id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
24272	Better error messages for prefetch_related	Todor Velichkov	nobody	"Consider the following model structure:


{{{#!python
from django.db import models
from django.contrib.contenttypes.fields import GenericForeignKey, GenericRelation
from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType


class TaggedItem(models.Model):
    tag = models.SlugField()
    content_type = models.ForeignKey(ContentType)
    object_id = models.PositiveIntegerField()
    content_object = GenericForeignKey('content_type', 'object_id')

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.tag


class Director(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name


class Movie(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    director = models.ForeignKey(Director)
    tags = GenericRelation(TaggedItem, related_query_name='movies')

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name


class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name


class Book(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    author = models.ForeignKey(Author)
    tags = GenericRelation(TaggedItem, related_query_name='books')

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name
}}}

And some initial data:



{{{#!python
>>> a = Author.objects.create(name='E L James')
>>> b1 = Book.objects.create(name='Fifty Shades of Grey', author=a)
>>> b2 = Book.objects.create(name='Fifty Shades Darker', author=a)
>>> b3 = Book.objects.create(name='Fifty Shades Freed', author=a)
>>> d = Director.objects.create(name='James Gunn')
>>> m1 = Movie.objects.create(name='Guardians of the Galaxy', director=d)
>>> t1 = TaggedItem.objects.create(content_object=b1, tag='roman')
>>> t2 = TaggedItem.objects.create(content_object=b2, tag='roman')
>>> t3 = TaggedItem.objects.create(content_object=b3, tag='roman')
>>> t4 = TaggedItem.objects.create(content_object=m1, tag='action movie')
}}}

Now using the `GenericForeignKey` we are able to: 
1. `prefetch` only one level deep from `querysets` containing different type of `content_object`
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.all().prefetch_related('content_object')
[<TaggedItem: roman>, <TaggedItem: roman>, <TaggedItem: roman>, <TaggedItem: action movie>]
}}}
2. `prefetch` many levels but from `querysets` containing only one type of `content_object`.
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.filter(books__author__name='E L James').prefetch_related('content_object__author')
[<TaggedItem: roman>, <TaggedItem: roman>, <TaggedItem: roman>]
}}}
But we can't do 1) and 2) together (//`prefetch` many levels from `querysets` containing different types of `content_objects`//)
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.all().prefetch_related('content_object__author')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AttributeError: 'Movie' object has no attribute 'author_id'
}}}
For such tasks this API is inconvenient and became unconvincing in more complex examples. For example if we want all `TaggedItems` with `prefetched` `movies` with their `directors` and `prefetched` `books` with their `author`.
One silly attempt would look like this:
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.all().prefetch_related(
...     'content_object__author',
...     'content_object__director',
... )
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AttributeError: 'Movie' object has no attribute 'author_id'
}}}
Or like this:
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.all().prefetch_related(
...     Prefetch('content_object', queryset=Book.objects.all().select_related('author')),
...     Prefetch('content_object', queryset=Movie.objects.all().select_related('director')),
... )
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
ValueError: Custom queryset can't be used for this lookup.
}}}

What I suggest is to use the API which we used to filter `TaggedItems` by their `book` `author`. This is not working right now.
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.filter(books__author__name='E L James').prefetch_related('books')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AttributeError: 'Book' object has no attribute 'object_id'
}}}
This way we would have and a nice solution for the more complex example mentioned above:
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.all().prefetch_related(
...     'books__author',
...     'movies__director',
... )
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AttributeError: 'Book' object has no attribute 'object_id'
}}}
Or like this:
{{{#!python
>>> TaggedItem.objects.all().prefetch_related(
...     Prefetch('books', queryset=Book.objects.all().select_related('author')),
...     Prefetch('movies', queryset=Movie.objects.all().select_related('director')),
... )
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AttributeError: 'Book' object has no attribute 'object_id'
}}}"	Cleanup/optimization	closed	Database layer (models, ORM)	dev	Normal	duplicate	prefetch_related, GenericRelation, related_query_name		Accepted	0	0	0	0	0	0