django-follow 0.6.1

Application which enables following features for users. Can be used for contact books or whatnot

django-follow
=============

.. figure:: https://secure.travis-ci.org/caffeinehit/django-follow.png
:align: center
:alt:

django-follow enables your users to follow any model in your Django
application.

Installation:
-------------

::

pip install django-follow

Usage:
------

- Add ``follow`` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``
- Include ``follow.urls`` into your URLs if you plan on using the
views:

::

urlpatterns = patterns('',
url('^', include('follow.urls')),
)

- Register the models you want to be able to follow in your
``models.py`` files:

::

from django.db import models
from follow import utils

class MyModel(models.Model):
field = models.CharField(max_length = 255)


utils.register(MyModel)

**NOTE** You must register your models before running ``syncdb`` or you
will run into the issue described in
`django-follow/issues/16 <https://github.com/caffeinehit/django-follow/issues/16>`_

Test
----

The repository includes a sample project and application that is
configured to test ``django-follow``.

Clone the repository and cd into the project folder:

::

cd example/
python manage.py test follow

API
---

Manager
~~~~~~~

- ``Follow.objects.create(user, obj, **kwargs)``:
Makes ``user`` follow ``obj``

- ``Follow.objects.get_or_create(user, obj, **kwargs)``:
Returns a tuple ``(Follow, bool)``

- ``Follow.objects.is_following(user, obj)``:
Returns ``bool``

- ``Follow.objects.get_follows(model_or_object_or_queryset)``:
Returns all the ``Follow`` objects associated with a certain model,
object or queryset.

**Note on performance**

I advise against against using ``Follow.objects.is_following`` too often
in one request / response cycle on single objects. Use it on querysets
to avoid stacking up too many queries.

Utils
~~~~~

- ``follow.utils.register(model, field_name, related_name, lookup_method_name)``:
Registers ``model`` to django-follow.

- ``follow.utils.follow(user, object)``:
Makes ``user`` follow ``object``

- ``follow.utils.unfollow(user, object)``:
Makes ``user`` unfollow ``object``

- ``follow.utils.toggle(user, object)``:
Toggles ``user``'s follow status of ``object``

- ``follow.utils.follow_url(user, object)``:
Returns the right follow/unfollow URL for ``user`` and ``object``

- ``follow.utils.follow_link(object)``:
Returns the following URL for ``object``

- ``follow.utils.unfollow_link(object)``:
Returns the unfollowing URL for ``object``

Template Tags
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

django-follow ships a template tag that creates urls, a filter to check
if a user follows an object and a template tag to render the follow
form.

::

{% load follow_tags %}
{% follow_url object %}
{% request.user|is_following:object %}
{% follow_form object %}
{% follow_form object "your/custom/template.html" %}

- ``{% follow_url object %}``:
Returns the URL to either follow or unfollow the object, depending
on whether ``request.user`` is already following the object.

- ``{% follow_url object other_user %}``:
Same as above - but instead of resolving for ``request.user`` it
resolves for any user you pass in.

- ``{% request.user|is_following:object %}``:
Returns ``True``/``False`` if the user follows / does not follow the
object.

- ``{% follow_form object %}``:
Renders a form to follow a given object.

- \`{% follow\_form object "your/custom/template.html" %}:
Renders the form with a custom template.

Signals
~~~~~~~

django-follow provides two signals:

- ``follow.signals.followed(sender, user, target, instance)``
- ``follow.signals.unfollowed(sender, user, target, instance)``

To invoke a handler every time a ``User`` or ``Group`` object is
followed, do something along these lines:

::

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from follow import signals

def user_follow_handler(user, target, instance, **kwargs):
send_mail("You were followed", "You have been followed", "no-reply@localhost", [target.email])

def group_follow_handler(user, target, instance, **kwargs):
send_mail("Group followed", "%s has followed your group" % user, "no-reply@localhost", [[u.email for u in target.user_set.all()]])

signals.followed.connect(user_follow_handler, sender = User, dispatch_uid = 'follow.user')
signals.followed.connect(group_follow_handler, sender = Group, dispatch_uid = 'follow.group')

This works vica versa with the unfollowed handler too.

**NOTE**

When handling ``follow.signals.unfollowed`` both ``user`` and/or
``target`` can be ``None``. Django's admin for example will first delete
the user resulting in ``instance.user`` to throw ``DoesNotExist``.
Beware.

Release Notes
-------------

v0.5 - *BACKWARDS INCOMPATIBLE*

- The follow and unfollow views now only accept POST requests

v0.4 - *BACKWARDS INCOMPATIBLE*

- Made the manager *a lot* lighter.
- Removed ``Model.followers`` method
- Added ``Model.get_follows`` method returning all the ``Follow``
objects
- Moved ``Follow.follower`` to ``Follow.user``
- Replaced ``Follow.get_object`` method with read/writable
``Follow.target`` property
- ``follow.util`` moved to ``follow.utils``
- No more M2M following

--------------

`@flashingpumpkin <http://twitter.com/flashingpumpkin>`_