Well I got around to doing a 2nd revision on my model change code (being the weekend I was wondering if it would come to pass). Per a suggestion by "thepointer" (#django IRC on freenode), I switched the code from using Python's generic vars() to Django's interal _meta. Using an internal API is probably not the ultimate best, but _meta has been stable and unchanged for quite a while.
I also added a "human_friendly" mode, which will take the model change and attempt to turn it into an understandable statement (string) about what exactly has changed. It still returns it in a dictionary with the field name as the key.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
from django.db import models
def determine_model_change(old_model, new_model, human_friendly=False, ignore_fields={}):
"""
Compares the two models against each other, returning a dictionary of
values that have changed (new value only).
Setting human_friendly=True will cause ignore internal fields like
SlugField. It will also attempt to parse a meaningful statement for
the model change. ie 'Event date is now 5/7/2009'
"""
not_human_fields = (
models.fields.SlugField,
models.fields.FilePathField,
models.IPAddressField,
models.FileField,
models.ImageField,
models.XMLField,
)
changed = {}
if isinstance(old_model, models.Model) and isinstance(new_model, models.Model):
for f in new_model._meta.fields:
if not f.name in ignore_fields:
new_value = getattr(new_model, f.name, '')
old_value = getattr(old_model, f.name, '')
if cmp(new_value, old_value) != 0:
if human_friendly:
if not type(f) in not_human_fields:
changed[f.name] = __verbose_field_change(old_model, new_model, f)
else:
changed[f.name] = new_value
return changed
def __verbose_field_change(old_model, new_model, field):
"""
Returns the human-friendly text for a field change
"""
value = getattr(new_model, field.name)
if isinstance(field, models.fields.DateField) or \
isinstance(field, models.fields.TimeField) or \
isinstance(field, models.fields.DateTimeField):
value = value.strftime('%b %d, %Y %I:%M %p')
return '%s %s has changed to %s' % (
old_model,
field.verbose_name,
value
)
# -------------
# Sample usage:
# -------------
>>>
>>> from happenings.models import *
>>> import copy, datetime
>>>
>>> event = Event.objects.get(pk=1)
>>> event.name = "My Birthday"
>>> event.start_time = datetime.datetime(2009, 7, 5, 0, 0)
>>>
>>> newevent = copy.copy(event)
>>> newevent.start_time = datetime.datetime(2009, 7, 15, 0, 0)
>>>
>>> determine_model_change(event, newevent)
{'start_time': datetime.datetime(2009, 7, 15, 0, 0)}
>>>
>>> determine_model_change(event, newevent, human_friendly=True)
{'start_time': 'My Birthday start time has changed to Jul 15, 2009 12:00 AM'}