Integration with django-polymorphic

When you have to combine TranslatableModel with PolymorphicModel you have to make sure the model managers of both classes are combined too.

This can be done by either overwriting default_manager or by extending the Manager and QuerySet class.

Combining TranslatableModel with PolymorphicModel

Say we have a base Product with two concrete products, a Book with two translatable fields name and slug, and a Pen with one translatable field identifier. Then the following pattern works for a polymorphic Django model:

from django.db import models
from django.utils.encoding import force_text
from parler.models import TranslatableModel, TranslatedFields
from parler.managers import TranslatableManager
from polymorphic import PolymorphicModel
from .managers import BookManager


class Product(PolymorphicModel):
    # The shared base model. Either place translated fields here,
    # or place them at the subclasses (see note below).
    code = models.CharField(blank=False, default='', max_length=16)
    price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=10, decimal_places=2, default=0.00)


class Book(Product, TranslatableModel):
    # Solution 1: use a custom manager that combines both.
    objects = BookManager()

    translations = TranslatedFields(
        name=models.CharField(blank=False, default='', max_length=128),
        slug=models.SlugField(blank=False, default='', max_length=128)
    )

    def __str__(self):
        return force_text(self.code)


class Pen(Product, TranslatableModel):
    # Solution 2: override the default manager.
    default_manager = TranslatableManager()

    translations = TranslatedFields(
        identifier=models.CharField(blank=False, default='', max_length=255)
    )

    def __str__(self):
        return force_text(self.identifier)

The only precaution one must take, is to override the default manager in each of the classes containing translatable fields. This is shown in the example above.

As of django-parler 1.2 it’s possible to have translations on both the base and derived models. Make sure that the field name (in this case translations) differs between both models, as that name is used as related_name for the translated fields model

Combining managers

The managers can be combined by inheriting them, and specifying the queryset_class attribute with both django-parler and django-polymorphic use.

from parler.managers import TranslatableManager, TranslatableQuerySet
from polymorphic import PolymorphicManager
from polymorphic.query import PolymorphicQuerySet


class BookQuerySet(TranslatableQuerySet, PolymorphicQuerySet):
    pass

class BookManager(PolymorphicManager, TranslatableManager):
    queryset_class = BookQuerySet

Assign the manager to the model objects attribute.

Implementing the admin

It is perfectly possible to to register individual polymorphic models in the Django admin interface. However, to use these models in a single cohesive interface, some extra base classes are available.

This admin interface adds translatable fields to a polymorphic model:

from django.contrib import admin
from parler.admin import TranslatableAdmin, TranslatableModelForm
from polymorphic.admin import PolymorphicParentModelAdmin, PolymorphicChildModelAdmin
from .models import BaseProduct, Book, Pen


class BookAdmin(TranslatableAdmin, PolymorphicChildModelAdmin):
    base_form = TranslatableModelForm
    base_model = BaseProduct
    base_fields = ('code', 'price', 'name', 'slug')

class PenAdmin(TranslatableAdmin, PolymorphicChildModelAdmin):
    base_form = TranslatableModelForm
    base_model = BaseProduct
    base_fields = ('code', 'price', 'identifier',)

class BaseProductAdmin(PolymorphicParentModelAdmin):
    base_model = BaseProduct
    child_models = ((Book, BookAdmin), (Pen, PenAdmin),)
    list_display = ('code', 'price',)

admin.site.register(BaseProduct, BaseProductAdmin)