Based on Django's recommendation that information should be stored in a separate model if it's not directly related to authentication, I've created both a custom user model and a profile model in my app.
Something like:
class User(AbstractBaseUser):
email = models.EmailField(
verbose_name='email address',
max_length=255,
unique=True
)
first_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
last_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
location = models.ForeignKey(Location)
date_of_birth = models.DateField()
date_joined = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
is_admin = models.BooleanField(default=False)
objects = UserManager()
USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
REQUIRED_FIELDS = ['first_name', 'last_name', 'location', 'date_of_birth']
class Profile(models.Model):
user = models.OneToOneField(User)
picture = models.ImageField(upload_to='profile_pictures/',
default='default.jpg')
bio = models.TextField(blank=True)
sex = models.CharField(max_length=10,
choices=(('Male', 'Male'),
('Female', 'Female'),
('No Comment', 'No Comment')),
default="No Comment")
occupation = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True)
What's the best practice for having other models refer to a user? For example, my app has a messaging system. In the Message model, is it best to have a foreignkey relation to Profile as opposed to User? Should the User model only be used for the purpose of authentication?
