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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 do you access items from an SQLAlchemy many-to-many relationship using Python?

My many-to-many model looks like this, with an association table:
class Puppy(Base):
__tablename__ = "puppy"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
name = Column(String(80))
class Adopter(Base):
__tablename__ = "adopter"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
name = Column(String)
puppies = relationship('Puppy', secondary='puppy_adopters', backref="puppy")
puppy_adopters = Table('puppy_adopters', Base.metadata,
Column('puppy_id', Integer, ForeignKey('puppy.id')),
Column('adopter_id', Integer, ForeignKey('adopter.id')))
If I have created an Adopter named Bill, I can easily add and retrieve his puppies with Python:
bill.puppies.append(fido)
bill.puppies.append(rex)
for puppy in bill.puppies:
print puppy.name # Fido, Rex
The puppy_adopters association table is populated with Bill's id and Fido's id when I do this. But how do I see that Bill is related to Fido, using Python? I get a Python object for Fido using fido = session.query(Puppy).filter_by(name="Fido"), but there is no fido.adopters list that contains Bill. How can I see all the people that have adopted Fido?
I tried this line in the puppy table:
adopter_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('adopter.id'))
but it did not get populated when I added an adopter, and it couldn't hold multiple adopters anyway.

The SQLAlchemy docs provide what you need under their Many to Many section. What you are looking for is back_populates.
class Puppy(Base):
__tablename__ = "puppy"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
name = Column(String(80))
adopters = relationship('Adopter',
secondary="puppy_adopters",
back_populates="puppies")
class Adopter(Base):
__tablename__ = "adopter"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
name = Column(String)
puppies = relationship('Puppy',
secondary="puppy_adopters",
back_populates="adopters")
puppy_adopters = Table('puppy_adopters', Base.metadata,
Column('puppy_id', Integer, ForeignKey('puppy.id')),
Column('adopter_id', Integer, ForeignKey('adopter.id')))
Rex = Puppy(name='Rex')
Fido = Puppy(name='Fido')
Bob = Adopter(name='Bob')
Steve = Adopter(name='Steve')
Steve.puppies.append(Fido)
Bob.puppies.append(Fido)
Bob.puppies.append(Rex)
print [adopter.name for adopter in Fido.adopters] # ['Steve', 'Bob']
print [puppy.name for puppy in Bob.puppies] # ['Fido', 'Rex']

SQLAlchemy column_property basics

I have two models:
class Report(Base):
__tablename__ = 'report'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
class ReportPhoto(Base):
__tablename__ = 'report_photo'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
report_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey(Report.id), nullable=False)
report = relationship(Report, uselist=False, backref=backref('report_photo', uselist=True))
And I would like to add column to Report model which indicates is there any records within ReportPhoto. I try to use column_property this way:
class Report(Base):
__tablename__ = 'report'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
has_photo = column_property(
select(ReportPhoto.any())
)
but get an error NameError: name 'ReportPhoto' is not defined. How I can fix this issue?

something like that should work:
class ReportPhoto(Base):
__tablename__ = 'report_photo'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
report_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('report.id'), nullable=False)
class Report(Base):
__tablename__ = 'report'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
report_photos = relationship(ReportPhoto, backref='report')
has_photo = column_property(
exists().where(ReportPhoto.report_id==id)
)

I will add to #Vladimir lliev's response with some clarification for anyone else that might not see how to do this.
Place the table that will have the 'foreign table referencing' column_property after that which it references. In this case, it means placing Report after ReportPhoto. This will solve your NameError, however, you would be left with a new error on your ReportPhoto foreign key reference. To solve this, place your foreign key table reference in quotes. You can read more by referencing the declarative documentation (e.g., declarative.py) and looking under "Configuring Relationships" --- specifically, read the portion on quoting your foreign references.
With your code, this would look like:
class ReportPhoto(Base):
# This now goes first
__tablename__ = 'report_photo'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
# Notice the quotations around Report references here
report_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey("Report.id"), nullable=False)
# Notice the quotations around Report references here
report = relationship("Report",
uselist=False,
backref=backref("report_photo", uselist=True))
class Report(Base):
# This is now _after_ ReportPhoto
__tablename__ = 'report'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
# ReportPhoto now exists and we will not trip a NameError exception
has_photo = column_property(
select(ReportPhoto.any())
)

Sqlalchemy many to many mapping with extra fields

I created a many to many relationship with sqlalchemy like this:
subject_books = Table('subject_books', Base.metadata,
Column('subject_id', Integer, ForeignKey('subjects.id')),
Column('book_id', Integer, ForeignKey('books.id')),
Column('group', Integer)
)
class Subject(Base):
__tablename__ = 'subjects'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
value = Column(Unicode(255), unique=True)
class Book(Base):
__tablename__ = 'books'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
title = Column(Unicode(255))
isbn = Column(Unicode(24))
subjects = relationship('Subject', secondary=subject_books, collection_class=attribute_mapped_collection('group'), backref='books')
after that I created a test like following:
book = Book(title='first book',isbn='test')
book.subjects[0] = Subject(value='first subject')
book.subjects[1] = Subject(value='second subject')
session.add(book)
transaction.commit()
and it works fine. But what I really want is to store more than one subject with the same group value, so I tried the following test:
book = Book(title='first book',isbn='test')
book.subjects[0] = [Subject(value='first subject'),Subject(value='second subject')]
book.subjects[1] = [Subject(value='third subject'),Subject(value='forth subject')]
session.add(book)
transaction.commit()
but it does not work.
Can this be done using sqlalchemy?
Thanks in Advance

Razi
I think you are constructing wrong relation ship.
Your relation ship must be
book M2M subject
subject M2M group
So you have to create one more model for group and that must be assign as m2m in Subject
Your models will be like.
subject_books = Table('subject_books', Base.metadata,
Column('subject_id', Integer, ForeignKey('subjects.id')),
Column('book_id', Integer, ForeignKey('books.id')),
)
subject_group = Table('subject_groups', Base.metadata,
Column('group_id', Integer, ForeignKey('groups.id')),
Column('subject_id', Integer, ForeignKey('subjects.id')),
)
class Subject(Base):
__tablename__ = 'subjects'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
value = Column(Unicode(255), unique=True)
groups = relationship('Groups', secondary=subject_groups, backref='subjects')
class Groups(Base):
__tablename__ = 'groups'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(Unicode(255), unique=True)
class Book(Base):
__tablename__ = 'books'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
title = Column(Unicode(255))
isbn = Column(Unicode(24))
subjects = relationship('Subject', secondary=subject_books, backref='books')
I also check the docs for attribute_mapped_collection. But each time I found that each key is associated with only one object not more then one. If you read anywhere then please provide the link so I can check that how it will be fit in your code.
I think this will be help you.

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')