I'd like to set up a ForeignKey field in a django model which points to another table some of the time. But I want it to be okay to insert an id into this field which refers to an entry in the other table which might not be there. So if the row exists in the other table, I'd like to get all the benefits of the ForeignKey relationship. But if not, I'd like this treated as just a number.
Is this possible? Is this what Generic relations are for?
This question was asked a long time ago, but for newcomers there is now a built in way to handle this by setting db_constraint=False on your ForeignKey:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/fields/#django.db.models.ForeignKey.db_constraint
customer = models.ForeignKey('Customer', db_constraint=False)
or if you want to to be nullable as well as not enforcing referential integrity:
customer = models.ForeignKey('Customer', null=True, blank=True, db_constraint=False)
We use this in cases where we cannot guarantee that the relations will get created in the right order.
EDIT: update link
I'm new to Django, so I don't now if it provides what you want out-of-the-box. I thought of something like this:
from django.db import models
class YourModel(models.Model):
my_fk = models.PositiveIntegerField()
def set_fk_obj(self, obj):
my_fk = obj.id
def get_fk_obj(self):
if my_fk == None:
return None
try:
obj = YourFkModel.objects.get(pk = self.my_fk)
return obj
except YourFkModel.DoesNotExist:
return None
I don't know if you use the contrib admin app. Using PositiveIntegerField instead of ForeignKey the field would be rendered with a text field on the admin site.
This is probably as simple as declaring a ForeignKey and creating the column without actually declaring it as a FOREIGN KEY. That way, you'll get o.obj_id, o.obj will work if the object exists, and--I think--raise an exception if you try to load an object that doesn't actually exist (probably DoesNotExist).
However, I don't think there's any way to make syncdb do this for you. I found syncdb to be limiting to the point of being useless, so I bypass it entirely and create the schema with my own code. You can use syncdb to create the database, then alter the table directly, eg. ALTER TABLE tablename DROP CONSTRAINT fk_constraint_name.
You also inherently lose ON DELETE CASCADE and all referential integrity checking, of course.
To do the solution by #Glenn Maynard via South, generate an empty South migration:
python manage.py schemamigration myapp name_of_migration --empty
Edit the migration file then run it:
def forwards(self, orm):
db.delete_foreign_key('table_name', 'field_name')
def backwards(self, orm):
sql = db.foreign_key_sql('table_name', 'field_name', 'foreign_table_name', 'foreign_field_name')
db.execute(sql)
Source article
(Note: It might help if you explain why you want this. There might be a better way to approach the underlying problem.)
Is this possible?
Not with ForeignKey alone, because you're overloading the column values with two different meanings, without a reliable way of distinguishing them. (For example, what would happen if a new entry in the target table is created with a primary key matching old entries in the referencing table? What would happen to these old referencing entries when the new target entry is deleted?)
The usual ad hoc solution to this problem is to define a "type" or "tag" column alongside the foreign key, to distinguish the different meanings (but see below).
Is this what Generic relations are for?
Yes, partly.
GenericForeignKey is just a Django convenience helper for the pattern above; it pairs a foreign key with a type tag that identifies which table/model it refers to (using the model's associated ContentType; see contenttypes)
Example:
class Foo(models.Model):
other_type = models.ForeignKey('contenttypes.ContentType', null=True)
other_id = models.PositiveIntegerField()
# Optional accessor, not a stored column
other = generic.GenericForeignKey('other_type', 'other_id')
This will allow you use other like a ForeignKey, to refer to instances of your other model. (In the background, GenericForeignKey gets and sets other_type and other_id for you.)
To represent a number that isn't a reference, you would set other_type to None, and just use other_id directly. In this case, trying to access other will always return None, instead of raising DoesNotExist (or returning an unintended object, due to id collision).
tablename= columnname.ForeignKey('table', null=True, blank=True, db_constraint=False)
use this in your program
Related
I have three models
class A(Model):
...
class B(Model):
id = IntegerField()
a = ForeignKey(A)
class C(Model):
id = IntegerField()
a = ForeignKey(A)
I want get the pairs of (B.id, C.id), for which B.a==C.a. How do I make that join using the django orm?
Django allows you to reverse the lookup in much the same way that you can use do a forward lookup using __:
It works backwards, too. To refer to a “reverse” relationship, just use the lowercase name of the model.
This example retrieves all Blog objects which have at least one Entry whose headline contains 'Lennon':
Blog.objects.filter(entry__headline__contains='Lennon')
I think you can do something like this, with #Daniel Roseman's caveat about the type of result set that you will get back.
ids = B.objects.prefetch_related('a', 'a__c').values_list('id', 'a__c__id')
The prefetch related will help with performance in older versions of django if memory serves.
How can I apply annotations and filters from a custom manager queryset when filtering via a related field? Here's some code to demonstrate what I mean.
