django-guest-user 0.3.0

A Django app that lets visitors interact with your site without registration.

django-guest-user

A Django app that allows visitors to interact with your site as a guest user without requiring registration.

Largely inspired by django-lazysignup and rewritten for Django 3.1+ and Python 3.7+.

Requirements

The tests cover the following versions:

• Python 3.7, 3.8, 3.9
• Django 3.1, 3.2 and main (4.0)

Installation

Install the package with your favorite package manager from PyPI:

pip install django-guest-user

Add the app to your INSTALLED_APPS and AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    "guest_user",
]

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
    "django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend",
    "guest_user.backends.GuestBackend",
]

Add the patterns to your URL config:

urlpatterns = [
    # ...
    path("convert/", include("guest_user.urls")),
]

Don't forget to run migrations:

python manage.py migrate

How to use

Guest users are not created for every unauthenticated request. Instead, use the @allow_guest_user decorator on a view to enable that view to be accessed by a temporary guest user.

Each time an anonymous user requests a decorated view, a new temporary guest user will be created and logged in with a randomly generated username.

At any point in time, the guest user may choose to permanently register with the website by using the conversion view. This will delete the associated Guest instance for the user and prevent deletion from cleanup jobs.

Note: Your Django project should be set up in such a way, that deleting a User will not be prevented by PROTECT or RESTRICT on_delete clauses. Instead, it's recommended that every foreign key to a User either use CASCADE or SET_NULL.

Additional Features

django-allauth integration

A small submodule is provided that will allow converting guest users by connecting a social account with django-allauth.

See documentation details for it in guest_user.contrib.allauth.

API

Decorators

Module: guest_user.decorators

@allow_guest_user

View decorator that will create a temporary guest user in the event that the decorated view is accessed by an unauthenticated visitor.

from guest_user.decorators import allow_guest_user

@allow_guest_user
def my_view(request):
    # Will always be either a registered a guest user.
    username = request.user.username
    return HttpResponse(f"Hello, {username}!")

Takes no arguments.

@guest_user_required

View decorator that only allows guest users. Anonymous or registered users will be redirected to their respective redirect targets.

@guest_user_required(anonymous_url="/login/", registered_url="/dashboard/")
def only_for_guests(request):
    pass

Arguments:

• anonymous_url: Redirect target for anonymous users. Defaults to the GUEST_USER_REQUIRED_ANON_URL setting.
• registered_url: Redirect target for registered users. Defaults to the GUEST_USER_REQUIRED_USER_URL setting.

@regular_user_required

If some parts of the application should not be used by guests, you can use this decorator to disable guest access.

In the event that a guest user tries to access a view decorated with it, they will be redirected to the conversion page.

@regular_user_required(login_url="/login/", convert_url="/convert/")
def only_for_real_users(request):
    pass

Arguments:

• login_url: Redirect target for anonymous users. Defaults to the GUEST_USER_REQUIRED_ANON_URL setting.
• convert_url: Redirect target for guest users. Defaults to the GUEST_USER_REQUIRED_USER_URL setting.
• redirect_field_name: URL parameter used to redirect to the origin page. Defaults to django.contrib.auth.REDIRECT_FIELD_NAME (which is "next").

Functions

Module: guest_user.functions

is_guest_user(user)

Check wether the given user instance is a temporary guest.

Returns bool.

Signals

Module: guest_user.signals

guest_created(request, user)

Signal dispatched when a visitor accessed a view that created a guest user.

Provides user and request arguments.

converted(user)

Signal dispatched when a guest user is converted to a regular user.

Provides user argument.

Template Tags

is_guest_user

A filter to use in templates to check if the user object is a guest.

{% load guest_user %}

{% if user|is_guest_user %}
  Hello guest.
{% endif %}

Settings

Various settings are provided to allow customization of the guest user behavior.

GUEST_USER_ENABLED

bool - If False, the @allow_guest_user decorator will not create guest users. Defaults to True.

GUEST_USER_MODEL

str. The swappable model identifier to use as the guest model. Defaults to guest_user.Guest.

GUEST_USER_NAME_GENERATOR

str. Import path to a function that will generate a username for a guest user. Defaults to guest_user.functions.generate_uuid_username.

Included with the package are two alternatives:

• guest_user.functions.generate_numbered_username

  Will create a random four digit number prefixed by GUEST_USER_NAME_PREFIX.

• guest_user.functions.generate_friendly_username

  Creates a friendly and easy to remember username by combining an adjective, noun and number. Requires the package random_username.

GUEST_USER_NAME_PREFIX

str. A prefix to use with the generate_numbered_username generator.

Defaults to Guest.

GUEST_USER_MAX_AGE

int. Seconds to keep a guest user before expiring.

Defaults to settings.SESSION_COOKIE_AGE.

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_FORM

str. Import path for the guest conversion form. Must implement get_credentials to be passed to Django's authenticate function.

Defaults to guest_user.forms.UserCreationForm.

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_PREFILL_USERNAME

bool. Set the generated username as initial value on the conversion form.

Defaults to False.

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_URL

str. URL name for the convert view.

Defaults to guest_user_convert.

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_REDIRECT_URL

str. URL name to redirect to after conversion, unless a redirect parameter was provided.

Defaults to guest_user_convert_success.

GUEST_USER_REQUIRED_ANON_URL

str. URL name to redirect to when an anonymous visitor tries to access a view with the @guest_user_required decorator.

Defaults to settings.LOGIN_URL.

GUEST_USER_REQUIRED_USER_URL

str. URL name to redirect to when a registered user tries to access a view with the @guest_user_required decorator.

Defaults to settings.LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL.

GUEST_USER_BLOCKED_USER_AGENTS

list[str]. Web crawler and other user agents to block from becoming guest users. The list will be combined into a regular expression.

Default includes a number of well known bots and spiders.

Status

This project is still under development. But thanks to previous work it is largely functional.

I decided to rewrite the project since the original project hasn't seen any larger updates for a few years now. The initial code base was written a long time ago as well.