django get_current_user() middleware - strange error message which goes away if source code is “changed” , which leads to an automatic server restart

Question

I\'m using a middleware to get the currently logged in user in my views and models. This helps me to for example return only the objects created or assigned to the logged-in

Answer 1

This looks like a bad approach: you need to pass the request object around to provide a function/class/method with access to the current user. Don't mess with a global state.

Create a method on your manager that takes the user as an argument, and call this from your views:

# models.py
class ProjectMembership(models.Model):
    project = models.ForeignKey(Project)
    member = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name='project_membership_member_set')
    day_rate = models.PositiveIntegerField(max_length=11)

class ProjectManager(models.Manager):
    def for_user(self, user):
        return self.get_query_set().filter(projectmembership__member=user)

class Project(models.Model):
    name    = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    objects = ProjectManager()

# somewhere deep in views.py
if request.user.is_authenticated():
    Project.objects.for_user(request.user)

Answer 2

Ignoring the thread local sideshow, your problem is probably related to the fact that the AnonymousUser object is not really a User model instance. Querying the database with this object may not get you very far. You will want to check for authenticated users at some point, either in the view:

if request.user.is_authenticated():
    Project.objects.for_user(request.user)

Or in your manager method:

def for_user(self, user):
    if user.is_authenticated():
        return self.get_query_set().filter(projectmembership__member=user)
    else:
        return self.get_query_set().none()