Django related_name not found

Question

I have this model:

class Person(models.Model):
    something ...
    employers = models.ManyToManyField('self', blank=True, related_name='employees')

When I do person.employees.all() I get this error: 'Person' object has no attribute 'employees'. Is the related name only created when there is an actual link in place. If yes, how can I check this?

EDIT: I'm aware of the hasattr() function. I'm still wondering why the attribute doesn't return an empty list when there's no related objects.

Answer 1

To use related_name with recursive many-to-many you need set symmetrical=False. Without it Django will not add employees attribute to the class. From the docs:

When Django processes this model, it identifies that it has a ManyToManyField on itself, and as a result, it doesn’t add a person_set attribute to the Person class. Instead, the ManyToManyField is assumed to be symmetrical – that is, if I am your friend, then you are my friend.

So you can add symmetrical=False to the field:

employers = models.ManyToManyField('self', blank=True, related_name='employees', symmetrical=False)

person.employees.all() # will work now

or just use employers attribute:

person.employers.all()