Extending Django default user - django

Question

I'm trying to build a user profile which builds on the default Django user. I'm trying to extend the default user with an extra fields like this:
class MyMember(models.Model):
user = models.OneToOneField(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL) #not sure about this
birthday = models.DateField()
USERNAME_FIELD = 'user' #how to use username field from default user?
REQUIRED_FIELDS = ['birthday',]
def __unicode__(self):
return self.username
But I'm getting this error: 'Manager' object has no attribute 'get_by_natural_key'? Why?
I would also like the USERNAME_FIELD to be the username from the default user. How?

Answer 1

Here's the UserProfile model class I use to extend the User model in my demo website:
#Private function required by image field.
def _get_upload_file_name_w_sub_dir(instance, filename):
return "uploaded_files/{0}{1}_{2}".format("profile_pic/", (str(time()).replace(".", "_"), filename))
class UserProfile(models.Model):
# This line is required. Links UserProfile to a User model instance.
# related_name is so you can reference *this* model as "user.profile"
# instead of "user.userprofile"
user = models.OneToOneField(User, related_name="profile")
# The additional attributes we wish to include.
year_discovered = models.IntegerField(blank=True,
verbose_name="Year you discovered Billy Joel's music/became a fan")
profile_picture = models.ImageField(upload_to=get_upload_profile_pic_file_name,
blank=True, null=True)
# Override the __unicode__() method to return out something meaningful!
def __unicode__(self):
return self.user.username
Here is the official documentation on extending the user model.

Answer 2

This is how you would extend the default Django User model. You would want to use a ForeignKey, and then you can use dot notation to access the fields of the User model.
Here:
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
class MyMember(models.Model):
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
birthday = models.DateField()
def __unicode__(self):
# the default "username" field in the django user model
return self.user.username