Manager and models
from django.db.models import Value, BooleanField
class OtherModelManager(Manager):
def get_queryset(self):
return super(OtherModelManager, self).get_queryset().annotate(
some_flag=Value(True, output_field=BooleanField())
).filter(
disabled=False
)
class MyModel(Model):
other_model = ForeignKey(OtherModel)
class OtherModel(Model):
disabled = BooleanField()
objects = OtherModelManager()
Attempting to filter the related field using the manager
# This should only give me MyModel objects with related
# OtherModel objects that have the some_flag annotation
# set to True and disabled=False
my_model = MyModel.objects.filter(some_flag=True)
If you try the above code you will get the following error:
TypeError: Related Field got invalid lookup: some_flag
To further clarify, essentially the same question was reported as a bug with no response on how to actually achieve this: https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/26393.
I'm aware that this can be achieved by simply using the filter and annotation from the manager directly in the MyModel filter, however the point is to keep this DRY and ensure this behaviour is repeated everywhere this model is accessed (unless explicitly instructed not to).
How about running nested queries (or two queries, in case your backend is MySQL; performance).
The first to fetch the pk of the related OtherModel objects.
The second to filter the Model objects on the fetched pks.
other_model_pks = OtherModel.objects.filter(some_flag=...).values_list('pk', flat=True)
my_model = MyModel.objects.filter(other_model__in=other_model_pks)
# use (...__in=list(other_model_pks)) for MySQL to avoid a nested query.
I don't think what you want is possible.
1) I think you are miss-understanding what annotations do.
Generating aggregates for each item in a QuerySet
The second way to generate summary values is to generate an
independent summary for each object in a QuerySet. For example, if you
are retrieving a list of books, you may want to know how many authors
contributed to each book. Each Book has a many-to-many relationship
with the Author; we want to summarize this relationship for each book
in the QuerySet.
Per-object summaries can be generated using the annotate() clause.
When an annotate() clause is specified, each object in the QuerySet
will be annotated with the specified values.
The syntax for these annotations is identical to that used for the
aggregate() clause. Each argument to annotate() describes an aggregate
that is to be calculated.
So when you say:
MyModel.objects.annotate(other_model__some_flag=Value(True, output_field=BooleanField()))
You are not annotation some_flag over other_model.
i.e. you won't have: mymodel.other_model.some_flag
You are annotating other_model__some_flag over mymodel.
i.e. you will have: mymodel.other_model__some_flag
2) I'm not sure how familiar SQL is for you, but in order to preserve MyModel.objects.filter(other_model__some_flag=True) possible, i.e. to keep the annotation when doing JOINS, the ORM would have to do a JOIN over subquery, something like:
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT other_model.id, /* more fields,*/ 1 as some_flag
FROM other_model
) as sub on mymodel.other_model_id = sub.id
which would be super slow and I'm not surprised they are not doing it.
Possible solution
don't annotate your field, but add it as a regular field in your model.
The simplified answer is that models are authoritative on the field collection and Managers are authoritative on collections of models. In your efforts to make it DRY you made it WET, cause you alter the field collection in your manager.
In order to fix it, you would have to teach the model about the lookup and need to do that using the Lookup API.
Now I'm assuming that you're not actually annotating with a fixed value, so if that annotation is in fact reducible to fields, then you may just get it done, because in the end it needs to be mapped to database representation.
I am trying to make a wiki like page in Django.
I have two models Article and ArticleRevision.
If I want to retrieve the most current revision I think I need an OneToOneField in Article refering to ArticleRevision. But if I want to see the revision history of an article I also need a ForeignKey from ArticleRevision refering to Article.
This is probably the right approach but isn't it a bit overkill to have multiple foreign keys? I could do it with only a ForeignKey(to=Article) from ArticleRevision and getting the latest revision from Article with articlerevision_set.latest(). But if I am making a roll-back to an early revision it will cause troubles. Then I could use a BooleanField in ArticleRevision to tell if it's the most current revision.
Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I really want to do it the best and most efficient way.
You should take a look at django-revisions. It allows you to do just what you need, without reimplementing everything.
What about a new field in ArticleRevision like created, something like:
class ArticleRevision(models.Model):
# Your fields
created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True, verbose_name=_(u'Creation Date'))
auto_now_add=True <-- This means the field will be autogenerated when an object is created
then you can add a new method in your Article model like this:
class Article(models.Model):
# Your fields...
# I will assume you have a foreign key from ArticleReview to Article
def get_latest_revision(self):
if self.articlerevision_set.count() > 0: # If there is revision
last_revision = self.articlerevision_set.order_by('-created')[0]
return last_revision
else:
return None
Remember: To do this you need a ForeignKey from ArticleRevision to Article
I'm having issues understanding the way Django (v1.6.5) assigns the id to the different objects when saving. Taking the minimal example:
#models.py
class Book(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=10)
class Page(models.Model):
number = models.SmallIntegerField()
book = models.ForeignKey(Book)
The following view throws "IntegrityError,book_id may not be NULL" when saving my_page, however I would tend to say book_id does exist since save() has been called for the book at that stage.
#view.py
my_book = Book(title="My book")
#solution1 : having my_book.save() here
my_page = Page(number = 1, book = my_book)
my_book.save()
print("book id",my_page.book.id) #book.id does exist at that point!
