django-polymorphic/docs/quickstart.rst

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Quickstart
===========
Install the project using::
pip install django-polymorphic
Update the settings file:
.. code-block:: python
INSTALLED_APPS += (
'polymorphic',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
)
The current release of :pypi:`django-polymorphic` supports:
.. image:: https://badge.fury.io/py/django-polymorphic.svg
:target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-polymorphic/
:alt: PyPI version
.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/django-polymorphic.svg
:target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-polymorphic/
:alt: Supported Pythons
.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/djversions/django-polymorphic.svg
:target: https://pypi.org/project/django-polymorphic/
:alt: Supported Django
Making Your Models Polymorphic
------------------------------
Use :class:`~polymorphic.models.PolymorphicModel` instead of Django's
:class:`~django.db.models.Model`, like so:
.. code-block:: python
from polymorphic.models import PolymorphicModel
class Project(PolymorphicModel):
topic = models.CharField(max_length=30)
class ArtProject(Project):
artist = models.CharField(max_length=30)
class ResearchProject(Project):
supervisor = models.CharField(max_length=30)
All models inheriting from your polymorphic models will be polymorphic as well.
Using Polymorphic Models
------------------------
Create some objects:
.. code-block:: python
>>> Project.objects.create(topic="Department Party")
>>> ArtProject.objects.create(topic="Painting with Tim", artist="T. Turner")
>>> ResearchProject.objects.create(topic="Swallow Aerodynamics", supervisor="Dr. Winter")
Get polymorphic query results:
.. code-block:: python
>>> Project.objects.all()
[ <Project: id 1, topic "Department Party">,
<ArtProject: id 2, topic "Painting with Tim", artist "T. Turner">,
<ResearchProject: id 3, topic "Swallow Aerodynamics", supervisor "Dr. Winter"> ]
Use :meth:`~polymorphic.managers.PolymorphicQuerySet.instance_of` and
:meth:`~polymorphic.managers.PolymorphicQuerySet.not_instance_of` for narrowing the result to
specific subtypes:
.. code-block:: python
>>> Project.objects.instance_of(ArtProject)
[ <ArtProject: id 2, topic "Painting with Tim", artist "T. Turner"> ]
.. code-block:: python
>>> Project.objects.instance_of(ArtProject) | Project.objects.instance_of(ResearchProject)
[ <ArtProject: id 2, topic "Painting with Tim", artist "T. Turner">,
<ResearchProject: id 3, topic "Swallow Aerodynamics", supervisor "Dr. Winter"> ]
Polymorphic filtering: Get all projects where Mr. Turner is involved as an artist
or supervisor (note the three underscores):
.. code-block:: python
>>> Project.objects.filter(Q(ArtProject___artist='T. Turner') | Q(ResearchProject___supervisor='T. Turner'))
[ <ArtProject: id 2, topic "Painting with Tim", artist "T. Turner">,
<ResearchProject: id 4, topic "Color Use in Late Cubism", supervisor "T. Turner"> ]
This is basically all you need to know, as *django-polymorphic* mostly
works fully automatic and just delivers the expected results.
.. note::
When using the :django-admin:`dumpdata` management command on polymorphic tables
(or any table that has a reference to :class:`~django.contrib.contenttypes.models.ContentType`),
include the :option:`--natural-primary <dumpdata.--natural-primary>` and
:option:`--natural-foreign <dumpdata.--natural-foreign>` flag in the arguments. This makes sure
the :class:`~django.contrib.contenttypes.models.ContentType` models will be referenced by name
instead of their primary key as that changes between Django instances.
.. note::
While :pypi:`django-polymorphic` makes subclassed models easy to use in Django,
we still encourage to use them with caution. Each subclassed model will require
Django to perform an ``INNER JOIN`` to fetch the model fields from the database.
While taking this in mind, there are valid reasons for using subclassed models.
That's what this library is designed for!