How do I migrate a model out of one django app and into a new one?

Question

How to migrate using south.

Lets say we got two apps: common and specific:

myproject/
|-- common
|   |-- migrations
|   |   |-- 0001_initial.py
|   |   `-- 0002_create_cat.py
|   `-- models.py
`-- specific
    |-- migrations
    |   |-- 0001_initial.py
    |   `-- 0002_create_dog.py
    `-- models.py

Now we want to move model common.models.cat to specific app (precisely to specific.models.cat). First make the changes in the source code and then run:

$ python manage.py schemamigration specific create_cat --auto
 + Added model 'specific.cat'
$ python manage.py schemamigration common drop_cat --auto
 - Deleted model 'common.cat'

myproject/
|-- common
|   |-- migrations
|   |   |-- 0001_initial.py
|   |   |-- 0002_create_cat.py
|   |   `-- 0003_drop_cat.py
|   `-- models.py
`-- specific
    |-- migrations
    |   |-- 0001_initial.py
    |   |-- 0002_create_dog.py
    |   `-- 0003_create_cat.py
    `-- models.py

Now we need to edit both migration files:

#0003_create_cat: replace existing forward and backward code
#to use just one sentence:

def forwards(self, orm):
    db.rename_table('common_cat', 'specific_cat') 

    if not db.dry_run:
        # For permissions to work properly after migrating
        orm['contenttypes.contenttype'].objects.filter(
            app_label='common',
            model='cat',
        ).update(app_label='specific')

def backwards(self, orm):
    db.rename_table('specific_cat', 'common_cat')

    if not db.dry_run:
        # For permissions to work properly after migrating
        orm['contenttypes.contenttype'].objects.filter(
            app_label='specific',
            model='cat',
        ).update(app_label='common')

---

#0003_drop_cat:replace existing forward and backward code
#to use just one sentence; add dependency:

depends_on = (
    ('specific', '0003_create_cat'),
)
def forwards(self, orm):
    pass
def backwards(self, orm):
    pass

Now both apps migrations are aware of the change and life sucks just a little less :-) Setting this relationship between migrations is key of success. Now if you do:

python manage.py migrate common
 > specific: 0003_create_cat
 > common: 0003_drop_cat

will do both migration, and

python manage.py migrate specific 0002_create_dog
 < common: 0003_drop_cat
 < specific: 0003_create_cat

will migrate things down.

Notice that for upgrading of schema I used common app and for downgrading, I used specific app. That's because how the dependency here works.

To build on Potr Czachur's answer, situations that involve ForeignKeys are more complicated and should be handled slightly differently.

(The following example builds on the common and specific apps referred to the in the current answer).

# common/models.py

class Cat(models.Model):
    # ...

class Toy(models.Model):
    belongs_to = models.ForeignKey(Cat)
    # ...

would then change to

# common/models.py

from specific.models import Cat

class Toy(models.Model):
    belongs_to = models.ForeignKey(Cat)
    # ...

# specific/models.py

class Cat(models.Model):
    # ...

Running

./manage.py schemamigration common --auto
./manage.py schemamigration specific --auto # or --initial

would generate the following the migrations (I'm intentionally ignoring Django ContentType changes—see previously referenced answer for how to handle that):

# common/migrations/0009_auto__del_cat.py

class Migration(SchemaMigration):
    def forwards(self, orm):
        db.delete_table('common_cat')
        db.alter_column('common_toy', 'belongs_to_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey')(to=orm['specific.Cat']))

    def backwards(self, orm):
        db.create_table('common_cat', (
            # ...
        ))
        db.alter_column('common_toy', 'belongs_to_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey')(to=orm['common.Cat']))

# specific/migrations/0004_auto__add_cat.py

class Migration(SchemaMigration):
    def forwards(self, orm):
        db.create_table('specific_cat', (
            # ...
        ))

    def backwards(self, orm):
        db.delete_table('specific_cat')

As you can see, the FK must be altered to reference the new table. We need to add a dependency so that we know the order in which the migrations will be applied (and thus that the table will exist before we try to add a FK to it) but we also need to make sure rolling backwards works too because the dependency applies in the reverse direction.

