About Dynamic Base Classes
If you have reusable Django app, framework, or project which varies based on the project settings, here is a technique of defining the base classes dynamically:
Utility function:
def get_base_classes(*defaults, extras_settings_key=""):
from django.conf import settings
from django.utils.module_loading import import_string
class_paths = getattr(settings, extras_settings_key, [])
return tuple(defaults) + tuple(
import_string(path) for path in class_paths
)
The Django REST Framework serializer:
from django.conf import settings
from rest_framework import serializers
from myproject.apps.core.utils import get_base_classes
from .models import Product
class ProductSerializer(*get_base_classes(
serializers.ModelSerializer,
extras_settings_key="PRODUCT_SERIALIZER_EXTRA_MIXINS"
)):
class Meta:
model = Product
base_fields = ["id", "name", "price", "description"]
extra_fields = getattr(
settings, "PRODUCT_SERIALIZER_EXTRA_FIELDS", []
)
fields = base_fields + extra_fields
The Django project settings:
PRODUCT_SERIALIZER_EXTRA_MIXINS = [
"project.apps.core.serializers.TimestampSerializerMixin",
"project.apps.audit.serializers.AuditSerializerMixin",
]
PRODUCT_SERIALIZER_EXTRA_FIELDS = [
"created_at",
"updated_at",
"audit_status",
]
This technique wouldn't work with model classes that change the database schema in the mixins. But it would be a perfect fit for class-based views, forms, admin classes, Django REST Framework viewsets, and custom managers or querysets.
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