User Models

Author

Benedict Thekkel

Default User Model

Django comes with a built-in user model, User, which is located in the django.contrib.auth.models module. This model provides several fields and methods to manage users, such as:

username
first_name
last_name
email
password
is_staff
is_active
is_superuser
last_login
date_joined

Creating a Superuser

To create an admin/superuser, use the createsuperuser management command: > This command prompts you to enter a username, email, and password.

python manage.py createsuperuser

## Authenticating Users

> Django provides an `authenticate()` function in `django.contrib.auth` to verify user credentials:

```python
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate

user = authenticate(username='john', password='secret')
if user is not None:
    # A backend authenticated the credentials
else:
    # No backend authenticated the credentials

Logging In Users

To log in a user, use the login() function from django.contrib.auth

from django.contrib.auth import login

login(request, user)

Logging Out Users

To log out a user, use the logout() function

from django.contrib.auth import logout

logout(request)

Custom User Model

Django allows you to customize the user model by extending the base model or by creating a completely new one. This is especially useful if you need to add extra fields or change the behavior of the user model.

Extending the Default User Model

If you only need to add a few extra fields to the existing user model, you can extend AbstractUser

from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractUser

class CustomUser(AbstractUser):
    bio = models.TextField(max_length=500, blank=True)

Creating a Custom User Model

If you need more control over the user model, you can create a custom user model by extending AbstractBaseUser and PermissionsMixin:

UserManager: djangos default user manager
BaseUserManager: custom
AbstractUser: djangos default user model
AbstractBaseUser: custom
PermissionsMixin: all the methods for django permission model

from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager, PermissionsMixin
from django.db import models

class CustomUserManager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields):
        if not email:
            raise ValueError('The Email field must be set')
        if not password:
            raise ValueError('The Password field must be set')
        email = self.normalize_email(email)
        user = self.model(email=email, **extra_fields)
        user.set_password(password)
        user.save(using=self._db)
        return user

    def create_superuser(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields):
        extra_fields.setdefault('is_staff', True)
        extra_fields.setdefault('is_superuser', True)

        if extra_fields.get('is_staff') is not True:
            raise ValueError('Superuser must have is_staff=True.')
        if extra_fields.get('is_superuser') is not True:
            raise ValueError('Superuser must have is_superuser=True.')

        return self.create_user(email, password, **extra_fields)

class CustomUser(AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin):
    email = models.EmailField(unique=True)
    first_name = models.CharField(max_length=30, blank=True)
    last_name = models.CharField(max_length=30, blank=True)
    date_joined = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
    is_staff = models.BooleanField(default=False)

    objects = CustomUserManager()

    USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
    REQUIRED_FIELDS = ['first_name', 'last_name']

    def __str__(self):
        return self.email

Using the Custom User Model

To use the custom user model, update the AUTH_USER_MODEL setting in your settings.py

AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'yourapp.CustomUser'

Migrating to a Custom User Model

Switching to a custom user model after running migrate can be complex. It’s generally recommended to set up the custom user model at the start of your project. If you need to switch to a custom user model later, you may need to: - Create a new model. - Write custom migration scripts to handle the transition. - Update all references to the old user model.

User Managers

Custom user models often require a custom manager. The manager is responsible for creating users and superusers.

create_user(): Method to create a regular user.
create_superuser(): Method to create a superuser.

The custom manager should inherit from BaseUserManager.

Example of Custom User Manager

class CustomUserManager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields):
        # Implementation here...

    def create_superuser(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields):
        # Implementation here...

User Authentication Backends

Django uses authentication backends to verify credentials. The default backend is ModelBackend, which authenticates against username and password.

You can create custom authentication backends by subclassing BaseBackend

from django.contrib.auth.backends import BaseBackend

class EmailBackend(BaseBackend):
    def authenticate(self, request, username=None, password=None, **kwargs):
        try:
            user = CustomUser.objects.get(email=username)
        except CustomUser.DoesNotExist:
            return None

        if user.check_password(password):
            return user
        return None

    def get_user(self, user_id):
        try:
            return CustomUser.objects.get(pk=user_id)
        except CustomUser.DoesNotExist:
            return None

To use the custom backend, add it to AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS in settings.py:

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = ['yourapp.backends.EmailBackend']

Signals

Django signals can be used to perform actions based on user-related events, such as user creation, login, or logout.

Example of Using Signals

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.db.models.signals import post_save
from django.dispatch import receiver

@receiver(post_save, sender=User)
def create_user_profile(sender, instance, created, **kwargs):
    if created:
        Profile.objects.create(user=instance)