When saving, how can you check if a field has changed?

Question

In my model I have :

class Alias(MyBaseModel):
    remote_image = models.URLField(max_length=500, null=True, help_text=\"A URL that is downloaded and cached          


        

Answer 1

Best way is with a pre_save signal. May not have been an option back in '09 when this question was asked and answered, but anyone seeing this today should do it this way:

@receiver(pre_save, sender=MyModel)
def do_something_if_changed(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    try:
        obj = sender.objects.get(pk=instance.pk)
    except sender.DoesNotExist:
        pass # Object is new, so field hasn't technically changed, but you may want to do something else here.
    else:
        if not obj.some_field == instance.some_field: # Field has changed
            # do something

Answer 2

I am a bit late to the party but I found this solution also: Django Dirty Fields

Answer 3

You can use django-model-changes to do this without an additional database lookup:

from django.dispatch import receiver
from django_model_changes import ChangesMixin

class Alias(ChangesMixin, MyBaseModel):
   # your model

@receiver(pre_save, sender=Alias)
def do_something_if_changed(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    if 'remote_image' in instance.changes():
        # do something

Answer 4

There is an attribute __dict__ which have all the fields as the keys and value as the field values. So we can just compare two of them

Just change the save function of model to the function below

def save(self, force_insert=False, force_update=False, using=None, update_fields=None):
    if self.pk is not None:
        initial = A.objects.get(pk=self.pk)
        initial_json, final_json = initial.__dict__.copy(), self.__dict__.copy()
        initial_json.pop('_state'), final_json.pop('_state')
        only_changed_fields = {k: {'final_value': final_json[k], 'initial_value': initial_json[k]} for k in initial_json if final_json[k] != initial_json[k]}
        print(only_changed_fields)
    super(A, self).save(force_insert=False, force_update=False, using=None, update_fields=None)

Example Usage:

class A(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200, null=True, blank=True)
    senior = models.CharField(choices=choices, max_length=3)
    timestamp = models.DateTimeField(null=True, blank=True)

    def save(self, force_insert=False, force_update=False, using=None, update_fields=None):
        if self.pk is not None:
            initial = A.objects.get(pk=self.pk)
            initial_json, final_json = initial.__dict__.copy(), self.__dict__.copy()
            initial_json.pop('_state'), final_json.pop('_state')
            only_changed_fields = {k: {'final_value': final_json[k], 'initial_value': initial_json[k]} for k in initial_json if final_json[k] != initial_json[k]}
            print(only_changed_fields)
        super(A, self).save(force_insert=False, force_update=False, using=None, update_fields=None)

yields output with only those fields that have been changed

{'name': {'initial_value': '1234515', 'final_value': 'nim'}, 'senior': {'initial_value': 'no', 'final_value': 'yes'}}

Answer 5

improving @josh answer for all fields:

class Person(models.Model):
  name = models.CharField()

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    super(Person, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
    self._original_fields = dict([(field.attname, getattr(self, field.attname))
        for field in self._meta.local_fields if not isinstance(field, models.ForeignKey)])

def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
  if self.id:
    for field in self._meta.local_fields:
      if not isinstance(field, models.ForeignKey) and\
        self._original_fields[field.name] != getattr(self, field.name):
        # Do Something    
  super(Person, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

just to clarify, the getattr works to get fields like person.name with strings (i.e. getattr(person, "name")

Answer 6

I have extended the mixin of @livskiy as follows:

class ModelDiffMixin(models.Model):
    """
    A model mixin that tracks model fields' values and provide some useful api
    to know what fields have been changed.
    """
    _dict = DictField(editable=False)
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(ModelDiffMixin, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self._initial = self._dict

    @property
    def diff(self):
        d1 = self._initial
        d2 = self._dict
        diffs = [(k, (v, d2[k])) for k, v in d1.items() if v != d2[k]]
        return dict(diffs)

    @property
    def has_changed(self):
        return bool(self.diff)

    @property
    def changed_fields(self):
        return self.diff.keys()

    def get_field_diff(self, field_name):
        """
        Returns a diff for field if it's changed and None otherwise.
        """
        return self.diff.get(field_name, None)

    def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
        """
        Saves model and set initial state.
        """
        object_dict = model_to_dict(self,
               fields=[field.name for field in self._meta.fields])
        for field in object_dict:
            # for FileFields
            if issubclass(object_dict[field].__class__, FieldFile):
                try:
                    object_dict[field] = object_dict[field].path
                except :
                    object_dict[field] = object_dict[field].name

            # TODO: add other non-serializable field types
        self._dict = object_dict
        super(ModelDiffMixin, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

and the DictField is:

class DictField(models.TextField):
    __metaclass__ = models.SubfieldBase
    description = "Stores a python dict"

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(DictField, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def to_python(self, value):
        if not value:
            value = {}

        if isinstance(value, dict):
            return value

        return json.loads(value)

    def get_prep_value(self, value):
        if value is None:
            return value
        return json.dumps(value)

    def value_to_string(self, obj):
        value = self._get_val_from_obj(obj)
        return self.get_db_prep_value(value)

it can be used by extending it in your models a _dict field will be added when you sync/migrate and that field will store the state of your objects