Django Behaviors

Common behaviors for Django Models, e.g. Timestamps, Publishing, Authoring/Editing and more.

Inspired by Kevin Stone's Django Model Behaviors.

Documentation

Quickstart

Install Django Behaviors:

pip install django-behaviors
# Or, if you are going to use the Slugged behaviour
pip install django-behaviors[slugged]

Add it to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'behaviors.apps.BehaviorsConfig',
    ...
)

Features

behaviors makes it easy to integrate common behaviors into your django models:

Documented, tested, and easy to use
Timestamped to add created and modified attributes to your models
StoreDeleted to add deleted attribute to your models, avoiding the record to be deleted and allow to restore it
Authored to add an author to your models
Editored to add an editor to your models
Published to add a publication_status (draft or published) to your models
Released to add a release_date to your models
Slugged to add a slug to your models (thanks @apirobot) (ensure you have awesome-slugify installed, see above)
Easily compose together multiple behaviors to get desired functionality (e.g. Authored and Editored)
Custom QuerySet methods added as managers to your models to utilize the added fields
Easily compose together multiple queryset or manager to get desired functionality

Behaviors
- Timestamped
- StoreDeleted
- Authored
- Editored
- Published
- Released
- Slugged
Mixing in with Custom Managers
Mixing Multiple Behaviors

Behaviors

Timestamped Behavior

The model adds a created and modified field to your model.

class Timestamped(models.Model):
    """
    An abstract behavior representing timestamping a model with``created`` and
    ``modified`` fields.
    """
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True, db_index=True)
    modified = models.DateTimeField(null=True, blank=True, db_index=True)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

    @property
    def changed(self):
        return True if self.modified else False

    def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if self.pk:
            self.modified = timezone.now()
        return super(Timestamped, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

created is set on the next save and is set to the current UTC time. modified is set when the object already exists and is set to the current UTC time.

MyModel.changed returns a boolean representing if the object has been updated after created (the modified field has been set).

Here is an example of using the model, note you do not need to add models.Model because Timestamped already inherits it.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Authored, Editored, Timestamped, Published


class MyModel(Timestamped):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)


>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(name='dj')
>>> m.created
'2017-02-14 17:20:19.835517+00:00'
>>> m.modified
None
>>> m.changed
False
>>> m.save()
>>> m.modified
'2017-02-14 17:20:46.836395+00:00'
>>> m.changed
True

StoreDeleted Behavior

The model add a deleted field to your model and prevent record to be deleted and allow to restore it

class StoreDeleted(models.Model):
    """
    An abstract behavior representing store deleted a model with``deleted`` field,
    avoiding the model object to be deleted and allowing you to restore it.
    """
    deleted = models.DateTimeField(null=True, blank=True)

    objects = StoreDeletedQuerySet.as_manager()

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

    @property
    def is_deleted(self):
        return self.deleted != None

    def delete(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if not self.pk:
            raise ObjectDoesNotExist('Object must be created before it can be deleted')
        self.deleted = timezone.now()
        return super(StoreDeleted, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

    def restore(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if not self.pk:
            raise ObjectDoesNotExist('Object must be created before it can be restored')
        self.deleted = None
        return super(StoreDeleted, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

deleted is set when delete() method is called, with current UTC time.

Here is an example of using the model, note you do not need to add models.Model because StoreDeleted already inherits it.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import StoreDeleted


class GreatModel(StoreDeleted):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

# Deleting model
>>> gm = GreatModel.objects.create(name='Xtra')
>>> gm.deleted
None
>>> gm.delete()
>>> gm.deleted
'2018-05-14 08:35:41.197661+00:00'

# Restoring model
>>> gm = GreatModel.objects.deleted(name='Xtra')
>>> gm.deleted
'2018-05-14 08:35:41.197661+00:00'
>>> gm.restore()
>>> gm.deleted
None

Authored Behavior

The authored model adds an author attribute that is a foreign key to the settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL and adds manager methods through objects and authors.

class Authored(models.Model):
    """
    An abstract behavior representing adding an author to a model based on the
    AUTH_USER_MODEL setting.
    """
    author = models.ForeignKey(
        settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,
        related_name="%(app_label)s_%(class)s_author")

    objects = AuthoredQuerySet.as_manager()
    authors = AuthoredQuerySet.as_manager()

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

Here is an example of using the behavior and its authored_by() manager method:

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Authored


class MyModel(Authored):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(author=User.objects.get(pk=2), name='tj')
>>> m.author
<User: ...>
>>> queryset = MyModel.objects.authored_by(User.objects.get(pk=2))
>>> queryset.count()
1

The author is a required field and must be provided on initial POST requests that create an object.

