Opened 10 years ago
Closed 10 years ago
#22787 closed New feature (wontfix)
Add a default implementation of Model.natural_key()
Reported by: | jian | Owned by: | jian |
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Component: | Core (Serialization) | Version: | dev |
Severity: | Normal | Keywords: | |
Cc: | Triage Stage: | Unreviewed | |
Has patch: | yes | Needs documentation: | no |
Needs tests: | no | Patch needs improvement: | no |
Easy pickings: | no | UI/UX: | no |
Description
In order to use natural key serialization, the user has to define model.natural_key
and manager.get_by_natural_key
methods for every single model to be serialized. This is tedious and requires many LOC if the user wants to serialize multiple models, especially if those models do not already have custom manager classes.
To remedy this, the linked pull request defines a base class implementation of model.natural_key
and manager.get_by_natural_key
. This implementation automatically produces natural keys that uniquely identify each model without recourse to the pk
field, and the results are qualitatively similar to what the user would have defined in custom methods.
In the rare instance where the model lacks any uniqueness constraints, this approach would not work, and invoking natural_key
or get_by_natural_key
would raise a NotImplementedError
. In such a scenario, it is not clear that even a user-defined natural key would work (but, as always, the user is free to implement one anyway).
Currently, if the user requests a natural key serialization, Django introspects the model using hasattr(model, 'natural_key')
and silently falls back to standard serialization if a natural key serialization is not available. Using hasattr
is no longer possible with the new implementation, so this pull request removes these checks, and Django will instead complain with an informative message such as CommandError: Unable to serialize database: The Question class must provide a natural_key() method
. This might be a backward-incompatible change, but it is the correct one. When a natural key serialization is requested but unavailable, the correct behavior is for Django to complain loudly rather than being silent ("explicit is better than implicit").
The pull request includes a new regression test, and passes all tests using SQLite version 3.7.13.
django-developers discussion: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/django-developers/6ZboknjrSkg/vOQXDSDhG28J
Change History (4)
comment:1 by , 10 years ago
comment:2 by , 10 years ago
Summary: | natural key serialization → Add a default implementation of Model.natural_key() |
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Last status on this is that Russ was -0 on the mailing list, but hasn't responded to Jian's follow-up.
comment:4 by , 10 years ago
Resolution: | → wontfix |
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Status: | new → closed |
Reading the thread, I agree with Russ.
github pull request: https://github.com/django/django/pull/2771