django-pgtrigger
helps you write Postgres triggers for your Django models.
Triggers can solve a variety of complex problems more reliably, performantly, and succinctly than application code. For example,
- Protecting operations on rows or columns (pgtrigger.Protect).
- Making read-only models or fields (pgtrigger.ReadOnly).
- Soft-deleting models (pgtrigger.SoftDelete).
- Snapshotting and tracking model changes (django-pghistory).
- Enforcing field transitions (pgtrigger.FSM).
- Keeping a search vector updated for full-text search (pgtrigger.UpdateSearchVector).
- Building official interfaces (e.g. enforcing use of
User.objects.create_user
and notUser.objects.create
). - Versioning models, mirroring fields, computing unique model hashes, and the list goes on...
All of these examples require no overridden methods, no base models, and no signal handling.
Install django-pgtrigger
with pip3 install django-pgtrigger
and add pgtrigger
to settings.INSTALLED_APPS
.
pgtrigger.Trigger
objects are added to triggers
in model Meta
. django-pgtrigger
comes with several trigger classes, such as pgtrigger.Protect
. In the following, we're protecting the model from being deleted:
class ProtectedModel(models.Model):
"""This model cannot be deleted!"""
class Meta:
triggers = [
pgtrigger.Protect(name='protect_deletes', operation=pgtrigger.Delete)
]
When migrations are created and executed, ProtectedModel
will raise an exception anytime a deletion is attempted.
Let's extend this example further and only protect deletions on inactive objects. In this example, the trigger conditionally runs when the row being deleted (the OLD
row in trigger terminology) is still active:
class ProtectedModel(models.Model):
"""Active object cannot be deleted!"""
is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
class Meta:
triggers = [
pgtrigger.Protect(
name='protect_deletes',
operation=pgtrigger.Delete,
condition=pgtrigger.Q(old__is_active=True)
)
]
django-pgtrigger
uses pgtrigger.Q
and pgtrigger.F
objects to conditionally execute triggers based on the OLD
and NEW
rows. Combining these Django idioms with pgtrigger.Trigger
objects can solve a wide variety of problems without ever writing SQL. Users, however, can still use raw SQL for complex cases.
Triggers are installed like other database objects. Run python manage.py makemigrations
and python manage.py migrate
to install triggers.
django-pgtrigger
is compatible with Python 3.7 -- 3.11, Django 3.2 -- 4.2, Psycopg 2 -- 3, and Postgres 10 -- 15.
We recommend everyone first read:
installation
for how to install the library.basics
for an overview and motivation.
After this, there are several usage guides:
cookbook
for trigger examples.ignoring_triggers
for dynamically ignoring triggers.deferrable
for deferring trigger execution.advanced_installation
for installing triggers on third-party models, many-to-many models, programmatic installation, and more.advanced_db
for notes on how triggers work in multi-database, mutli-schema, or partitioned database setups.
There's additional help in these sections:
faq
for common questions like testing and disabling triggers.troubleshooting
for advice on known issues.upgrading
for upgrading to new major versions.further_reading
for additional reading and videos.
Finally, core API information exists in these sections:
settings
for all available Django settings.commands
for using thepython manage.py pgtrigger
management commands.module
for documentation of thepgtrigger
module.release_notes
for information about every release.contributing
for details on contributing to the codebase.