django-model-utils Django model mixins and utilities ================== django-model-utils ================== Django model mixins and utilities. InheritanceCastModel ==================== This abstract base class can be inherited by the root (parent) model in a model-inheritance tree. It allows each model in the tree to "know" what type it is (via an automatically-set foreign key to ``ContentType``), allowing for automatic casting of a parent instance to its proper leaf (child) type. For instance, if you have a ``Place`` model with subclasses ``Restaurant`` and ``Bar``, you may want to query all Places:: nearby_places = Place.objects.filter(location='here') But when you iterate over ``nearby_places``, you'll get only ``Place`` instances back, even for objects that are "really" ``Restaurant`` or ``Bar``. If you have ``Place`` inherit from ``InheritanceCastModel``, you can just call the ``cast()`` method on each ``Place`` and it will return an instance of the proper subtype, ``Restaurant`` or ``Bar``:: from model_utils.models import InheritanceCastModel class Place(InheritanceCastModel): ... class Restaurant(Place): ... nearby_places = Place.objects.filter(location='here') for place in nearby_places: restaurant_or_bar = place.cast() ... .. note:: This is inefficient for large querysets, as it results in n queries to the subtype tables. It would be possible to write a QuerySet subclass that could reduce this to k queries, where there are k subtypes in the inheritance tree. TimeStampedModel ================ This abstract base class just provides self-updating ``created`` and ``modified`` fields on any model that inherits it. Carl Meyer 3fd5d9d18565e5729517f30b6c8f2a4506e2571d 0.2.0