Extending the User model with custom fields in Django

Question

What\'s the best way to extend the User model (bundled with Django\'s authentication app) with custom fields? I would also possibly like to use the email as the username (fo

Answer 1

Note: this answer is deprecated. see other answers if you are using Django 1.7 or later.

This is how I do it.

#in models.py
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.db.models.signals import post_save

class UserProfile(models.Model):  
    user = models.OneToOneField(User)  
    #other fields here

    def __str__(self):  
          return "%s's profile" % self.user  

def create_user_profile(sender, instance, created, **kwargs):  
    if created:  
       profile, created = UserProfile.objects.get_or_create(user=instance)  

post_save.connect(create_user_profile, sender=User) 

#in settings.py
AUTH_PROFILE_MODULE = 'YOURAPP.UserProfile'

This will create a userprofile each time a user is saved if it is created. You can then use

  user.get_profile().whatever

Here is some more info from the docs

http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/auth/#storing-additional-information-about-users

Update: Please note that AUTH_PROFILE_MODULE is deprecated since v1.5: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/ref/settings/#auth-profile-module