1 = models.FileField(upload_to = 'files/%Y/%m/%d/', blank = True)
    section = models.CharField(max_length=13, choices=links)
    is_published = models.BooleanField(default = True)
    publish_date = models.DateTimeField(default = datetime.now, blank = True)

html>

{% if content %}
    {% for item in content %}
        <div class="theHeader">
            <img class = 'header-img' src = "{{ item.image.url }}">
            <div class = 'author-info'>
                <img class = 'admin-img' src = "{{ item.author.image.url}}">
                <p>&nbsp;{{ item.author}} &nbsp;</p>
                <p>&nbsp;{{ item.publish_date | naturaltime}}</p>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div id="content">
            <h1>{{ item.title }}</h1>
            <p>{{ item.somecontent | safe }}</p>
            <div class = 'data'>
                <img class = 'images' src = "{{ item.image2.url }}">
                <img class = 'images' src = "{{ item.image3.url }}">
                <img class = 'images' src = "{{ item.image4.url }}">
            </div>
            <div class = 'data'>
                <p><a class = 'link' href = "{{ link.file1.url }}">Download Link</a></p>
            </div>
        </div>
    {% endfor %}
{% else %}
    <div>
        <p>No data available</p>
    </div>
{% endif %}

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65861508/django-valueerror-on-optional-field

Answer 1

blank=True means that your fields are optional during the the Form submission, if you want the field to optional in your Model during its creation you need to add null=True to the field in your Model like this:

image2 = models.ImageField(upload_to='images/%y/%m/%d/', null=True, blank=True)