Limit instantiations of class with particular value to one - django - django

I have two classes in a django app, project and plan
The project class has an is_global boolean field, as does the plan class. The plan also has a foreign key to the project class (projects have multiple plans).
I am trying to accomplish the following: for both projects and plans, there should only ever be one instance of each where is_global = true. The global plan should belong to the global project.
Is it possible to enforce this logic with django models?

You could overwrite the save function of each model to check for prior 'is_global' items
Project Model
def save(self):
if self.is_global:
other_global = Project.objects.filter(is_global=True).exists()
if other_global:
#handle the error, eg, raise an exception or send a message
return
super.save()
Plan model
def save(self):
if self.is_global:
other_global = Plan.objects.filter(is_global=True).exists()
if other_global:
#handle the error, eg, raise an exception or send a message
return
if not self.project.is_global:
#handle the error, eg, raise an exception or send a message
return
super.save()

Related

M2M relationship validation in Django

I have these two models:
class Test(models.Model):
problems = models.ManyToManyField('Problem')
...
class Problem(models.Model):
type = models.CharField(max_length=3, choices=SOME_CHOICES)
...
Now, while adding Problems to a Test, I need to limit the number of particular type of problems in the Test. E.g. a Test can contain only 3 Problems of type A, and so on.
The only way to validate this seems to be by using m2m_changed signal on Test.problems.through table. However, to do the validation, I need to access the current Problem being added AND the existing Problems - which doesn't seem to be possible somehow.
What is the correct way to do something like this? M2M validation seems to be a topic untouched in the docs. What am I missing?
You are right on the part that you have to register an m2m_changed signal function like the following:
def my_callback(sender, instance, action, reverse, model, pk_set, **kwargs)
If you read the documentation you 'll see that sender is the object-model that triggers the change and model is the object-model that will change. pk_set will give you the pkeys that will be the new reference for your model. So in your Test model you have to do something like this:
#receiver(m2m_changed)
def my_callback(sender, instance, action, reverse, model, pk_set, **kwargs):
if action == "pre_add":
problem_types = [x.type for x in model.objects.filter(id__in=pk_set)]
if problem_types.count("A") > some_number:
raise SomeException
Mind though that an Exception at that level will not be caught if you're entering fields from Django admin site. To be able to provide user friendly errors for django admin data entry, you'll have to register your own form as admin form. In your case, you need to do the following:
class ProblemTypeValidatorForm(ModelForm):
def clean(self):
super(ProblemTypeValidatorForm, self).clean()
problem_types = [x.type for x in self.cleaned_data.get("problems") if x]
if problem_types.count("A") > some_number:
raise ValidationError("Cannot have more than {0} problems of type {1}"
.format(len(problem_types), "A")
then in your admin.py
#admin.register(Test)
class TestAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = ProblemTypeValidatorForm
Now keep in mind that these are two different level implementations. None will protect you from someone doing manually this:
one_test_object.problems.add(*Problem.objects.all())
one_test_object.save()
Personal opinion:
So keeping in mind the above, I suggest you go with the ModelForm & ModelAdmin approach and if you're providing an API for CRUD operations, make your validations there as well. Nothing can protect you from someone entering stuff in your db through django shell. If you want such solution types you should go directly to your db and write some kind of magic trigger script. But keep in mind that your db is actually data. Your backend is the one with the business logic. So you shouldn't really try to impose business rules down to the db level. Keep the rules in your backend by validating your data at the spots where create/update happens.
You can't override save for a M2M I'm afraid, but you can achieve what you want.
Use the m2m_changed signal where the action is pre_add.
The 'instance' kwarg will be the Test model the problem is being added to.
The 'pk_id' kwarg will be the primary key of the Problems being added (1 or more).
The validation logic will be something like this:
p_type = Problem.objects.get(id=kwargs['pk_id']).type
type_count = kwargs['instance'].problems.filter(type=p_type).count()
if p_type == 'A' and type_count == 3:
raise Exception("cannot have more than 3 Problems of type A")
[sorry don't have django on hand to verify the query]

