django-polymorphic
Polymorphic Models for Django
django-polymorphic simplifies using inherited models in Django projects. When a query is made at the base model, the inherited model classes are returned.
When we store models that inherit from a Project model...
>>> Project.objects.create(topic="Department Party")
>>> ArtProject.objects.create(topic="Painting with Tim", artist="T. Turner")
>>> ResearchProject.objects.create(topic="Swallow Aerodynamics", supervisor="Dr. Winter")
...and want to retrieve all our projects, the subclassed models are returned!
>>> Project.objects.all()
[ <Project: id 1, topic "Department Party">,
<ArtProject: id 2, topic "Painting with Tim", artist "T. Turner">,
<ResearchProject: id 3, topic "Swallow Aerodynamics", supervisor "Dr. Winter"> ]
Using vanilla Django, we get the base class objects, which is rarely what we wanted:
>>> Project.objects.all()
[ <Project: id 1, topic "Department Party">,
<Project: id 2, topic "Painting with Tim">,
<Project: id 3, topic "Swallow Aerodynamics"> ]
This also works when the polymorphic model is accessed via ForeignKeys, ManyToManyFields or OneToOneFields.
Features
-
Full admin integration.
-
ORM integration:
- support for ForeignKey, ManyToManyField, OneToOneField descriptors.
- Filtering/ordering of inherited models (
ArtProject___artist). - Filtering model types:
instance_of(...)andnot_instance_of(...) - Combining querysets of different models (
qs3 = qs1 | qs2) - Support for custom user-defined managers.
-
Uses the minimum amount of queries needed to fetch the inherited models.
-
Disabling polymorphic behavior when needed.
Note: While django-polymorphic makes subclassed models easy to use in Django, we still encourage to use them with caution. Each subclassed model will require Django to perform an INNER JOIN to fetch the model fields from the database. While taking this in mind, there are valid reasons for using subclassed models. That's what this library is designed for!
For more information, see the documentation at Read the Docs.
Installation
$ pip install django-polymorphic
INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
"django.contrib.contenttypes", # we rely on the contenttypes framework
"polymorphic"
]
License
django-polymorphic uses the same license as Django (BSD-like).
Release files for django-polymorphic 4.11.7
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| django_polymorphic-4.11.7.tar.gz | 62.1 kB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| django_polymorphic-4.11.7-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 141.3 kB
Release files / django_polymorphic-4.11.7.tar.gz
| Download URL | django_polymorphic-4.11.7.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 62.1 kB |
| Tags | Source |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
9d616e9e2870efd62a5ee387294830c80935a31786e50da137bd76668dd5437d
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
13d22760062d571e534153e5e842ee56660b0ea87c0da93c2dd87a4c44becbf0
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
Yes |
| Uploaded via |
twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.13
|
Provenance
Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.
PyPI Publish Attestation
PyPI verified that this artifact, at this checksum, originated from the publisher listed below.
Signed by GitHub Actions, verified by PyPI on Aug 1, 2026.
Transparency logRelease files / django_polymorphic-4.11.7-py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | django_polymorphic-4.11.7-py3-none-any.whl |
|---|---|
| Size | 79.2 kB |
| Tags | Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
23ee903f79b9c4ebd36fee952f955d80c3d51f3eee9fa23639c4bafe3be616a2
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
9edb544272a8852d47fe5a6e7b29b4dd8050e89fb674dec447c93c5284c5a427
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
Yes |
| Uploaded via |
twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.13
|
Provenance
Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.
PyPI Publish Attestation
PyPI verified that this artifact, at this checksum, originated from the publisher listed below.
Signed by GitHub Actions, verified by PyPI on Aug 1, 2026.
Transparency log