Is there any downside to Django proxy models? - django

Question

I'm getting rather tired of paging through lots of irrelevant little fiddly properties while looking for the actual database structure of my models. Would it be a bad thing to use proxy models universally just to keep my code better organized / more readable? I.e.
class Foo_Base( models.Model):
title = models.CharField( ...)
# other DB fields. As little as possible anything else.
class Bar_Base( models.Model):
foo = models.ForeignKey( Foo_Base, ... )
etc. not many more lines than there are columns in the DB tables. Then at the bottom or elsewhere,
class Foo( Foo_Base):
class Meta:
proxy=True
#property
def some_pseudo_field(self):
# compute something based on the DB fields in Foo_Base
return result
#property
# etc. pages of etc.
The fact that makemigrations and migrate tracks proxy models makes me slightly concerned, although this usage seems to be exactly what the Django documentation says they are for (wrapping extra functionality around the same database table).
Or is there another way to organize my code that accomplishes the same (keeping fundamental stuff and fiddly little support bits apart).
[Edit] am offering up something that seems to work as a self-answer below. I'd still very much like to hear from anybody who knows for a fact that this is OK, given the deep Django magic on its declarative field declarations.
(About the only thing I dislike about Python, is that it does not have include functionality for reading in a heap of code from another file! )

Answer 1

I think I may have found an answer: use a plugin class inheriting from object,
as is commonplace for class-based Views.
I'd still very much like to hear from anybody who knows for a fact that this is OK, given the deep Django magic on its declarative field declarations.
Minimal proof of concept:
class PenMethods1( object):
#property
def namey(self):
return format_html('<div class="namey">{name}</div>', name=self.name )
class PenTest1(PenMethods1, models.Model):
name = models.CharField( max_length=16, blank=True )
def __repr__(self):
return f'<Pentest1 object id={self.id} name={self.name}>'
Initial migration was OK. Then I added
pnum = models.ForeignKey( 'Pennum', models.SET_NULL, null=True)
(Pennum was something already lying around in my playpen) and ran makemigrations and migrate. Again OK and basic functioning checks out...
>>> from playpen.models import PenTest1, Pennum
>>> n = Pennum.objects.last()
>>> n
<Pennum object id=3 name="t3" num=14 >
>>> p = PenTest1.objects.get(name='bar')
>>> p
<Pentest1 object id=2 name=bar>
>>> p.namey
'<div class="namey">bar</div>'
>>> p.pnum=n
>>> p.save()
>>> n=Pennum.objects.last()
>>> list(n.pentest1_set.all())
[<Pentest1 object id=2 name=bar>]
>>>