django's easy button

Writing django is great, but coming from Rails roots, a few things have always felt missing.

• Extended models with easy.models.easy_model, which has several derivatives, such as strong_id_model (primary key is a random varchar(40)), weak_id_model (same, but with varchar(8)), and user_owned_model (a weak_id_model with a foreign key to the users table)

  class Address(easy.models.user_owned_model):
    country = models.CharField(max_length=128)
  
  a= Address.objects.create(user_id=1, country="US")
  a.save()
  a.id #=> 'a8zf139d'
  a.user #=> <User: linked>
  

• Quick and easy model lookup shorthand

  # Shortcut methods work with-or-without ".object"
  # .first(), .last(), .random() are obvious --
  Address.first()
  
  # Shortcuts for common lookups
  # a = all, f = filter, e = exclude, g = get_or_none, g404 = get_or_404
  user_address = Address.g(pk='', user=req.user) or Address(user=req.user)
  
  # Chaining still works
  Address.f(user=req.user).e(country='US').first()
  

• "Scoping" -- really just dynamic lookup aliasing (still in development).

  class LogMessage(easy.models.strong_id_model):
    level = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    def __init__(self,*args,**kwargs):
      super(LogMessage,self).__init__(*args,**kwargs)
      self.scope('errors', lambda qs: qs.f(level='error'))
  
  # Now you can do, e.g. ->
  LogMessage.errors().count()
  

• easy.views -- making rapidly developing front-ends suck less by drastically cutting the required code for common tasks

  # Lists of objects owned by a user
  # ("Event" must be a user_owned_model, or relation must be specified)
  def my_events(req):
      return user_object_list(req, Event.a(),
          relation='user_id',
          template='events/object_list.html'})
  
  # Or get a single object for the user
  # Throws a 404 if not found
  def event_info(req, id):
      a = 5
      return user_object_detail(req, Event.f(pk=id),
              relation='user_id',
              template='events/info.html',
              extra_context={'a_value': a})
  
  # A "new-or-edit" form
  # Called with an id, this form is for editing
  # Called without an id, the form is for creating
  def event_form(req, id=False):
      return user_form_page(req, Event, EventForm,
              instance=Event.find(id),
              redirect_to='/events/{id}')
  

• mongodb support: easy.models.mongo has basic support for adding the easy_queries_mixin to mongodb-engine models, if you're using it.

that was easy