A custom models.ModelForm is provided to automatically add the author on object creation:

# forms.py
from behaviors.forms import AuthoredModelForm
from .models import MyModel


class MyModelForm(AuthoredModelForm):
    class Meta:
      model = MyModel
      fields = ['name']

# views.py
from django.views.generic.edit import CreateView
from .forms import MyModelForm
from .models import MyModel


class MyModelCreateView(CreateView):
    model = MyModel
    form = MyModelForm

    # add request to form kwargs
    def get_form_kwargs(self):
      kwargs = super(MyModelCreateView, self).get_form_kwargs()
      kwargs['request'] = self.request
      return kwargs

Now when the object is created the author will be added on the call to form.save().

If you are using functional views or another view type you simply need to make sure you pass the request object along with the form.

# views.py

class MyModelView(View):
  template_name = "myapp/mymodel_form.html"

  def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
      context = {
        'form': MyModelForm(),
      }
      return render(request, self.template_name, context=context)

  def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
      # pass in request object to the request keyword argument
      form = MyModelForm(self.request.POST, request=request)
      if form.is_valid():
          form.save()
          return reverse(..)
      context = {
        'form': form,
      }
      return render(request, self.template_name, context=context)

If for some reason you don't want to mixin the AuthoredModelForm with your existing form you can just add the user like so:

# ...
if form.is_valid()
    obj = form.save(commit=False)
    obj.author = request.user
    obj.save()
    return reverse(..)
# ...

But it isn't recommended, the AuthoredModelForm is tested and doesn't reassign the author on every save.

The related_name is set so that it will never create conflicts. Given the above example if you wanted to do a reverse foreign key lookup from the User model and MyModel was part of the blogs app it could be done like so:

>>> user = User.objects.get(pk=2)
>>> user.blogs_mymodel_author.all()
[<MyModel: ...>]

That would give a list of all MyModel objects that user has authored.

Authored QuerySet

The Authored behavior attaches a custom model manager to the default objects and to the authors variables on the model it is mixed into. If you haven't overrode the objects variable with a custom manager then you can use that, otherwise the authors variable is a fallback.

To get all MyModel instances authored by people whose name starts with 'Jo'

# case is insensitive so 'joe' or 'Joe' matches
>>> MyModel.objects.authored_by('Jo')
[<MyModel: ...>, <MyModel: ...>, ...]

# or use the authors manager variable
>>> MyModel.authors.authored_by('Jo')
[<MyModel: ...>, <MyModel: ...>, ...]

See Mixing in with Custom Managers for details on how to mix in this behavior with a custom manager you have that overrides the objects default manager.

Editored Behavior

The editored model adds an editor attribute that is a foreign key to the settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL and adds manager methods through objects and editors variables.

class Editored(models.Model):
"""
An abstract behavior representing adding an editor to a model based on the
AUTH_USER_MODEL setting.
"""
editor = models.ForeignKey(
    settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,
    related_name="%(app_label)s_%(class)s_editor",
    blank=True, null=True)

objects = EditoredQuerySet.as_manager()
editors = EditoredQuerySet.as_manager()

class Meta:
    abstract = True

The Editored model is similar to the Authored model except the foreign key is not required. Here is an example of its usage:

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Editored


class MyModel(Editored):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(name='pj')
>>> m.editor
None
>>> m.editor = User.objects.all()[0]
>>> m.save()
>>> queryset = MyModel.objects.edited_by(User.objects.all()[0])
>>> queryset.count()
1

By default the editor is blank and null, if a request object is supplied to the form it will assign a new editor and erase the previous editor (or the null editor).

