Django get_next_by_FIELD using complex Q lookups - django

Question

While creating a front end for a Django module I faced the following problem inside Django core:
In order to display a link to the next/previous object from a model query, we can use the extra-instance-methods of a model instance: get_next_by_FIELD() or get_previous_by_FIELD(). Where FIELD is a model field of type DateField or DateTimeField.
Lets explain it with an example
from django.db import models
class Shoe(models.Model):
created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True, null=False)
size = models.IntegerField()
A view to display a list of shoes, excluding those where size equals 4:
def list_shoes(request):
shoes = Shoe.objects.exclude(size=4)
return render_to_response(request, {
'shoes': shoes
})
And let the following be a view to display one shoe and the corresponding
link to the previous and next shoe.
def show_shoe(request, shoe_id):
shoe = Shoe.objects.get(pk=shoe_id)
prev_shoe = shoe.get_previous_by_created()
next_shoe = shoe.get_next_by_created()
return render_to_response('show_shoe.html', {
'shoe': shoe,
'prev_shoe': prev_shoe,
'next_shoe': next_shoe
})
Now I have the situation that the show_shoe view displays the link to the previous/next regardless of the shoes size. But I actually wanted just shoes whose size is not 4.
Therefore I tried to use the **kwargs argument of the get_(previous|next)_by_created() methods to filter out the unwanted shoes, as stated by the documentation:
Both of these methods will perform their queries using the default manager for the model. If you need to emulate filtering used by a custom manager, or want to perform one-off custom filtering, both methods also accept
optional keyword arguments, which should be in the format described in Field lookups.
Edit: Keep an eye on the word "should", because then also (size_ne=4) should work, but it doesn't.
The actual problem
Filtering using the lookup size__ne ...
def show_shoe(request, shoe_id):
...
prev_shoe = shoe.get_previous_by_created(size__ne=4)
next_shoe = shoe.get_next_by_created(size__ne=4)
...
... didn't work, it throws FieldError: Cannot resolve keyword 'size_ne' into field.
Then I tried to use a negated complex lookup using Q objects:
from django.db.models import Q
def show_shoe(request, shoe_id):
...
prev_shoe = shoe.get_previous_by_created(~Q(size=4))
next_shoe = shoe.get_next_by_created(~Q(size=4))
...
... didn't work either, throws TypeError: _get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD() got multiple values for argument 'field'
Because the get_(previous|next)_by_created methods only accept **kwargs.
The actual solution
Since these instance methods use the _get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD(self, field, is_next, **kwargs) I changed it to accept positional arguments using *args and passed them to the filter, like the **kwargs.
def my_get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD(self, field, is_next, *args, **kwargs):
"""
Workaround to call get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD by using complext lookup queries using
Djangos Q Class. The only difference between this version and original version is that
positional arguments are also passed to the filter function.
"""
if not self.pk:
raise ValueError("get_next/get_previous cannot be used on unsaved objects.")
op = 'gt' if is_next else 'lt'
order = '' if is_next else '-'
param = force_text(getattr(self, field.attname))
q = Q(**{'%s__%s' % (field.name, op): param})
q = q | Q(**{field.name: param, 'pk__%s' % op: self.pk})
qs = self.__class__._default_manager.using(self._state.db).filter(*args, **kwargs).filter(q).order_by('%s%s' % (order, field.name), '%spk' % order)
try:
return qs[0]
except IndexError:
raise self.DoesNotExist("%s matching query does not exist." % self.__class__._meta.object_name)
And calling it like:
...
prev_shoe = shoe.my_get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD(Shoe._meta.get_field('created'), False, ~Q(state=4))
next_shoe = shoe.my_get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD(Shoe._meta.get_field('created'), True, ~Q(state=4))
...
finally did it.
Now the question to you
Is there an easier way to handle this? Should shoe.get_previous_by_created(size__ne=4) work as expected or should I report this issue to the Django guys, in the hope they'll accept my _get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD() fix?
Environment: Django 1.7, haven't tested it on 1.9 yet, but the code for _get_next_or_previous_by_FIELD() stayed the same.
Edit: It is true that complex lookups using Q object is not part of "field lookups", it's more part of the filter() and exclude() functions instead. And I am probably wrong when I suppose that get_next_by_FIELD should accept Q objects too. But since the changes involved are minimal and the advantage to use Q object is high, I think these changes should get upstream.
tags: django, complex-lookup, query, get_next_by_FIELD, get_previous_by_FIELD
(listing tags here, because I don't have enough reputations.)

Answer 1

You can create custom lookup ne and use it:
.get_next_by_created(size__ne=4)

Answer 2

I suspect the method you've tried first only takes lookup arg for the field you're basing the get_next on. Meaning you won't be able to access the size field from the get_next_by_created() method, for example.
Edit : your method is by far more efficient, but to answer your question on the Django issue, I think everything is working the way it is supposed to. You could offer an additional method such as yours but the existing get_next_by_FIELD is working as described in the docs.
You've managed to work around this with a working method, which is OK I guess, but if you wanted to reduce the overhead, you could try a simple loop :
def get_next_by_field_filtered(obj, field=None, **kwargs):
next_obj = getattr(obj, 'get_next_by_{}'.format(field))()
for key in kwargs:
if not getattr(next_obj, str(key)) == kwargs[str(key)]:
return get_next_by_field_filtered(next_obj, field=field, **kwargs)
return next_obj
This isn't very efficient but it's one way to do what you want.
Hope this helps !
Regards,