How do I get multiple values from checkboxes in Django

I want to get values of a multiple select check box using request.POST['xzy'] as a list. Here is my model and template code.

My Model

class Recommend(models.Model):
  user=models.ForeignKey(User)
  book=models.ForeignKey(BookModel)
  friends=models.ManyToManyField(User, related_name="recommended")

My Template

{% for friend in friends %}

<input type="checkbox" name="recommendations" id="option{{friend.id}}" value={{friend.username}} />
<label for="option{{friend.id}}"><b>{{friend.username}}&l开发者_JS百科t;/b></label><br />

{% endfor %}

My View code

if request.method == 'POST': 
  recommendations=request.POST['recommendations']

Here I want 'recommendations' to be a list containing all friend ids but here it is just getting overwritten and only contains the value that got assigned in the last for loop iteration. How can I solve this problem. Need help desperately. Thank You.

request.POST.getlist('recommendations')

if not request.POST.has_key(strName):
      return ""    
  if request.POST[strName]:
      return ','.join(request.POST.getlist(strName))          
  else:
      return ""