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SQLAlchemy in Flask - How to auto update the same column in another table

I am trying to make sure that given two tables with many to many relationship, they are not only linked by the id but by another column too: the "name" column in user is referring to the "author" column in the post table.
I attempted various solutions including:
user_post = db.Table('user_post',
db.Column('user_id', db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('user.id'), primary_key=True),
db.Column('post_id', db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('post.id'), primary_key=True),
)
class User(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'user'
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
name = db.Column(db.String(95), nullable=False)
email = db.Column(db.String(180), unique=True , nullable=False)
posts = db.relationship('Post', secondary=user_post, backref='user')
posts1 = db.relationship('Post', backref='post1', lazy='dynamic',
primaryjoin="user.name == post.author")
def __repr__(self):
return f"User: {self.name}, {self.email}"
class Post(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'post'
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
author = db.Column('author', db.String(95), db.ForeignKey('user.name'))
# author = db.Column('author', db.String(95))
title = db.Column(db.String(300))
content = db.Column(db.Text(700))
date_posted = db.Column(db.DateTime, default=datetime.utcnow)
slug = db.Column(db.String(200))
users = db.relationship('User', secondary=user_post, backref='post')
def __repr__(self):
return f"Title: {self.title}"
to test that if I change the name of a user, the author's name should change as well, I wrote as below:
user3.name = "Someone New"
db.session.commit()
print(post3.author)
and this is when I got the error:
SQLAlchemy in Flask - AttributeError: 'Table' object has no attribute 'author'
I tried to use the code by ensuring that the author is updated in different ways but I wanted the author to be updated automatically through ORM.
I checked the documentation and it is mentioned that there are exceptions to the referenced columns almost always define the primary key, but among the cases I have seen, it was always referencing primary keys.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Try this:
author = db.Column(db.String(95), db.ForeignKey(User.name))

Flask / SQLAlchemy - Request tables with many-to-many relationships

I used Flask and SQLAlchemy to create an application based on a database. Here is the classes that I have defined:
models.py
class HasTag(db.Model):
tagged_document_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Document.id'), primary_key=True)
document_tag_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Tag.id'), primary_key=True)
class Document(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, unique=True, nullable=False, primary_key=True, autoincrement=True)
title = db.Column(db.Text)
tag = db.relationship("Tag",
secondary=HasTag,
back_populates="tagged_document",
lazy="dynamic")
class Tag(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, unique=True, nullable=False, primary_key=True, autoincrement=True)
label = db.Column(db.String, nullable=False)
tagged_document = db.relationship("Document",
secondary=HasTag,
back_populates="tag",
lazy="dynamic")
In the application, I have an advanced search form where it is possible to do a full text search through the different fields of the Document table.
routes.py
#app.route("/search")
def search():
keyword = request.args.get("keyword", None)
query = Document.query
if keyword:
query = Document.query.filter(or_(
Document.title.like("%{}%".format(keyword)),
...
))
The thing is, I'd like to be able to search the keyword given by the user also in the label of the tag. I tried something like:
if keyword:
query = Document.query.join(Tag).filter(or_(
Document.title.like("%{}%".format(keyword)),
...,
Tag.label.like("%{}%".format(keyword))
))
But I get this error: AttributeError: 'HasTag' object has no attribute 'foreign_keys'
Can you help me? Thanks!

I have a similar structure in one of my projects, and this is how I define relatioship:
leagues = db.relationship("League",
secondary=LeagueTeamAssociation.__tablename__,
back_populates="teams")
So, You need to provide table name to secondary parameter, either using above syntax (You'll need to add __tablename__ to your HasTag class) or using string "has_tag" (provided that this is the name of the table in the database).

How to properly define SQLAlchemy backrefs so that they can be reflected?

