Django model self many-to-many relation

Django -- Posted on April 1, 2023

The provided code defines two classes: Folder and FolderParent. Let's go through each class and understand their functionalities:

  1. Folder class:

    • It inherits from the Timestamped class (not provided in the given code snippet).
    • It has several fields, including name, depth, and parents.
    • name is a character field with a maximum length of 50 characters.
    • depth is a positive integer field with a default value of 0.
    • parents is a ManyToManyField that relates instances of the Folder class to each other through the FolderParent model.
    • The Folder class has a Meta class that defines some options like default_related_name, verbose_name, and verbose_name_plural.
    • The __str__ method is defined to return a string representation of the folder, which is its name.
    • The class has several methods:
      • get_depth: Recursively calculates the depth of the folder in the tree structure. It starts from the current folder and traverses up the tree to the root node by following the parents relationship. The depth value is stored in the depth field of the folder.
      • get_ancestors: Recursively retrieves a list of ancestor folders in the tree structure. It starts from the current folder and follows the parents relationship to get all its ancestors.
      • get_breadcrumb: Returns a list of ancestor folders and the current folder, representing the breadcrumb for the current folder.
  2. FolderParent class:

    • It also inherits from the Timestamped class (not provided in the given code snippet).
    • It has two foreign key fields, source and target, both of which point to the Folder model.
    • The class has a Meta class that defines constraints and indexes. Specifically, it sets a unique constraint on the combination of source and target fields to ensure that a folder can have only one parent folder and that it can't be connected to itself.

The provided code appears to be a part of a Django model definition related to organizing folders in a tree-like structure. The Folder class defines the folders, and the FolderParent class acts as an intermediary table for establishing parent-child relationships between the folders.

Please note that the Timestamped class, which the Folder and FolderParent classes inherit from, is not provided here. It might contain common fields like created_at and updated_at, which are often used to track the creation and modification times of the model instances. Additionally, if there are any other related models or methods in the codebase, they are not included in the provided snippet.

 

              
                class Folder(Timestamped):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    depth = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0)
    parents = models.ManyToManyField("self", through='FolderParent',
                                      through_fields=('source', 'target'),
                                      symmetrical=False, blank=True)



    class Meta:
        default_related_name = 'folders'
        verbose_name = 'folder'
        verbose_name_plural = 'folders'

    def __str__(self):
        return f"{self.name}"

    def get_depth(self):
        """
        Recursively calculates the depth of the folder in the tree structure.
        """
        depth = 0
        # Traverse up the tree to the root node
        parent_folders = self.parents.all()
        while parent_folders:
            depth += 1
            parent_folder = parent_folders.first()
            parent_folders = parent_folder.parents.all()
        if depth != self.depth:
            self.depth = depth
            self.save()
        return depth

    def get_ancestors(self):
        """
        Recursively gets a list of ancestor folders in the tree structure.
        """
        ancestors = []
        parent_folders = self.parents.all()
        while parent_folders:
            parent_folder = parent_folders.first()
            ancestors.append(parent_folder)
            parent_folders = parent_folder.parents.all()
        return reversed(ancestors)

    def get_breadcrumb(self):
        """
        Returns a list of ancestor folders and the current folder, 
        representing the breadcrumb for the current folder.
        """
        breadcrumb = list(self.get_ancestors())
        breadcrumb.append(self)
        return breadcrumb


class FolderParent(Timestamped):
    source = models.ForeignKey(Folder, on_delete=models.CASCADE,
                               related_name='folder_parent')
    target = models.ForeignKey(Folder, on_delete=models.CASCADE,
                               related_name='folder_child')

    class Meta:
        constraints = [
            models.UniqueConstraint(fields=['source', 'target'], name="folderparent")
        ]
        indexes = [
            models.Index(fields=['source', 'target']),
        ]
                  
   
            

Related Posts