Simplified assignment and lookup for related fields

[garthk@…]

Further to #122, I'd love to see a simpler syntax for direct assignment and reference of objects in related tables. It'd eliminate the last big separation (in my mind, at least) between how people work with normal Python objects and how they need to work Django database-backed objects. All you'd have left is .save(), which I'm all for keeping.

from django.core import meta

class Person(meta.Model):
    name = meta.CharField(maxlength=200)
    
class CourtCase(meta.Model):
    plaintiff = meta.ForeignKey(Person)
    defendant = meta.ForeignKey(Person)

me = persons.get_object(name__exact="garthk")
you = persons.get_object(name__exact="hugo-")
case = courtcases.CourtCase()
case.defendant = me
case.plaintiff = you
case.save()
print case.defendant.name

We'd also want to retain support for {{case.defendant_id = me.id}} for those who tend to think more in terms of the database structures than the Python structures. I'm definitely in the latter category, but I know plenty of people in the former.

[Manuzhai]

I agree this would be much nicer. I may look into implementation later.

[rmunn@…]

I'd also like to see this happen. Since I'm about to drop off the face of the 'Net for at least a week, though, I can't commit to doing any work on the implementation. :-)

[Adrian Holovaty]

Closing this ticket because it's been superceded by the DescriptorFields discussion.