Upgrade Notes - 0.3 to 0.4

Model changes in 0.4

MPTT attributes on MyModel._meta deprecated, moved to MyModel._mptt_meta

Most people won’t need to worry about this, but if you’re using any of the following, note that these are deprecated and will be removed in 0.5:

MyModel._meta.left_attr
MyModel._meta.right_attr
MyModel._meta.tree_id_attr
MyModel._meta.level_attr
MyModel._meta.tree_manager_attr
MyModel._meta.parent_attr
MyModel._meta.order_insertion_by

They’ll continue to work as previously for now, but you should upgrade your code if you can. Simply replace _meta with _mptt_meta.

Use model inheritance where possible

The preferred way to do model registration in django-mptt 0.4 is via model inheritance.

Suppose you start with this:

class Node(models.Model):
    ...

mptt.register(Node, order_insertion_by=['name'], parent_attr='padre')

First, Make your model a subclass of MPTTModel, instead of models.Model:

from mptt.models import MPTTModel

class Node(MPTTModel):
    ...

Then remove your call to mptt.register(). If you were passing it keyword arguments, you should add them to an MPTTMeta inner class on the model:

class Node(MPTTModel):
    ...
    class MPTTMeta:
        order_insertion_by = ['name']
        parent_attr = 'padre'

If necessary you can still use mptt.register. It was removed in 0.4.0 but restored in 0.4.2, since people reported use cases that didn’t work without it.)

For instance, if you need to register models where the code isn’t under your control, you’ll need to use mptt.register. It may also come in handy for keeping libraries compatible with django-mptt 0.3.

You’re probably all upgraded at this point :) A couple more notes for more complex scenarios:

More complicated scenarios

What if I’m already inheriting from something?

If your model is already a subclass of an abstract model, you should use multiple inheritance:

class Node(MPTTModel, ParentModel):
    ...

You should always put MPTTModel as the first model base. This is because there’s some complicated metaclass stuff going on behind the scenes, and if Django’s model metaclass gets called before the MPTT one, strange things can happen.

Isn’t multiple inheritance evil? Well, maybe. However, the Django model docs don’t forbid this, and as long as your other model doesn’t have conflicting methods, it should be fine.

Note

As always when dealing with multiple inheritance, approach with a bit of caution.

Our brief testing says it works, but if you find that the Django internals are somehow breaking this approach for you, please create an issue with specifics.

Writing reusable apps - Compatibility with 0.3 as well

If you’re writing a library or reusable app that needs to work with older versions of django-mptt, you’ll need to update your code to handle both versions.

Here’s a sample models file which works with 0.3 and 0.4:

from django.db import models

import mptt
try:
    from mptt.models import MPTTModel
except ImportError:
    # django-mptt < 0.4
    MPTTModel = models.Model

class Node(MPTTModel):
    name   = models.CharField(max_length=20, blank=True)
    parent = models.ForeignKey('self', null=True, blank=True, related_name='children')

    class MPTTMeta:
        order_insertion_by = 'name'

if hasattr(mptt, 'register'):
    # django-mptt < 0.4
    # This line looks frightening, suggestions for alternatives welcome :)
    mptt.register(Node, **dict([(attr, getattr(Node.MPTTMeta, attr)) for attr in dir(Node.MPTTMeta) if attr[:1] != '_']))