django-primate 0.1.1
A modular django user
License: BSD

django-primate
==============

- A modular django user.

I am not going to discuss if this is a good idea or not. This Django
application monkey patches django in order to have a custom User model that
plugs into the ``django.contrib.auth`` application.


Installation
------------
First of all install the module by checking out the latest code or use pip::

    pip install django-primate

In order to monkey patch we need to do this early. I have created a small
modified ``manage.py`` file that you can use for your development. This sets up
your environment and right before you run your management command (such as
`runserver``) we apply the patch. Copy this into your project and overwrite the
default ``manage.py``::

    #!/usr/bin/env python
    from django.core.management import setup_environ, ManagementUtility
    import imp
    try:
        imp.find_module('settings') # Assumed to be in the same directory.
    except ImportError:
        import sys
        sys.stderr.write(
            "Error: Can't find the file 'settings.py' in the directory "
            "containing %r. It appears you've customized things.\nYou'll have to "
            "run django-admin.py, passing it your settings module.\n" % __file__
            )
        sys.exit(1)

    import settings

    if __name__ == "__main__":
        setup_environ(settings)
        import primate
        primate.patch()
        ManagementUtility().execute()

To monkey patch your deployment you would apply the patch right after setting up
the ``DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE``.


Now add ``django.contrib.auth`` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``


Using
-----
After installing this patch you effectively have no User model at all. You have
to create one on your own and define it in your settings. I will give you an
example on how to do this using the provided UserBase class.

``project/users/models.py``::

    from primate.models import UserBase, UserMeta
    from django.db import models

    class CustomUser(UserBase):
        __metaclass__ = UserMeta
        name = models.CharField(max_length=500, default='Jon Deg')
        title = models.CharField(max_length=20, blank=True)


``settings.py``::

    ``AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'users.models.CustomUser'``


Now you can import this model by ``from django.contrib.auth.models import
User`` or ``from project.users.models import CustomUser``


Custom fields and overriding default fields
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It's simple

- To add a field just add a field to the model as you would normally.
- To override a field just override the field name and it will be used instead
  of the one defined in ``UserBase``.

The overriding feature is something special not available in normal Django
model abstract classes and is done in the custom metaclass. You can also remove
fields defined in the ``UserBase`` class by altering the metaclass a little, you
can have a look in the code, its a really simple.


Admin
^^^^^
To make the admin work I have made the monkey patch ``primate.patch`` patch the
``admin.autodiscover`` so that it does not register the default admin class for
``django.contrib.auth.User``. This means that you will need to register that
your self. The easiest way to do that is to first add ``users`` to your
``INSTALLED_APPS`` and then add something like this to ``ùsers/admin.py``::

    from primate.admin import UserAdminBase
    from django.contrib import admin
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User


    class UserAdmin(UserAdminBase):
        pass


    admin.site.register(User, UserAdmin)


What's now in ``UserBase`` compared to ``django.contrib.auth.models.User``?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have made some minor changes:

1. Removed ``first_name`` and ``last_name``

2. Added ``name``

3. ``username`` is now max 50 chars

4. Made ``email`` unique

5. ``get_profile`` method just returns self


As stated earlier, you can now change all this, remove add and override fields
in your user model.


South
^^^^^
I was worried, this is a major feature, luckely Andrew already thought of this:
qoute from the documentation under ``SOUTH_MIGRATION_MODULES``:

"Note that the keys in this dictionary are ‘app labels’, not the full paths to
apps; for example, were I to provide a migrations directory for
django.contrib.auth, I’d want to use auth as the key here."

So the time has come, just add this to your settings::

    SOUTH_MIGRATION_MODULES = {
        'auth': 'users.migrations',
    }


Alternative password hashing
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SHA-1 is the default django hashing algorithm for passwords. Some may not agree
that this is the best choice. ``django-primate`` makes it simple for you to use
alternative hashing as you can just override the ``check_password`` and
``set_password`` methods in your custom user model. Since bcrypt is a good
choice there is a simple way for you to implement hashing using this::

    ``project/users/models.py``::

        from primate.models import UserBase, UserMeta, BcryptMixin
        from django.db import models

        class CustomUser(BcryptMixin, UserBase):
            __metaclass__ = UserMeta


Note that this will update all passwords on authorization success to use bcrypt.