Equivalent of get_or_create for adding users

Question

Is there a simpler way to add a user than with the following pattern?

    try:
        new_user = User.objects.create_user(username, email, password)
    except          


        

Answer 1

I don't think so. But you can proxify the Django User:

class MyUser(User):
    class Meta:
        proxy = True

    def get_or_create(self, username, email, password, *args, **kwargs):
        try:
            new_user = User.objects.create_user(username, email, password)
        except IntegrityError:
            return User.objects.get(username=username, email=email)
        else:
            new_user.first_name = kwargs['first_name'] # or what you want
            ...etc...

        return new_user

Answer 2

In Django 1.4, get_or_create() exists for User.

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

_user = User.objects.get_or_create(
        username=u'bob',
        password=u'bobspassword',
    )

Answer 3

This method should solve this problem but keep in mind that in the database, password is kept as a hash of the password, and as pointed before, "get_or_create" makes an exact lookup. So before the lookup actually happens, we "pop" the password from the kwargs. This method on your custom UserManager:

def get_or_create(self, defaults=None, **kwargs):
    password = kwargs.pop('password', None)
    obj, created = super(UserManager, self).get_or_create(defaults, **kwargs)
    if created and password:
        obj.set_password(password)
        obj.save()
    return obj, created

Answer 4

It is better not to catch IntegrityError as it can happen for other reasons. You need to check if user exists, excluding the password. If user already exists, set the password.

user, created = User.objects.get_or_create(username=username, email=email)
if not created:
    user.set_password(password)