Model datetime field validation for fields with auto_now

I am very new to django and python in general, and I was trying to learn rest_framework to create RESTful APIs.
So i have a model like this:
class Listing(models.Model):
listingid = models.BigIntegerField(primary_key=True)
sellerid = models.IntegerField()
createdon = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True, editable=False)
expirydate = models.DateTimeField(null=True)
validationstatus = models.SmallIntegerField(default=0)
listingstatus = models.SmallIntegerField(
choices=((0, 'Active'),
(1, 'Hidden'),
(2, 'Suspended'),
(4, 'Expired'),
(5, 'Deleted'),
),
default=0)
Now i need to validate that the expirydate is always greater than the createdon date.
I know i can do this in the views, I guess that would not be a good idea, since now the validation only exists in the views.
So that leaves me with the serializers and the model.
I know I can override the save method to do check this like so:
class MasterListing(models.Model):
# fields here..
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
if self.expirydate > self.createdon:
super().save(*args, **kwargs)
return ValidationError("Expiry date cannot be greater than created date ("++")")
but I dont know if this would be a good idea, since now I am raising an error which the programmer may forget to catch. I am also not sure if the fields would be populated when this method would run.
Another way I read about in the docs is the clean method which i couldn't really understand so well.
Can anyone guide me on how to handle situations like this when you are working with the rest_framework?
Some of the things I have read about validation till now:
Serializer Validation
Field level validation
Validators
Model Validation
override clean method
override save method
Just do it manually in the views
There seem to be so many options, and I might have even left a few, I could not clearly get an idea of when to use where.
I am sorry if this is a little on the beginner level, but i am new to frameworks and django seems to be very different from what i was doing in PHP. Any advice is welcome!
Edit: I will be using django for the rest_framework only and nothing else, since we only want to build RESTful APIs.
Django REST framework used to call Model.clean, which was previously the recommended place for putting validation logic that needed to be used in Django forms and DRF serializers. As of DRF 3.0, this is no longer the case and Model.clean will no longer be called during the validation cycle. With that change, there are now two possible places to put in custom validation logic that works on multiple fields.
If you are only using Django REST framework for validation, and you don't have any other areas where data needs to be manually validated (like a ModelForm, or in the Django admin), then you should look into Django REST framework's validation framework.
class MySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
# ...
def validate(self, data):
# The keys can be missing in partial updates
if "expirydate" in data and "createdon" in data:
if data["expirydate"] < data["createdon"]:
raise serializers.ValidationError({
"expirydata": "Expiry date cannot be greater than created date",
})
return super(MySerializer, self).validate(data)
If you need to use Django REST framework in combination with a Django component that uses model-level validation (like the Django admin), you have two options.
Duplicate your logic in both Model.clean and Serializer.validate, violating the DRY principle and opening yourself up to future issues.
Do your validation in Model.save and hope that nothing strange happens later.
but I dont know if this would be a good idea, since now I am raising an error which the programmer may forget to catch.
I would venture to say that it would be better for the error to be raised than for the saved data to possibly become invalid on purpose. Once you start allowing invalid data, you have to put in checks anywhere the data is used to fix it. If you don't allow it to go into an invalid state, you don't run into that issue.
I am also not sure if the fields would be populated when this method would run.
You should be able to assume that if an object is going to be saved, the fields have already been populated with their values.
If you would like to both Model Validation and Serializer validation using Django REST Framework 3.0, you can force your serializer to use the Model validation like this (so you don't repeat yourself):
import rest_framework, django
from rest_framework import serializers
class MySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
def validate(self, data):
for key, val in data.iteritems():
setattr(self.instance, key, val)
try:
self.instance.clean()
except django.core.exceptions.ValidationError as e:
raise rest_framework.exceptions.ValidationError(e.message_dict)
return data
I thought about generating a new function from my model's clean() function's code, and have it either spit out django.core.exceptions.ValidationError or rest_framework.exceptions.ValidationError, based on a parameter source (or something) to the function. Then I would call it from the model, and from the serializer. But that hardly seemed better to me.
If you want to make sure that your data is valid on the lowest level, use Model Validation (it should be run by the serializer class as well as by (model)form classes (eg. admin)).
If you want the validation to happen only in your API/forms put it in a serializer/form class. So the best place to put your validation should be Model.clean().
Validation should never actually happen in views, as they shouldn't get too bloated and the real business logic should be encapsulated in either models or forms.

Django action (not model data directly) HTML view and API validation keeping a DRY rule

I would like to create an API for my project.
The models:
class Offer(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
data = models.TextField()
class Bid(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey()
offer = models.ForeignKey()
created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
Here's the simplified example (as there are more checks)
Both Offer & Bid users can cancel the Bid.
In my standard (HTML) view:
def cancel_bid(request, pk):
do_some checks_if request.user_is_either_Bid_or+Offer)creator()
check_if_Bid_has_been_created_for_less_than_5_minutes()
#as user can cancel his bid within 5 minutes
Now the same must be applied to Django Rest Framework (permissions or serializers).
The problem is that I need to return error messages and codes displayed in both json error response (when using api) and in my HTML views.
I have created a cancel(self, user, other kwargs) in my Bid model where check for these are performed and my custom PermissionDenied(message, code) is returned. Then in DRF and my views I simply put:
bid = Bid.objects.get(pk=pk)
try:
bid.cancel(user):
except PermissionDenied as e:
messages.error(request, e.message)
# or return HttpResponseForbidden(e.message)
in django rest framework:
class OrderCancelView(APIView):
def post(self, request, pk):
try:
order.cancel(request.user)
except PermissionDenied as e:
raise serializers.PermissionDenied(detail=e.message)
There are more actions performed in my clean() method not pointed out here.. which
makes the method very complex.
For example:
If offer expires all bids except the first one (earliest) are cancelled.. so there is no user,
as it's being made by system. I have to omit user checks then.. and so on.
What are your thoughts on this ? What is the best Django way of doing this kind of "action" validation and keeping DRY rule?
Seems like you've already made a good start, you just need to structure your cancel method on the model so that it has all of the information it needs to execute the business logic. If your logic has to be the same between DRF and the normal view code then I would extract all the business logic into the model. You might have to give it lots of arguments so that it can make all of the correct decisions, but that's better than having to repeat the logic twice.

