What is the best / proper idiom in django for modifying a field during a .save() where you need to o
- by MDBGuy
Hi,
say I've got:
class LogModel(models.Model):
message = models.CharField(max_length=512)
class Assignment(models.Model):
someperson = models.ForeignKey(SomeOtherModel)
def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(Assignment, self).save()
old_person = #?????
LogModel(message="%s is no longer assigned to %s"%(old_person, self).save()
LogModel(message="%s is now assigned to %s"%(self.someperson, self).save()
My goal is to save to LogModel some messages about who Assignment was assigned to. Notice that I need to know the old, presave value of this field.
I have seen code that suggests, before super().save(), retrieve the instance from the database via primary key and grab the old value from there. This could work, but is a bit messy.
In addition, I plan to eventually split this code out of the .save() method via signals - namely pre_save() and post_save(). Trying to use the above logic (Retrieve from the db in pre_save, make the log entry in post_save) seemingly fails here, as pre_save and post_save are two seperate methods. Perhaps in pre_save I can retrieve the old value and stick it on the model as an attribute?
I was wondering if there was a common idiom for this. Thanks.