Instead of using the AuthoredModelForm use the EditoredModelForm as a mixin to your form.

# forms.py
from behaviors.forms import EditoredModelForm
from .models import MyModel


class MyModelForm(EditoredModelForm):
    class Meta:
      model = MyModel
      fields = ['name']

# views.py
from django.views.generic.edit import CreateView, UpdateView
from .forms import MyModelForm
from .models import MyModel


MyModelRequestFormMixin(object):
    # add request to form kwargs
    def get_form_kwargs(self):
      kwargs = super(MyModelCreateView, self).get_form_kwargs()
      kwargs['request'] = self.request
      return kwargs


class MyModelCreateView(MyModelRequestFormMixin, CreateView):
    model = MyModel
    form = MyModelForm


class MyModelUpdateView(MyModelRequestFormMixin, UpdateView):
    model = MyModel
    form = MyModelForm

Now when the object is created or updated the editor will be updated on the call to form.save().

If you are using functional views or another view type you simply need to make sure you pass the request object along with the form.

# views.py

class MyModelView(View):
  template_name = "myapp/mymodel_form.html"

  def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
      context = {
        'form': MyModelForm(),
      }
      return render(request, self.template_name, context=context)

  def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
      # pass in request object to the request keyword argument
      form = MyModelForm(self.request.POST, request=request)
      if form.is_valid():
          form.save()
          return reverse(..)
      context = {
        'form': form,
      }
      return render(request, self.template_name, context=context)

If for some reason you don't want to mixin the EditoredModelForm with your existing form you can just add the user like so:

...
if form.is_valid()
    obj = form.save(commit=False)
    obj.editor = request.user
    obj.save()
    return reverse(..)
...

But it isn't recommended, the EditoredModelForm is tested and doesn't cause errors if request.user is invalid.

>>> user = User.objects.get(pk=2)
>>> user.blogs_mymodel_editor.all()
[<MyModel: ...>]

That would give a list of all MyModel objects that user is an editor.

Editored QuerySet

The Editored behavior attaches a custom model manager to the default objects and to the editors variables on the model it is mixed into. If you haven't overrode the objects variable with a custom manager then you can use that, otherwise the editors variable is a fallback.

To get all MyModel instances edited by people whose name starts with 'Jo'

# case is insensitive so 'joe' or 'Joe' matches
>>> MyModel.objects.edited_by('Jo')
[<MyModel: ...>, <MyModel: ...>, ...]

# or use the editors manager variable
>>> MyModel.editors.edited_by('Jo')
[<MyModel: ...>, <MyModel: ...>, ...]

See Mixing in with Custom Managers for details on how to mix in this behavior with a custom manager you have that overrides the objects default manager.

Published Behavior

The Published behavior adds a field publication_status to your model. The status has two states: 'Draft' or 'Published'.

class Published(models.Model):
    """
    An abstract behavior representing adding a publication status. A
    ``publication_status`` is set on the model with Draft or Published
    options.
    """
    DRAFT = 'd'
    PUBLISHED = 'p'

    PUBLICATION_STATUS_CHOICES = (
        (DRAFT, 'Draft'),
        (PUBLISHED, 'Published'),
    )

    publication_status = models.CharField(
        "Publication Status", max_length=1,
        choices=PUBLICATION_STATUS_CHOICES, default=DRAFT)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

    objects = PublishedQuerySet.as_manager()
    publications = PublishedQuerySet.as_manager()

    @property
    def draft(self):
        return self.publication_status == self.DRAFT

    @property
    def published(self):
        return self.publication_status == self.PUBLISHED

The class offers two properties draft and published to know object state. The DRAFT and PUBLISHED class constants will be available from the class the Published behavior is mixed into. There is also a custom manager attached to objects and publications variables to get published() or draft() querysets.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Published


class MyModel(Published):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(name='cj')
>>> m.publication_status
u'd'
>>> m.draft
True
>>> m.published
False
>>> m.get_publication_status_display()
u'Draft'
>>> MyModel.objects.published().count()
0
>>> MyModel.objects.draft().count()
1
>>> m.publication_status = MyModel.PUBLISHED
>>> m.save()
>>> m.publication_status
u'p'
>>> m.draft
False
>>> m.published
True
>>> m.get_publication_status_display()
u'Published'
>>> MyModel.objects.published().count()
1
>>> MyModel.PUBLISHED
u'p'
>>> MyModel.PUBLISHED == m.publication_status
True

The publication_status field defaults to Published.DRAFT when you make new models unless you supply the Published.PUBLISHED attribute to the publication_status field.