# common/migrations/0009_auto__del_cat.py

class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    depends_on = (
        ('specific', '0004_auto__add_cat'),
    )

    def forwards(self, orm):
        db.alter_column('common_toy', 'belongs_to_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey')(to=orm['specific.Cat']))

    def backwards(self, orm):
        db.rename_table('specific_cat', 'common_cat')
        db.alter_column('common_toy', 'belongs_to_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey')(to=orm['common.Cat']))

# specific/migrations/0004_auto__add_cat.py

class Migration(SchemaMigration):
    def forwards(self, orm):
        db.rename_table('common_cat', 'specific_cat')

    def backwards(self, orm):
        pass

Per the South documentation, depends_on will ensure that 0004_auto__add_cat runs before 0009_auto__del_cat when migrating forwards but in the opposite order when migrating backwards. If we left db.rename_table('specific_cat', 'common_cat') in the specific rollback, the common rollback would fail when trying to migrate the ForeignKey because the table referenced table wouldn't exist.

Hopefully this is closer to a "real world" situation than the existing solutions and someone will find this helpful. Cheers!

Models aren't very tightly coupled to apps, so moving is fairly simple. Django uses the app name in the name of the database table, so if you want to move your app you can either rename the database table via an SQL ALTER TABLE statement, or - even simpler - just use the db_table parameter in your model's Meta class to refer to the old name.

If you've used ContentTypes or generic relations anywhere in your code so far, you will probably want to rename the app_label of the contenttype pointing at the model that's moving, so that existing relations are preserved.

Of course, if you don't have any data at all to preserve, the easiest thing to do is to drop the database tables completely and run ./manage.py syncdb again.

Here's one more fix to Potr's excellent solution. Add the following to specific/0003_create_cat

depends_on = (
    ('common', '0002_create_cat'),
)

Unless this dependency is set South will not guarantee that the common_cat table exists at the time when specific/0003_create_cat is run, throwing an django.db.utils.OperationalError: no such table: common_cat error at you.

South runs migrations in lexicographical order unless dependency is explicitly set. Since common comes before specific all the common's migrations would get run before table renaming, so it probably wouldn't reproduce in the original example shown by Potr. But if you rename common to app2 and specific to app1 you will run into this problem.

The process I've currently settled on since I've been back here a few times and decided to formalise it.

This was originally built on Potr Czachur's answer and Matt Briançon's answer, using South 0.8.4

Step 1. Discover child foreign key relationships

# Caution: This finds OneToOneField and ForeignKey.
# I don't know if this finds all the ways of specifying ManyToManyField.
# Hopefully Django or South throw errors if you have a situation like that.
>>> Cat._meta.get_all_related_objects()
[<RelatedObject: common:toy related to cat>,
 <RelatedObject: identity:microchip related to cat>]

So in this extended case, we have discovered another related model like:

# Inside the "identity" app...
class Microchip(models.Model):

    # In reality we'd probably want a ForeignKey, but to show the OneToOneField
    identifies = models.OneToOneField(Cat)

    ...

Step 2. Create migrations

# Create the "new"-ly renamed model
# Yes I'm changing the model name in my refactoring too.
python manage.py schemamigration specific create_kittycat --auto

# Drop the old model
python manage.py schemamigration common drop_cat --auto

# Update downstream apps, so South thinks their ForeignKey(s) are correct.
# Can skip models like Toy if the app is already covered
python manage.py schemamigration identity update_microchip_fk --auto

Step 3. Source control: Commit changes so far.

Makes it a more repeatable process if you run into merge conflicts like team mates writing migrations on the updated apps.

Step 4. Add dependencies between the migrations.

Basically create_kittycat depends on the current state of everything, and everything then depends on create_kittycat.

# create_kittycat
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    depends_on = (
        # Original model location
        ('common', 'the_one_before_drop_cat'),

        # Foreign keys to models not in original location
        ('identity', 'the_one_before_update_microchip_fk'),
    )
    ...


# drop_cat
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    depends_on = (
        ('specific', 'create_kittycat'),
    )
    ...


# update_microchip_fk
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    depends_on = (
        ('specific', 'create_kittycat'),
    )
    ...

Step 5. The table rename change we want to make.

