django - comparing old and new field value before saving

Question

I have a django model, and I need to compare old and new values of field BEFORE saving.

I've tried the save() inheritance, and pre_save signal. It was triggered correctly, but I can't find the list of actually changed fields and can't compare old and new values. Is there a way? I need it for optimization of pre-save actions.

Thank you!

Answer 1

There is very simple django way for doing it.

"Memorise" the values in model init like this:

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    super(MyClass, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
    self.initial_parametername = self.parametername
    ---
    self.initial_parameternameX = self.parameternameX

Real life example:

At class:

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    super(MyClass, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
    self.__important_fields = ['target_type', 'target_id', 'target_object', 'number', 'chain', 'expiration_date']
    for field in self.__important_fields:
        setattr(self, '__original_%s' % field, getattr(self, field))

def has_changed(self):
    for field in self.__important_fields:
        orig = '__original_%s' % field
        if getattr(self, orig) != getattr(self, field):
            return True
    return False

And then in modelform save method:

def save(self, force_insert=False, force_update=False, commit=True):
    # Prep the data
    obj = super(MyClassForm, self).save(commit=False)

    if obj.has_changed():

        # If we're down with commitment, save this shit
        if commit:
            obj.save(force_insert=True)

    return obj