django-batch-select 0.2.1

====================
Django Batch Select
====================

The idea of Django Batch Select is to provide an equivalent to Django's select_related_ functionality. As of such it's another handy tool for avoiding the "n+1 query problem".

select_related_ is handy for minimizing the number of queries that need to be made in certain situations. However it is only usual for pre-selecting ForeignKey_ relations.

batch_select is handy for pre-selecting ManyToManyField_ relations and reverse ForeignKey_ relations.

It works by performing a single extra SQL query after a QuerySet_ has been evaluated to stitch in the the extra fields asked for. This requires the addition of a custom Manager_, which in turn returns a custom QuerySet_ with extra methods attached.

Example Usage
=============

Assuming we have models defined as the following:

::

from batch_select.models import BatchManager

class Tag(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=32)

class Section(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=32)

objects = BatchManager()

class Entry(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
section = models.ForeignKey(Section, blank=True, null=True)
tags = models.ManyToManyField(Tag)

objects = BatchManager()

I'll also define a helper function to show the SQL queries generated:

::

from django import db

def show_queries():
for query in db.connection.queries:
print query["sql"]
db.reset_queries()

Here are a few example (with generated sql queries):

::

>>> Entry.objects.batch_select('tags').all()
[]
>>> show_queries() # no results, so no 2nd query
SELECT "batch_select_entry"."id", "batch_select_entry"."title", "batch_select_entry"."section_id" FROM "batch_select_entry"
>>> Entry.objects.create()
>>> Entry.objects.create()
>>> tag1 = Tag.objects.create(name='tag1')
>>> tag2 = Tag.objects.create(name='tag2')
>>> db.reset_queries()
>>> entries = Entry.objects.batch_select('tags').all()
>>> entry = entries[0]
>>> print entry.tags_all
[]
>>> show_queries()
SELECT "batch_select_entry"."id", "batch_select_entry"."title", "batch_select_entry"."section_id" FROM "batch_select_entry" LIMIT 1
SELECT (`batch_select_entry_tags`.`entry_id`) AS "entry_id", "batch_select_tag"."id", "batch_select_tag"."name" FROM "batch_select_tag" INNER JOIN "batch_select_entry_tags" ON ("batch_select_tag"."id" = "batch_select_entry_tags"."tag_id") WHERE "batch_select_entry_tags".entry_id IN (1)
>>> entry.tags.add(tag1)
>>> db.reset_queries()
>>> entries = Entry.objects.batch_select('tags').all()
>>> entry = entries[0]
>>> print entry.tags_all
[<Tag: Tag object>]
>>> show_queries()
SELECT "batch_select_entry"."id", "batch_select_entry"."title", "batch_select_entry"."section_id" FROM "batch_select_entry" LIMIT 1
SELECT (`batch_select_entry_tags`.`entry_id`) AS "entry_id", "batch_select_tag"."id", "batch_select_tag"."name" FROM "batch_select_tag" INNER JOIN "batch_select_entry_tags" ON ("batch_select_tag"."id" = "batch_select_entry_tags"."tag_id") WHERE "batch_select_entry_tags".entry_id IN (1)
>>> entries = Entry.objects.batch_select('tags').all()
>>> for entry in entries:
.... print entry.tags_all
....
[<Tag: Tag object>]
[]
>>> show_queries()
SELECT "batch_select_entry"."id", "batch_select_entry"."title", "batch_select_entry"."section_id" FROM "batch_select_entry"
SELECT (`batch_select_entry_tags`.`entry_id`) AS "entry_id", "batch_select_tag"."id", "batch_select_tag"."name" FROM "batch_select_tag" INNER JOIN "batch_select_entry_tags" ON ("batch_select_tag"."id" = "batch_select_entry_tags"."tag_id") WHERE "batch_select_entry_tags".entry_id IN (1, 2)

Re-running that same last for loop without using batch_select generate three queries instead of two (n+1 queries):

::

>>> entries = Entry.objects.all()
>>> for entry in entries:
.... print entry.tags.all()
....
[<Tag: Tag object>]
[]

>>> show_queries()
SELECT "batch_select_entry"."id", "batch_select_entry"."title", "batch_select_entry"."section_id" FROM "batch_select_entry"
SELECT "batch_select_tag"."id", "batch_select_tag"."name" FROM "batch_select_tag" INNER JOIN "batch_select_entry_tags" ON ("batch_select_tag"."id" = "batch_select_entry_tags"."tag_id") WHERE "batch_select_entry_tags"."entry_id" = 1
SELECT "batch_select_tag"."id", "batch_select_tag"."name" FROM "batch_select_tag" INNER JOIN "batch_select_entry_tags" ON ("batch_select_tag"."id" = "batch_select_entry_tags"."tag_id") WHERE "batch_select_entry_tags"."entry_id" = 2

More Advanced Usage
=========================

By default the batch fields are inserted into fields named <name>_all, on each object. So:

::

Entry.objects.batch_select('tags').all()

Results in the Entry instances having fields called 'tags_all' containing the Tag objects associated with that Entry.

If you want to give the field a different name just use a named parameter - in the same way as using the Aggregation_ API:

::

Entry.objects.batch_select(selected_tags='tags').all()

Would means the Tag objects would be assigned to fields called 'selected_tags'.

If you want to perform filtering of the related objects you will need to use a Batch object. By doing this you can pass extra named parameters in the same way as when using the filter method of a QuerySet:

::

from batch_select.models import Batch

Entry.objects.batch_select(tags_containing_blue=Batch('tags', name__contains='blue'))

Would return Entry objects with fields called 'tags_containing_name' with only those Tags whose name contains 'blue'.

In addition to filtering by names parameters you can also the following methods on a Batch object, with their effects being passed on to the underlying QuerySet_ object:

* filter_
* exclude_
* annotate_
* order_by_
* reverse_
* select_related_
* extra_
* defer_
* only_

(Note that distinct(), values() etc are not included as they would have side-effects on how the extra query is associated with the original query)
So for example to achieve the same effect as the filter above you could do the following:

::

from batch_select.models import Batch

Entry.objects.batch_select(tags_containing_blue=Batch('tags').filter(name__contains='blue'))

Whereas the following would exclude tags containing "blue" and order by name:

::

from batch_select.models import Batch

batch = Batch('tags').exclude(name__contains='blue').order_by('name')
Entry.objects.batch_select(tags_not_containing_blue=batch)


TODOs and BUGS
==============
See: http://github.com/lilspikey/django-batch-select/issues

.. _select_related: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#id4
.. _ForeignKey: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/fields/#foreignkey
.. _ManyToManyField: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/fields/#manytomanyfield
.. _QuerySet: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/
.. _Manager: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/managers/
.. _Aggregation: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/aggregation/
.. _filter: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#filter-kwargs
.. _exclude: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#exclude-kwargs
.. _annotate: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#annotate-args-kwargs
.. _order_by: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#order-by-fields
.. _reverse: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#reverse
.. _extra: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#extra-select-none-where-none-params-none-tables-none-order-by-none-select-params-none
.. _defer: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#defer-fields
.. _only: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#only-fields