Back
Feb 18, 2010

Business logic in models

In my recent project there was a lot of data business logic, so I had to organize this code somehow. In this article I'll describe a few hints on how to it.

Mixins

Simple business logic functions should in models or managers. When there's a lot of them, the can be split in mixins.

# logic.py
class EventLogic(object):
    def start(self):
        if self.condition():
            # ...


# models.py
class Event(models.Model, EventLogic):
    name = models.CharField()
    # ...

Custom exceptions

For business logic errors you should declare custom exception classes. It's not fun to understand what this specific IntegrityError means.

Generic views

When all logic is in model and can throw, say, BusinessLogicException, we can write views like this:

from django.contrib import messages


def event_action(requets, event_id, action):
    # event = get_object_or_404(...)
    try:
        getattr(event, action)(request.user)
    except BusinessLogicException, e:
        messages.warning(request, e.message)

    return redirect(request.POST.get('next') or event)

Subscribe for the news and updates

More thoughts
May 9, 2018Technology
How to Generate PDF Files in Python with Xhtml2pdf, WeasyPrint or Unoconv

Programmatic generation of PDF files is a frequent task when developing applications that can export reports, bills, or questionnaires. In this article, we will consider three common tools for creating PDFs, including their installation and converting principles.

Mar 12, 2017Technology
Creating a chat with Django Channels

Nowadays, when every second large company has developed its own instant messenger, in the era of iMessages, Slack, Hipchat, Messager, Google Allo, Zulip and others, I will tell you how to keep up with the trend and write your own chat, using django-channels 0.17.3, django 1.10.x, python 3.5.x.

Feb 28, 2017Technology
How to write an API in Django

There is such a term as Remote Procedure Call (RPC). In other words, by using this technology, programs can call functions on remote computers. There are many ways to implement RPC.

Jun 25, 2011Technology
Ajax blocks in Django

Quite often we have to write paginated or filtered blocks of information on page. I created a decorator that would automate this process.

Mar 6, 2010TechnologyManagement
Supplementing settings in settings_local

For local project settings, I use old trick with settings_local file:try:from settings_local import \*except ImportError:passSo in settings_local.py we can override variables from settings.py. I didn't know how to supplement them. For example how to add line to INSTALLED_APPS without copying whole list.Yesterday I finally understood that I can import settings from settings_local:# settings_local.pyfrom settings import \*INSTALLED_APPS += (# ...)

Feb 18, 2010Technology
User profiles with inheritance in Django

Usually users' profiles are stored in single model. When there are multiple user types, separation is made by some field like user_type.Situation is a little more complicated when different data is needed for each user type.In this article I'll describe how I solve this task.