#solution2: my_page.book = my_book
my_page.save() #throws the IntegrityError exception
There are some easy solutions to make the code above work but I would like to know what is wrong with the first approach. Am I missing something or is it a glitch/limitation in the way Django handles ForeignKeys?
You should save the book before setting my_page.book = book.
The behaviour you're experiencing is described by ticket 10811.
I see your point, but the current behavior seems more explicit. my_book is just a Python object, and all of its attributes (including id) can change. So it seems safer to assume that the user wants the value that exists at instantiation time.
For example, the Django idiom for copying a database row involves reusing the same object to represent more than one model instance. In your case that might look like:
my_book = Book(title="My book")
my_page = Page(number=1, book=my_book)
my_book.save()
my_book.id = None
my_book.save() # copy the book to a new row with a new id
my_page.save()
So which book should my_page point to? I think the developers are right to require you to be explicit here. The solution to the associated ticket will be even more direct in that you will get a ValueError when trying to instantiate my_page if my_book hasn't yet been saved.
If there is a foreign key in a model then you need to give the whole object in order to store a record in it. For instance if you want to save a number with book in Page model, so you need to give book foreign key a book object just because its not a normal field but its a foreign key to the book model.
It can be done like following
my_page = Page(title="my title", book=Book.objects.get(pk=id))
So coming to conclusion you cannot insert a record simply by giving strings to the foreign keys, you must give that object to which foreign key is pointing. Hope that helps
Howdy. I'm working on migrating an internal system to Django and have run into a few wrinkles.
Intro
Our current system (a billing system) tracks double-entry bookkeeping while allowing users to enter data as invoices, expenses, etc.
Base Objects
So I have two base objects/models:
JournalEntry
JournalEntryItems
defined as follows:
class JournalEntry(models.Model):
gjID = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
date = models.DateTimeField('entry date');
memo = models.CharField(max_length=100);
class JournalEntryItem(models.Model):
journalEntryID = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
gjID = models.ForeignKey(JournalEntry, db_column='gjID')
amount = models.DecimalField(max_digits=10,decimal_places=2)
So far, so good. It works quite smoothly on the admin side (inlines work, etc.)
On to the next section.
We then have two more models
InvoiceEntry
InvoiceEntryItem
An InvoiceEntry is a superset of / it inherits from JournalEntry, so I've been using a OneToOneField (which is what we're using in the background on our current site). That works quite smoothly too.
class InvoiceEntry(JournalEntry):
invoiceID = models.AutoField(primary_key=True, db_column='invoiceID', verbose_name='')
journalEntry = models.OneToOneField(JournalEntry, parent_link=True, db_column='gjID')
client = models.ForeignKey(Client, db_column='clientID')
datePaid = models.DateTimeField(null=True, db_column='datePaid', blank=True, verbose_name='date paid')
Where I run into problems is when trying to add an InvoiceEntryItem (which inherits from JournalEntryItem) to an inline related to InvoiceEntry. I'm getting the error:
<class 'billing.models.InvoiceEntryItem'> has more than 1 ForeignKey to <class 'billing.models.InvoiceEntry'>
The way I see it, InvoiceEntryItem has a ForeignKey directly to InvoiceEntry. And it also has an indirect ForeignKey to InvoiceEntry through the JournalEntry 1->M JournalEntryItems relationship.
Here's the code I'm using at the moment.
class InvoiceEntryItem(JournalEntryItem):
invoiceEntryID = models.AutoField(primary_key=True, db_column='invoiceEntryID', verbose_name='')
invoiceEntry = models.ForeignKey(InvoiceEntry, related_name='invoiceEntries', db_column='invoiceID')
journalEntryItem = models.OneToOneField(JournalEntryItem, db_column='journalEntryID')
I've tried removing the journalEntryItem OneToOneField. Doing that then removes my ability to retrieve the dollar amount for this particular InvoiceEntryItem (which is only stored in journalEntryItem).
I've also tried removing the invoiceEntry ForeignKey relationship. Doing that removes the relationship that allows me to see the InvoiceEntry 1->M InvoiceEntryItems in the admin inline. All I see are blank fields (instead of the actual data that is currently stored in the DB).
It seems like option 2 is closer to what I want to do. But my inexperience with Django seems to be limiting me. I might be able to filter the larger pool of journal entries to see just invoice entries. But it would be really handy to think of these solely as invoices (instead of a subset of journal entries).
Any thoughts on how to do what I'm after?
First, inheriting from a model creates an automatic OneToOneField in the inherited model towards the parents so you don't need to add them. Remove them if you really want to use this form of model inheritance.
If you only want to share the member of the model, you can use Meta inheritance which will create the inherited columns in the table of your inherited model. This way would separate your JournalEntry in 2 tables though but it would be easy to retrieve only the invoices.
All fields in the superclass also exist on the subclass, so having an explicit relation is unnecessary.
Model inheritance in Django is terrible. Don't use it. Python doesn't need it anyway.