Model field

Define model with field that stores lists of strings:

# models.py
from django.db import models
from collectionfield.models import CollectionField

class MyModel(models.Model):
    tags = CollectionField()

Pass values to model field:

my_model = MyModel.objects.create(tags=['test', 'values'])
my_model.values
['test', 'values']

Making queries

Retrieve model instances with particular value present in the collection:

MyModel.objects.filter(tags__has='test')

Retrieve model instances with ALL values present in the collection (ignoring items’ order):

MyModel.objects.filter(tags__hasall=['test', 'values'])

Retrieve model instances with ANY of values present in the collection:

MyModel.objects.filter(tags__hasany=['test', 'values'])

Customizing collections

Custom collection and item type:

class IntegerSet(models.Model):
    # This field will provide sets of integers
    # instead of default lists of strings:
    values = CollectionField(collection_type=set, item_type=int)

Sorting and uniqueness:

class SortedUniqueTextList(models.Model):
    # Before saving, items will be sorted and duplicates dropped:
    texts = CollectionField(sort=True, unique_items=True)

Choices and collection size limit:

class TaggedModel(models.Model):
    tags = CollectionField(
        # Both choices and max_items limit are checked during model validation.
        choices=(
            ('action', "Action"),
            ('comedy', "Comedy"),
            ('horror', "Horror"),
            # ...
        ),
        max_items=2
    )

get_FIELD_display method can handle multiple choices and provide options to customize the display:

tagged_model = TaggedModel.objects.create(tags=['action', 'horror'])
tagged_model.get_tags_display()
"Action, Horror"

def li_mapper(value, label):
    return "<li>{0}</li>".format(label)

def ul_wrapper(field_display):
    return "<ul>{0}</ul>".format(field_display)

tagged_model.get_tags_display(delimiter='', mapper=li_mapper, wrapper=ul_wrapper)
'<ul><li>Action</li><li>Horror</li></ul>'

Django built-in validators work with entire field values. django-collectionfield provide validation of single collection items:

from collectionfield.validators import (
    ItemMinValueValidator, ItemMaxValueValidator
)

class IntegerList(models.Model):
    values = CollectionField(
        item_type=int,
        # item validators check each item separately:
        validators=[ItemMinValueValidator(1), ItemMaxValueValidator(5)]
    )

Form fields

django-collectionfield comes with 2 form fields:

from collectionfield.forms import CollectionField, CollectionChoiceField

# ``collectionfield.forms.CollectionField`` converts comma-separated text
# into collection of values:

class MyForm(forms.Form):
    values = CollectionField()

my_form = MyForm({'values': "A, B, C"})
my_form.is_valid()
True
my_form.cleaned_data['values']
['A', 'B', 'C']

# ``collectionfield.forms.CollectionChoiceField`` behaves more like
# regular MultipleChoiceField:

class MyChoiceForm(forms.Form):
   values = CollectionChoiceField(
       choices=(
           ('action', "Action"),
           ('comedy', "Comedy"),
           ('horror', "Horror"),
           # ...
       )
   )

my_choice_form = MyChoiceForm({'values': ['action', 'comedy']})
my_choice_form.is_valid()
True
my_choice_form.cleaned_data['values']
['action', 'comedy']

Both form fields support the same set of parameters as the model field:

from collectionfield.forms import CollectionField

class MyForm(forms.Form):
    values = CollectionField(collection_type=set, item_type=int)

my_form = MyForm({'values': "1, 2, 1, 3"})
my_form.is_valid()
True
my_form.cleaned_data['values']
{1, 2, 3}

Representation in database

CollectionField converts its values into string of up to 1024 characters using the following format:

"|item1|item2|item3|"

Default delimiter (‘|’) and maximum length can be configured:

class MyModel(models.Model):
    values = CollectionField(delimiter="$", max_length=2000)