Correct Way to Validate Django Model Objects?

I'm still trying to understand the correct way to validate a Django model object using a custom validator at the model level. I know that validation is usually done within a form or model form. However, I want to ensure the integrity of my data at the model level if I'm interacting with it via the ORM in the Python shell. Here's my current approach:
from django.db import models
from django.core import validators
from django.core exceptions import ValidationError
def validate_gender(value):
""" Custom validator """
if not value in ('m', 'f', 'M', 'F'):
raise ValidationError(u'%s is not a valid value for gender.' % value)
class Person(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=128)
age = models.IntegerField()
gender = models.CharField(maxlength=1, validators=[validate_gender])
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
""" Override Person's save """
self.full_clean(exclude=None)
super(Person, self).save(*args, **kwargs)
Here are my questions:
Should I create a custom validation function, designate it as a validator, and then override the Person's save() function as I've done above? (By the way, I know I could validate my gender choices using the 'choices' field option but I created 'validate_gender' for the purpose of illustration).
If I really want to ensure the integrity of my data, should I not only write Django unit tests for testing at the model layer but also equivalent database-level unit tests using Python/Psycopg? I've noticed that Django unit tests, which raise ValidationErrors, only test the model's understanding of the database schema using a copy of the database. Even if I were to use South for migrations, any database-level constraints are limited to what Django can understand and translate into a Postgres constraint. If I need a custom constraint that Django can't replicate, I could potentially enter data into my database that violates that constraint if I'm interacting with the database directly via the psql terminal.
Thanks!
I had a similar misunderstanding of the ORM when I first started with Django.
No, don't put self.full_clean() inside of save. Either
A) use a ModelForm (which will cause all the same validation to occur - note: ModelForm.is_valid() won't call Model.full_clean explicitly, but will perform the exact same checks as Model.full_clean). Example:
class PersonForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Person
def add_person(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
form = PersonForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
if form.is_valid(): # Performs your validation, including ``validate_gender``
person = form.save()
return redirect('some-other-view')
else:
form = PersonForm()
# ... return response with ``form`` in the context for rendering in a template
Also note, forms aren't for use only in views that render them in templates - they're great for any sort of use, including an API, etc. After running form.is_valid() and getting errors, you'll have form.errors which is a dictionary containing all the errors in the form, including a key called '__all__' which will contain non-field errors.
B) Simply use model_instance.full_clean() in your view (or other logical application layer), instead of using a form, but forms are a nice abstraction for this.
I don't really have a solution to, but I've never run into such a problem, even in large projects (the current project I work with my company on has 146 tables) and I don't suspect it'll be a concern in your case either.

Django form field validation - How to tell if operation is insert or update?

I'm trying to do this in Django:
When saving an object in the Admin I want to save also another object of a different type based on one of the fields in my fist object.
In order to do this I must check if that second object already exists and return an validation error only for the particular field in the first object if it does.
My problem is that I want the validation error to appear in the field only if the operation is insert.
How do I display a validation error for a particular admin form field based on knowing if the operation is update or insert?
P.S. I know that for a model validation this is impossible since the validator only takes the value parameter, but I think it should be possible for form validation.
This ca be done by writing a clean_[name_of_field] method in a Django Admin Form. The insert or update operation can be checked by testing self.instance.pk.
class EntityAdminForm(forms.ModelForm):
def clean_field(self):
field = self.cleaned_data['field']
insert = self.instance.pk == None
if insert:
raise forms.ValidationError('Some error message!')
else:
pass
return field
class EntityAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = EntityAdminForm
You have to use then the EntityAdmin class when registering the Entity model with the Django admin:
admin.site.register(Entity, EntityAdmin)
You can write your custom validation at the model level:
#inside your class model ...
def clean(self):
is_insert = self.pk is None
from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError, NON_FIELD_ERRORS
#do your business rules
if is_insert:
...
if __some_condition__ :
raise ValidationError('Dups.')
Create a model form for your model. In the clean method, you can set errors for specific fields.
See the docs for cleaning and validating fields that depend on each other for more information.
That is (probably) not an exact answer, but i guess it might help.
Django Admin offers you to override save method with ModelAdmin.save_model method (doc is here)
Also Django api have a get_or_create method (Doc is here). It returns two values, first is the object and second one is a boolean value that represents whether object is created or not (updated an existing record).
Let me say you have FirstObject and SecondObject
In your related admin.py file:
class FirstObjectAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
...
...
def save_model(self, request, obj, form, change):
s_obj, s_created = SecondObject.objects.get_or_create(..., defaults={...})
if not s_created:
# second object already exists... We will raise validation error for our first object
...
For the rest, I do not have a clear idea about how to handle it. Since you have the form object at hand, you can call form.fields{'somefield'].validate(value) and write a custom validation for admin. You will probably override clean method and try to trigger a raise ValidationError from ModelAdmin.save_model method. you can call validate and pass a value from there...
You may dig django source to see how django handles this, and try to define some custom validaton steps.