Luke beat me to it... We have a couple of abstract models which will fall through a small list of field names, trying to guess a useful default for __str__ ... but it makes me feel dirty every time I see it.
Beyond "blessing" a particular (set of?) field names as default str names... this also adds more magic, and the trend I'm seeing now in the IRC channel is people are believing too much in magic. Just my 0.0000000152 bitcoins... -- Curtis On 11 July 2013 13:51, Luke Sneeringer <l...@sneeringer.com> wrote: > What makes “name” special. Why not “label”, “title”, “code”, or any number > of other things that people use internally? > > It also seems like you could solve this very easily by creating a stub > model: > > from django.db import models > > class MyModel(models.Model): > class Meta: > abstract = True > > def __unicode__(self): > return self.name > > This has the advantage of your not having to repeat yourself often (and it > gives you another place to put your own particular things which you > consistently practice), while not becoming opinionated about a naming > scheme across the entire framework. > > Best Regards, > Luke Sneeringer > > P. S. A place where I *would* love to see a better Django default would be > in the __repr__ method. > > On Jul 10, 2013, at 9:46 PM, cmawebs...@gmail.com wrote: > > Hi All, > > Have you ever quickly set up a model, ran syncdb, and added a few sample > objects in the admin to only see a bunch of "MyModel object"s in the > changelist? I always forget to add a __unicode__()/__str__() method on my > models. > > I ran "git grep -1 __unicode__" on some of my django projects and noticed > a lot of repeated code. In fact, it seems that in about a _third_ of all my > cases, I'm just returning self.name, or returning self.name would have > been a good default. I looked at a few 3rd party apps for comparison and > found similar results, though not for every app. > > IMHO, returning self.name (if the field or property exists) is a sensible > default for __unicode__. We can still return "MyModel object" if there's no > "name" attribute. You'll still end up adding your own __unicode__ method > much of the time, just like you always have. > > Yes, it's "magic", but we can document it. > Yes, it's a little more confusing, but we don't have to explain it during > the tutorial. > Yes, it's backwards incompatible, but only in rare cases should it be a > problem. > Yes, it could look like any Model without a "name" field is "wrong", but > it's not. > Yes, "title" is also very popular, but name is better. :) > > It has the effect of being a little more friendly in many cases, and can > result in more DRY code. > > What do your __unicode__/__str__ methods look like? Is this a bad idea? > > Thanks, > Collin > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Django developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Django developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