# create_kittycat
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    ...

    # Hopefully for create_kittycat you only need to change the following
    # 4 strings to go forward cleanly... backwards will need a bit more work.
    old_app = 'common'
    old_model = 'cat'
    new_app = 'specific'
    new_model = 'kittycat'

    # You may also wish to update the ContentType.name,
    # personally, I don't know what its for and
    # haven't seen any side effects from skipping it.

    def forwards(self, orm):

        db.rename_table(
            '%s_%s' % (self.old_app, self.old_model),
            '%s_%s' % (self.new_app, self.new_model),
        )

        if not db.dry_run:
            # For permissions, GenericForeignKeys, etc to work properly after migrating.
            orm['contenttypes.contenttype'].objects.filter(
                app_label=self.old_app,
                model=self.old_model,
            ).update(
                app_label=self.new_app,
                model=self.new_model,
            )

        # Going forwards, should be no problem just updating child foreign keys
        # with the --auto in the other new South migrations

    def backwards(self, orm):

        db.rename_table(
            '%s_%s' % (self.new_app, self.new_model),
            '%s_%s' % (self.old_app, self.old_model),
        )

        if not db.dry_run:
            # For permissions, GenericForeignKeys, etc to work properly after migrating.
            orm['contenttypes.contenttype'].objects.filter(
                app_label=self.new_app,
                model=self.new_model,
            ).update(
                app_label=self.old_app,
                model=self.old_model,
            )

        # Going backwards, you probably should copy the ForeignKey
        # db.alter_column() changes from the other new migrations in here
        # so they run in the correct order.
        #
        # Test it! See Step 6 for more details if you need to go backwards.
        db.alter_column('common_toy', 'belongs_to_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey')(to=orm['common.Cat']))
        db.alter_column('identity_microchip', 'identifies_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.OneToOneField')(to=orm['common.Cat']))


# drop_cat
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    ...

    def forwards(self, orm):
        # Remove the db.delete_table(), if you don't at Step 7 you'll likely get
        # "django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: table "common_cat" does not exist"

        # Leave existing db.alter_column() statements here
        db.alter_column('common_toy', 'belongs_to_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey')(to=orm['specific.KittyCat']))

    def backwards(self, orm):
        # Copy/paste the auto-generated db.alter_column()
        # into the create_kittycat migration if you need backwards to work.
        pass


# update_microchip_fk
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    ...

    def forwards(self, orm):
        # Leave existing db.alter_column() statements here
        db.alter_column('identity_microchip', 'identifies_id', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.related.OneToOneField')(to=orm['specific.KittyCat']))

    def backwards(self, orm):
        # Copy/paste the auto-generated db.alter_column()
        # into the create_kittycat migration if you need backwards to work.
        pass

Step 6. Only if you need backwards() to work AND get a KeyError running backwards.

# the_one_before_create_kittycat
class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    # You many also need to add more models to South's FakeORM if you run into
    # more KeyErrors, the trade-off chosen was to make going forward as easy as
    # possible, as that's what you'll probably want to do once in QA and once in
    # production, rather than running the following many times:
    #
    # python manage.py migrate specific <the_one_before_create_kittycat>

    models = {
        ...
        # Copied from 'identity' app, 'update_microchip_fk' migration
        u'identity.microchip': {
            'Meta': {'object_name': 'Microchip'},
            u'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
            'name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'unique': 'True', 'max_length': '80'}),
            'identifies': ('django.db.models.fields.related.OneToOneField', [], {to=orm['specific.KittyCat']})
        },
        ...
    }

Step 7. Test it - what works for me may not be enough for your real life situation :)

python manage.py migrate

# If you need backwards to work
python manage.py migrate specific <the_one_before_create_kittycat>

So using the the original response from @Potr above did not work for me on South 0.8.1 and Django 1.5.1. I am posting what did work for me below in the hope that it is helpful to others.

from south.db import db
from south.v2 import SchemaMigration
from django.db import models

class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    def forwards(self, orm):
        db.rename_table('common_cat', 'specific_cat') 

        if not db.dry_run:
             db.execute(
                "update django_content_type set app_label = 'specific' where "
                " app_label = 'common' and model = 'cat';")

    def backwards(self, orm):
        db.rename_table('specific_cat', 'common_cat')
            db.execute(
                "update django_content_type set app_label = 'common' where "
                " app_label = 'specific' and model = 'cat';")