Let's assume we have the following code in some Models.py file:
class Person(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'Persons'
ID = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
Name = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
class House(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'Houses'
ID = db.Column(db.Integer,primary_key=True,nullable=False)
OwnerID = db.Column(db.Integer, nullable=False)
TenantID = db.Column(db.Integer, nullable=False)
__table_args__ = (
db.ForeignKeyConstraint(
['OwnerID'],
['Persons.ID'],
),
db.ForeignKeyConstraint(
['TenantID'],
['Persons.ID'],
),
)
OwnerBackref = db.relationship('Person', backref='OwnerBackref', lazy=True, foreign_keys=[OwnerID])
TenantBackref = db.relationship('Person', backref='TenantBackref', lazy=True, foreign_keys=[TenantID])
And we want to reflect these models using the automap base, so we have this code in another module called Database.py:
Base = automap_base()
engine = create_engine(DB_CONNECTION, pool_size=10, max_overflow=20)
db_session = scoped_session(sessionmaker(autocommit=False, autoflush=False, bind=engine))
Base.prepare(engine, reflect=True)
Person = Base.classes.Persons
House = Base.classes.Houses
Now, when I import House in some other module I want to be able to do this:
h = db_session.query(House).first()
print(h.OwnerBackref.Name)
print(h.TenantBackref.Name)
But instead I get an error saying that those 2 backrefs do not exist and instead a field called 'persons' gets added to my House object but the problem here is that it links only 1 (either the Tenant either the Owner). By this I mean that if I do this:
print(h.persons.Name)
It will only print the Name either for the respective Tenant either for the Owner leaving me with no way of accessing the informations for the other one. (Note here that the names that I set to the backrefs are nowhere to be found)
So, my question is how can I use the backrefs I created to access my desired informations ? Am I doing something wrong here ?

The error in your code is that you are using foreign_keys= to define the relationship between the tables but you are passing the local key name not the foreign key name to the function. For your code you cannot use foreign_keys= to define the relationship within the House model as there is only one possible foreign key Person.ID but two possible local keys House.OwnerID and House.TenantID. The primaryjoin= argument should be used instead to specify this.
class Person(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'Persons'
ID = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
Name = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
class House(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'Houses'
ID = db.Column(db.Integer,primary_key=True)
OwnerID = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Persons.ID'), nullable=False)
TenantID = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Persons.ID'), nullable=False)
Owner = db.relationship('Person', backref='HousesOwned', primaryjoin='House.OwnerID == Person.ID')
Tenant = db.relationship('Person', backref='HousesOccupied', primaryjoin='House.TenantID == Person.ID')
If you placed the relationship statements in in the Person model rather than the House model then you could use either foreign_keys= or primaryjoin= to define the relationship. The following code will result in exactly the same relationships as in the previous code.
class Person(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'Persons'
ID = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
Name = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
HousesOwned = db.relationship('House', backref='Owner', foreign_keys='[House.OwnerID]')
HousesOccupied = db.relationship('House', backref='Tenant', foreign_keys='[House.TenantID]')
class House(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'Houses'
ID = db.Column(db.Integer,primary_key=True)
OwnerID = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Persons.ID'), nullable=False)
TenantID = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Persons.ID'), nullable=False)

How can I make property comparison able to be compiled to SQL expression in SQLAlchemy?

There are two tables that one column of table A is pointing another table B's primary key.
But they are placed in different database, so I cannot configure them with foreign key.
Configuring via relationship() is unavailable, so I implemented property attribute manually.
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'users'
id = Column(BigInteger, id_seq, primary=True)
name = Column(Unicode(256))
class Article(Base):
__tablename__ = 'articles'
__bind_key__ = 'another_engine'
# I am using custom session configures bind
# each mappers to multiple database engines via this attribute.
id = Column(BigInteger, id_seq, primary=True)
author_id = Column(BigInteger, nullable=False, index=True)
body = Column(UnicodeText, nullable=False)
#property
def author(self):
_session = object_session(self)
return _session.query(User).get(self.author_id)
#author.setter
def author(self, user):
if not isinstance(user, User):
raise TypeError('user must be a instance of User')
self.author_id = user.id
This code works well for simple operations. But it causes dirty queries making SQLAlchemy's features meaningless.
Code would be simple if it was configured via relationship() (e.g. query.filter(author=me)) got messed up(e.g. query.filter(author_id=me.id)).
Relationship(e.g. join) related features are never able to be used in query building.
Can I use property attribute, at least, in building query criterion(filter()/filter_by())?

you can still use relationship here. If you stick to "lazy loading", it will query for the related item in database B after loading the lead item in database A. You can place a ForeignKey() directive in the Column, even if there isn't a real one in the database. Or you can use primaryjoin directly:
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'users'
id = Column(BigInteger, id_seq, primary=True)
name = Column(Unicode(256))
class Article(Base):
__tablename__ = 'articles'
__bind_key__ = 'another_engine'
id = Column(BigInteger, id_seq, primary=True)
author_id = Column(BigInteger, nullable=False, index=True)
body = Column(UnicodeText, nullable=False)
author = relationship("User",
primaryjoin="foreign(Article.author_id) == User.id")

