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Models ​

Abstract base classes provided by prefab.models, available to all Prefab apps and project models.

PrefabModel ​

Base for all Prefab models. Provides:

  • __str__ — returns name, title, or the default Django repr
  • meta_title property — returns str(self)
  • url property — alias for get_absolute_url()
  • get_admin_url() — returns the Django admin change URL for the instance
  • Sets self.is_created before each save (useful in post_save signals)
python
from prefab.models import PrefabModel

class Article(PrefabModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return reverse('article-detail', args=[self.pk])

article = Article.objects.first()
article.url          # same as article.get_absolute_url()
article.get_admin_url()  # '/admin/blog/article/1/change/'

TimeStampedModel ​

Extends PrefabModel. Adds:

  • date_created — set on first save
  • date_modified — updated on every subsequent save
  • Default ordering: -date_created
python
from prefab.models import TimeStampedModel

class Post(TimeStampedModel):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)

post = Post.objects.first()
post.date_created   # datetime of first save
post.date_modified  # datetime of last save

UserTimeStampedModel ​

Extends TimeStampedModel. Adds:

  • user_created — FK to AUTH_USER_MODEL, set at creation
  • user_modified — FK to AUTH_USER_MODEL, updated on save
  • created / modified properties — formatted strings including the user's name
python
from prefab.models import UserTimeStampedModel

class Document(UserTimeStampedModel):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)

doc = Document.objects.first()
doc.created   # e.g. '2024-01-01 by John Doe'
doc.modified  # e.g. '2024-06-15 by Jane Doe'

OrderableModel ​

Extends PrefabModel. Adds:

  • position — integer for manual ordering
  • Auto-assigns max(position) + 1 on creation
  • Default ordering: position
python
from prefab.models import OrderableModel

class MenuItem(OrderableModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

# Items are returned in position order by default
MenuItems.objects.all()  # ordered by position

UUIDModel ​

Adds a UUID primary key (uuid) with an id property alias. Useful when you want UUIDs as PKs without using integers.

python
from prefab.models import UUIDModel

class Token(UUIDModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

token = Token.objects.first()
str(token.pk)  # 'a1b2c3d4-...'
token.id       # alias for token.uuid

HierarchicalModel ​

Extends MPTTModel + PrefabModel. Adds a self-referential parent tree FK for MPTT-based hierarchies.

python
from prefab.models import HierarchicalModel

class Category(HierarchicalModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

category = Category.objects.first()
category.get_ancestors()   # MPTT queryset of parent nodes
category.get_descendants() # MPTT queryset of child nodes

SlugModel / SlugMixin ​

Adds a slug field (always lowercased). Auto-derives the slug from name or title on first save using slugify.

python
from prefab.models import SlugModel

class Tag(SlugModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

tag = Tag.objects.create(name='Hello World')
tag.slug  # 'hello-world'

SlugsMixin ​

For hierarchical models that need a full path slug (e.g. parent-slug/child-slug). Saves a concatenated path to slugs. Call save(update_slugs=True, update_slugs_descendants=True) to rebuild the full tree.

python
from prefab.models import HierarchicalModel, SlugsMixin

class Page(SlugsMixin, HierarchicalModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

page = Page.objects.get(name='Child')
page.slugs  # 'parent-page/child'

SocialModel ​

Adds social platform handle fields for 20+ networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, GitHub, etc.) with helper methods to build profile URLs. Automatically normalizes pasted URLs to just the handle on save.

python
from prefab.models import SocialModel

class Profile(SocialModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

# Pasting a full URL normalizes to just the handle on save
profile.twitter = 'https://twitter.com/django'
profile.save()
profile.twitter  # 'django'

AdjectiveMixin / SubjectMixin / ContentQualityMixin ​

Smaller mixins for adding adjective, subject/grammatical gender, and content quality classification fields.

python
from prefab.models import TimeStampedModel, ContentQualityMixin

class Article(ContentQualityMixin, TimeStampedModel):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)