MyModel.objects.create(name='Jim-bob Cooter', publication_status=MyModel.PUBLISHED)

Published QuerySet

The Published behavior attaches to the default objects variable and the publications variable as a fallback if objects is overrode.

# returns all MyModel.PUBLISHED
MyModel.objects.published()
MyModel.publications.published()

# returns all MyModel.DRAFT
MyModel.objects.draft()
MyModel.publications.draft()

Released Behavior

The Released behavior adds a field release_date to your model. The field is not_required. The release date can be set with the release_on(datetime) method.

class Released(models.Model):
    """
    An abstract behavior representing a release_date for a model to
    indicate when it should be listed publically.
    """
    release_date = models.DateTimeField(null=True, blank=True)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

    objects = ReleasedQuerySet.as_manager()
    releases = ReleasedQuerySet.as_manager()

    def release_on(self, date=None):
        if not date:
            date = timezone.now()
        self.release_date = date
        self.save()

    @property
    def released(self):
        return self.release_date and self.release_date < timezone.now()

There is a released property added which determines if the object has been released. There is a custom manager attached to objects and releases variables to filter querysets on their release date.

Here is an example of using the behavior:

# models.py
from django.utils import timezone
from datetime import timedelta
from behaviors.behaviors import Released


class MyModel(Released):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(name='rj')
>>> m.release_date
None
>>> MyModel.objects.no_release_date().count()
1
>>> m.release_on()
>>> MyModel.objects.no_release_date().count()
0
>>> MyModel.objects.released().count()
1
>>> m.release_on(timezone.now() + timedelta(weeks=1))
>>> MyModel.objects.not_released().count()
1
>>> MyModel.objects.released().count()
0

The release_on method defaults to the current time so that the object is immediately released. You can also provide a date to the method to release on a certain date. release_on() just serves as a wrapper to setting and saving the date.

You can always provide a release_date on object creation:

MyModel.objects.create(name='Jim-bob Cooter', release_date=timezone.now())

Released QuerySet

The Released behavior attaches to the default objects variable and the releases variable as a fallback if objects is overrode.

# returns all not released MyModel objects
MyModel.objects.not_released()
MyModel.releases.not_released()

# returns all released MyModel objects
MyModel.objects.released()
MyModel.releases.released()

# returns all null release date MyModel objects
MyModel.objects.no_release_date()
MyModel.releases.no_release_date()

Slugged Behavior

The Slugged behavior allows you to easily add a slug field to your model. The slug is generated on the first model creation or the next model save and is based on the slug_source attribute.

The slug_source property has no set default, you must add it to your model for the behavior to work.

class Slugged(models.Model):
    """
    An abstract behavior representing adding a slug (by default, unique) to
    a model based on the slug_source property.
    """
    slug = models.SlugField(
        max_length=255,
        unique=BehaviorsConfig.are_slug_unique(),
        blank=True)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

    def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if not self.slug:
            self.slug = self.generate_unique_slug() \
                if BehaviorsConfig.are_slug_unique() else self.get_slug()
        super(Slugged, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

    def get_slug(self):
        return slugify(getattr(self, "slug_source"), to_lower=True)

    def is_unique_slug(self, slug):
        qs = self.__class__.objects.filter(slug=slug)
        return not qs.exists()

    def generate_unique_slug(self):
        slug = self.get_slug()
        new_slug = slug

        iteration = 1
        while not self.is_unique_slug(new_slug):
            new_slug = "%s-%d" % (slug, iteration)
            iteration += 1

        return new_slug

The slug uses the awesome-slugify package which will preserve unicode character slugs. By default, the slug must be unique and is guaranteed to be unique by the class appending a number -[0-9+] to the end of the slug if it is not unique. The unique field type adds an index to the slug field.

