Test a data migration ManyToMany in Django - django

Question

I tried to add a field to my ManyToMany relationship models in Django.
So step by step, I created the new model and apply makemigrations and migrate.
I checked I have the new table in my postgresql database.
Now before I will add the through keyword in the ManyToMany field I want to write a function in the migration file that will copy the old data of the previous ManyToMany table to the new one with the additional field.
I followed a solution explained here:
Django migration error :you cannot alter to or from M2M fields, or add or remove through= on M2M fields
I want to test the function that will migrate the data in a test function but I don't understand what to do.
here my code:
survey/models:
class Survey(BaseModel):
name = models.CharField(max_length=256, help_text='Survey name')
user = models.ManyToManyField(User, blank=True, help_text='patient')
survey/models:
class SurveyStatus(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
survey = models.ForeignKey(Survey, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
survey_status = models.CharField(max_length=10,
blank=True,
null=True,
choices=STATUS_SURVEY_CHOICES,
)
The function I wrote that need to copy the data from the previous M2M to the new one is the following one:
def create_through_relations(apps, schema_editor):
Survey = apps.get_model('survey', 'Survey')
SurveyStatus = apps.get_model('survey', 'SurveyStatus')
for survey in Survey.objects.all():
for user in survey.user.all():
SurveyStatus(
user=user,
survey=survey,
survey_status='active'
).save()
I don't understand what is apps? because it is not recognized by python
I don't understand why i need schema_editor because it's not used
it doesn't recognized my Survey or SurveyStatus models too
when i tried to run this script with
if __name__ == "__main__":
create_through_relations(survey)
I've got this error
NameError: name 'survey' is not defined
and if i tried this function
from django.apps import apps
def create_through_relations():
Survey = apps.get_model('survey', 'Survey')
SurveyStatus = apps.get_model('survey', 'SurveyStatus')
for survey in Survey.objects.all():
for user in survey.user.all():
SurveyStatus(
user=user,
survey=survey,
survey_status='active'
).save()
when i tried to run this script with
if __name__ == "__main__":
create_through_relations()
I've got this error
django.core.exceptions.AppRegistryNotReady: Models aren't loaded yet.
If someone can help and explain me how to solve.thanks

Answer 1

1: Apps represent the different parts of your project (Django Apps)
2: You don't need it at this point. In general, it translates the models into SQL syntax.
3: python manage.py <...> does load the models for execution. Your file is trying to access data that isn't available that way.
4: The variable survey can't be found in python's main function, since you never declared it there. You need to trigger it inside your project.
5: You can test things by creating a test.py (Django Tests)
6: You don't need to transfer the data to a whole new table after changing a model, just extend the existing one and migrate the changes:
class BaseModel(models.Model):
created = models.DateTimeField('created', default=timezone.now)
changed = models.DateTimeField('changed', default=timezone.now, blank=True, null=True)
class Survey(BaseModel):
uuid = models.UUIDField(primary_key=False, default=uuid.uuid4, editable=False)
name = models.CharField(max_length=256, help_text='Survey name')
description = models.TextField('description', blank=True)
status = models.BooleanField(default=False) # paused/ active
class SurveyQuestion(BaseModel):
survey = models.ForeignKey(Survey, related_name='survey', on_delete=models.CASCADE)
text = models.CharField(max_length=256)
# 1 -> Text, # Integer, # ChoiceField, etc.
requested_result = models.IntegerField(default=0)
class QuestionResult(BaseModel):
user = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
question = models.ForeignKey(SurveyQuestion, related_name='survey_question', on_delete=models.CASCADE)
answer = models.CharField(default='', max_length=256)