How to build many-to-many relations using SQLAlchemy: a good example

I have read the SQLAlchemy documentation and tutorial about building many-to-many relation but I could not figure out how to do it properly when the association table contains more than the 2 foreign keys.
I have a table of items and every item has many details. Details can be the same on many items, so there is a many-to-many relation between items and details
I have the following:
class Item(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Item'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String(255))
description = Column(Text)
class Detail(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Detail'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
value = Column(String)
My association table is (It's defined before the other 2 in the code):
class ItemDetail(Base):
__tablename__ = 'ItemDetail'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
itemId = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Item.id'))
detailId = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Detail.id'))
endDate = Column(Date)
In the documentation, it's said that I need to use the "association object". I could not figure out how to use it properly, since it's mixed declarative with mapper forms and the examples seem not to be complete. I added the line:
details = relation(ItemDetail)
as a member of Item class and the line:
itemDetail = relation('Detail')
as a member of the association table, as described in the documentation.
when I do item = session.query(Item).first(), the item.details is not a list of Detail objects, but a list of ItemDetail objects.
How can I get details properly in Item objects, i.e., item.details should be a list of Detail objects?

From the comments I see you've found the answer. But the SQLAlchemy documentation is quite overwhelming for a 'new user' and I was struggling with the same question. So for future reference:
ItemDetail = Table('ItemDetail',
Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True),
Column('itemId', Integer, ForeignKey('Item.id')),
Column('detailId', Integer, ForeignKey('Detail.id')),
Column('endDate', Date))
class Item(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Item'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String(255))
description = Column(Text)
details = relationship('Detail', secondary=ItemDetail, backref='Item')
class Detail(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Detail'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
value = Column(String)
items = relationship('Item', secondary=ItemDetail, backref='Detail')

Like Miguel, I'm also using a Declarative approach for my junction table. However, I kept running into errors like
sqlalchemy.exc.ArgumentError: secondary argument <class 'main.ProjectUser'> passed to to relationship() User.projects must be a Table object or other FROM clause; can't send a mapped class directly as rows in 'secondary' are persisted independently of a class that is mapped to that same table.
With some fiddling, I was able to come up with the following. (Note my classes are different than OP's but the concept is the same.)
Example
Here's a full working example
from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Column, Integer, String, ForeignKey
from sqlalchemy.orm import declarative_base, relationship, Session
# Make the engine
engine = create_engine("sqlite+pysqlite:///:memory:", future=True, echo=False)
# Make the DeclarativeMeta
Base = declarative_base()
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = "users"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
projects = relationship('Project', secondary='project_users', back_populates='users')
class Project(Base):
__tablename__ = "projects"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
users = relationship('User', secondary='project_users', back_populates='projects')
class ProjectUser(Base):
__tablename__ = "project_users"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
notes = Column(String, nullable=True)
user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('users.id'))
project_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('projects.id'))
# Create the tables in the database
Base.metadata.create_all(engine)
# Test it
with Session(bind=engine) as session:
# add users
usr1 = User(name="bob")
session.add(usr1)
usr2 = User(name="alice")
session.add(usr2)
session.commit()
# add projects
prj1 = Project(name="Project 1")
session.add(prj1)
prj2 = Project(name="Project 2")
session.add(prj2)
session.commit()
# map users to projects
prj1.users = [usr1, usr2]
prj2.users = [usr2]
session.commit()
with Session(bind=engine) as session:
print(session.query(User).where(User.id == 1).one().projects)
print(session.query(Project).where(Project.id == 1).one().users)
Notes
reference the table name in the secondary argument like secondary='project_users' as opposed to secondary=ProjectUser
use back_populates instead of backref
I made a detailed writeup about this here.

Previous Answer worked for me, but I used a Class base approach for the table ItemDetail. This is the Sample code:
class ItemDetail(Base):
__tablename__ = 'ItemDetail'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
itemId = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Item.id'))
detailId = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Detail.id'))
endDate = Column(Date)
class Item(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Item'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String(255))
description = Column(Text)
details = relationship('Detail', secondary=ItemDetail.__table__, backref='Item')
class Detail(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Detail'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
value = Column(String)
items = relationship('Item', secondary=ItemDetail.__table__, backref='Detail')