Add the slug_source property to your class when mixing in the behavior.

To allow non-unique slugs, add UNIQUE_SLUG_BEHAVIOR = False to your project's settings.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Slugged


class MyModel(Slugged):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    # slug_source is required for the slug to be set
    @property
    def slug_source(self):
      return "prepended-text-for-fun-{}".format(self.name)

    # you can now use the slug for your get_absolute_url() method
    def get_absolute_url(self):
      return reverse('myapp:mymodel_detail', args=[self.slug])

>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(name='aj')
>>> m.slug
'prepended-text-for-fun-aj'
>>> m2 = MyModel.objects.create(name='aj')
>>> m.slug
'prepended-text-for-fun-aj-1'
>>> m.get_absolute_url()
'/myapp/prepended-text-for-fun-aj/detail'

Your slug_source attribute can be a mix of any of the model data available at the time of save, generally it is some name type of field. You could also hash the primary key and/or some other data as a slug_source. By default, the slug is unique so it can be used to define the get_absolute_url() method on your model.

Thanks to @apirobot for sending the PR for the Slugged behavior.

Mixing in with Custom Managers

If you have a custom manager on your model already:

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Authored, Editored, Published, Timestamped

from django.db import models


class MyModelCustomManager(models.Manager):

    def get_queryset(self):
        return super(MyModelCustomManager).get_queryset(self)

    def custom_manager_method(self):
        return self.get_queryset().filter(name='Jim-bob')

class MyModel(Authored):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    # MyModel.objects.authored_by(..) won't work
    # MyModel.authors.authored_by(..) still will
    objects = MyModelCustomManager()

Simply add AuthoredManager from behaviors.managers as a mixin to MyModelCustomManager so they can share the objects variable.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Authored, Editored, Published, Timestamped
from behaviors.managers import AuthoredManager, EditoredManager, PublishedManager

from django.db import models


class MyModelCustomManager(AuthoredManager, models.Manager):

    def get_queryset(self):
        return super(MyModelCustomManager).get_queryset(self)

    def custom_manager_method(self):
        return self.get_queryset().filter(name='Jim-bob')

class MyModel(Authored):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    # MyModel.objects.authored_by(..) now works
    objects = MyModelCustomManager()

Similarly if you are using a custom QuerySet and calling its as_manager() method to attach it to objects you can import from behaviors.querysets and mix it in.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Authored, Editored, Published, Timestamped
from behaviors.querysets import AuthoredQuerySet, EditoredQuerySet, PublishedQuerySet

from django.db import models


class MyModelCustomQuerySet(AuthoredQuerySet, models.QuerySet):

    def custom_queryset_method(self):
        return self.filter(name='Jim-bob')

class MyModel(Authored):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    # MyModel.objects.authored_by(..) works
    objects = MyModelCustomQuerySet.as_manager()

Mixing in Multiple Behaviors

Many times you will want multiple behaviors on a model. You can simply mix in multiple behaviors and, if you'd like to have all their custom QuerySet methods work on objects, provide a custom manager with all the mixins.

# models.py
from behaviors.behaviors import Authored, Editored, Published, Timestamped
from behaviors.querysets import AuthoredQuerySet, EditoredQuerySet, PublishedQuerySet

from django.db import models


class MyModelQuerySet(AuthoredQuerySet, EditoredQuerySet, PublishedQuerySet):
    pass

class MyModel(Authored, Editored, Published, Timestamped):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    # MyModel.objects.authored_by(..) works
    # MyModel.objects.edited_by(..) works
    # MyModel.objects.published() works
    # MyModel.objects.draft() works
    objects = MyModelQuerySet.as_manager()

# you can also chain queryset methods
>>> u = User.objects.all()[0]
>>> u2 = User.objects.all()[1]
>>> m = MyModel.objects.create(author=u, editor=u2)
>>> MyModel.objects.published().authored_by(u).count()
1

Running Tests

Does the code actually work?

source <YOURVIRTUALENV>/bin/activate
(myenv) $ pip install tox
(myenv) $ tox

Credits

Tools used in rendering this package:

audiolion/django-behaviors

audiolion

Reviews

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