Django: Customize the User model's return field

Question

The default return field of Django's User model is 'username'. However, my application needs it to be 'first_name'. Currently, I just forked Django and made this change to the User model:

def __str__(self):
    return self.first_name

It works fine, but I wonder if there are other SIMPLE ways of doing this without forking Django?

Answer 1

There is a way to inject a new method on your User class.

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

def get_first_name(self):
    return self.first_name

User.add_to_class("__str__", get_first_name)

You can put this in a common application (preferably inside models.py)

Not very clean, but does the job without overriding the entire User model, if you only need this single change.

Answer 2

I think the best way to do this would be to use a custom user model, then define get_full_name() and/or get_short_name() to return first_name.

Answer 3

First, create a custom user using django documentation

Once, you have your custom user, go to MyUser Class. Add fields like first_name, last_name or whatever you need.

You will get some thing like this.

class MyUser(AbstractBaseUser):
    email = models.EmailField(
        verbose_name='email address',
        max_length=255,
        unique=True,
    )
    first_name = models.CharField(max_length=32)
    last_name = models.CharField(max_length=32)
    date_of_birth = models.DateField()
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
    is_admin = models.BooleanField(default=False)

    objects = MyUserManager()

    USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
    REQUIRED_FIELDS = ['date_of_birth']

    def get_full_name(self):
        # The user is identified by their email address
        return self.email

    def get_short_name(self):
        # The user is identified by their email address
        return self.email

    def __str__(self):              # __unicode__ on Python 2
        return self.email

    def has_perm(self, perm, obj=None):
        "Does the user have a specific permission?"
        # Simplest possible answer: Yes, always
        return True

    def has_module_perms(self, app_label):
        "Does the user have permissions to view the app `app_label`?"
        # Simplest possible answer: Yes, always
        return True

    @property
    def is_staff(self):
        "Is the user a member of staff?"
        # Simplest possible answer: All admins are staff
        return self.is_admin

Now, Edit __str__ function inside your class to this.

    def __str__(self):              # __unicode__ on Python 2
        return self.first_name

Remember, fields like date_of_birth etc are optional.

Answer 4

Similar to Randy Tang's answer: you can avoid the issue Ramast mentioned by using a Proxy Model:

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

    def __str__(self):
        return self.first_name

As per the docs:

You can create, delete and update instances of the proxy model and all the data will be saved as if you were using the original (non-proxied) model.