Foreign Key to User model

Question

I want to create a new model, something like:

user_name = models.ForeignKey(u"Username", User),

but when I try to syncdb, I get this error message:

"AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute '_meta'"

When I look at some tutorials, everything seems to be the same as in my model, and the problem with _meta is never mentioned.

I finaly found out. It was my stupid mistake. I had in my another model: class Meta: verbose_name = smart_encode(u"something). Sorry about that and thank You both! — Meph, Sep 05 '11 at 16:12

score 40 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '15 at 10:35

40

A safer way to do this is to use the AUTH_USER_MODEL from the settings file.

Example:

from django.db import models
from django.conf import settings

class Article(models.Model):
    headline = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    article = models.TextField()
    author = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL)

By default settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL refers to django.contrib.auth.models.User without requiring you to do anything.

The advantage of this approach is that your app will continue to work even if you use a custom user model without modification.

For more information on how to make use of custom user models check out this part of the Django docs

answered Oct 21 '15 at 10:35

rgeber

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is it possible to restrict the foreign key? so what if I only want the foreign key to relate to a group of users? – OverflowingTheGlass Jan 31 '18 at 20:53
1

@CameronTaylor Yes, that is possible. Use [`limit_choices_to`](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/ref/models/fields/#django.db.models.ForeignKey.limit_choices_to) to restrict the choice to certain group of users. – cezar Aug 23 '18 at 10:02

score 26 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 25 '14 at 10:50

26

You just want:

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

class MyModel(models.Model):
    ...
    user = models.ForeignKey(User)
    ...

edited Apr 25 '14 at 10:50

syntagma

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answered Sep 05 '11 at 14:43

Joe

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This is exactly what I want and what I did, but this solution raises AttributeError as mentioned in my Question. – Meph Sep 05 '11 at 15:23
1

@Meph can you not see the difference between what you have and what Joe has? Hint: look at the first parameter to the ForeignKey. – Daniel Roseman Sep 05 '11 at 15:50
@DanielRoseman: I can, but it does not matter. Same error with Joes solution – Meph Sep 05 '11 at 15:58
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You'll need to post your full model then. – Daniel Roseman Sep 05 '11 at 16:07
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you'll need to add "from django.contrib.auth.models import User" at the top of the file. – Fydo Jul 12 '13 at 15:48
I'm assuming the questioner knows this otherwise they wouldn't be able to ask the question. – Joe Jul 22 '13 at 15:50

Foreign Key to User model

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