Develop Reference

SQLAlchemy Handling Multiple Paths In One Relationship

Please note: this question is related but separate from my other currently open question SQLAlchemy secondary join relationship on multiple foreign keys.
The SQLAlchemy documentation describes handling multiple join paths in a single class for multiple relationships:
from sqlalchemy import Integer, ForeignKey, String, Column
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship
Base = declarative_base()
class Customer(Base):
__tablename__ = 'customer'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
billing_address_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey("address.id"))
shipping_address_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey("address.id"))
billing_address = relationship("Address")
shipping_address = relationship("Address")
class Address(Base):
__tablename__ = 'address'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
street = Column(String)
city = Column(String)
state = Column(String)
zip = Column(String)
Within the same section the documentation shows three separate ways to define the relationship:
billing_address = relationship("Address", foreign_keys=[billing_address_id])
billing_address = relationship("Address", foreign_keys="[Customer.billing_address_id]")
billing_address = relationship("Address", foreign_keys="Customer.billing_address_id")
As you can see in (1) and (2) SQLAlchemy allows you to define a list of foreign_keys. In fact, the documentation explicitly states:
In this specific example, the list is not necessary in any case as there’s only one Column we need: billing_address = relationship("Address", foreign_keys="Customer.billing_address_id")
But I cannot determine how to use the list notation to specify multiple foreign keys in a single relationship.
For the classes
class PostVersion(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
...
tag_1_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("tag.id"))
tag_2_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("tag.id"))
tag_3_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("tag.id"))
tag_4_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("tag.id"))
tag_5_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("tag.id"))
class Tag(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
tag = db.Column(db.String(127))
I have tried all of the following:
tags = db.relationship("Tag", foreign_keys=[tag_1_id, tag_2_id, tag_3_id, tag_4_id, tag_5_id]) resulting in
sqlalchemy.exc.AmbiguousForeignKeysError: Could not determine join condition between parent/child tables on relationship AnnotationVersion.tags - there are multiple foreign key paths linking the tables. Specify the 'foreign_keys' argument, providing a list of those columns which should be counted as containing a foreign key reference to the parent table.
tags = db.relationship("Tag", foreign_keys="[tag_1_id, tag_2_id, tag_3_id, tag_4_id, tag_5_id]") resulting in
sqlalchemy.exc.InvalidRequestError: When initializing mapper Mapper|AnnotationVersion|annotation_version, expression '[tag_1_id, tag_2_id, tag_3_id, tag_4_id, tag_5_id]' failed to locate a name ("name 'tag_1_id' is not defined"). If this is a class name, consider adding this relationship() to the class after both dependent classes have been defined.
And many others variations on the list style, using quotes inside and outside, using Table names and Class names.
I've actually solved the problem in the course of this question. Since there seems to be no direct documentation, I'll answer it myself instead of deleting this question.

The key is to define the relationship on a primary join and specify the uselist parameter.
tags = db.relationship("Tag", primaryjoin="or_(PostVersion.tag_1_id==Tag.id,"
"PostVersion.tag_2_id==Tag.id, PostVersion.tag_3_id==Tag.id,"
"PostVersion.tag_4_id==Tag.id, PostVersion.tag_5_id==Tag.id)",
uselist=True)

SQLAlchemy InvalidRequestError when using composite foreign keys

My table relationships in SQLAlchemy have gotten quite complex, and now I'm stuck at this error no matter how I configure my relationship.
I'm a bit new to SQLAlchemy so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I keep getting the same error no matter what I do.
I have a hierarchy of tables, all inheriting from 'Node', which is a table with self-referential id and parent_id columns. All of this works. Now I have another Node table 'Information', which contains a composite primary key that is referenced by a different Node table, 'Widget'.
Base = declarative_base()
class Node(Base):
__tablename__ = 'Node'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
parentid = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Node.ID')
type = Column(Text(50))
children = relationship('Node')
__mapper_args__ = {
'polymorphic_identity': 'Node',
'polymorphic_on': type
}
class Information(Node):
__tablename__ = 'Information'
id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Node.ID'), primary_key=True)
Name = Column(Text, primary_key=True)
Number = Column(Float, primary_key=True)
Widgets = relationship('Widget', backref='ThisInformation')
__mapper_args__ = {'polymorphic_identity': 'Information'}
class Widget(Node):
__tablename__ = 'Widget'
id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('Node.ID'), primary_key=True)
Name = Column(Text)
UnitType = Column(Text)
Amount = Column(Float)
_Number = Column('Number', Float)
__table_args__ = (ForeignKeyConstraint(
['Name', 'Number'],
['Information.Name', 'Information.Number']),
{})
__mapper_args__ = {'polymorphic_identity': 'Widget'}
I was worried this would give me circular reference issues, but instead it gives me this error:
InvalidRequestError: One or more mappers failed to initialize - can't proceed with initialization of other mappers. Original exception was: Could not determine join condition between parent/child tables on relationship Widget.Information - there are multiple foreign key paths linking the tables. Specify the 'foreign_keys' argument, providing a list of those columns which should be counted as containing a foreign key reference to the parent table.
I have tried adding foreign_keys arguments to the relationship, both on Widget and Information side, but I get the exact same error. Can anyone help?

After a lot of searching I finally found a really simple answer in this answer to another question.
All I did was add 'inherit_condition': (id == Node.id) to the mapper in the classes that inherit from Node so that it looked like this:
__mapper_args__ = {'polymorphic_identity': 'Information',
'inherit_condition': (id == Node.id)}
And it works perfectly.

Many-to-many with flask and sqlalchemy in python

I am trying to do a many-to-many relationship table with more information than just the two ids. It doesnt work. I obviously standardised my table with generic names. But the use case could be like a user table , with a post table and a likes relationship table, something like that. when i do these table, python gave me that :
sqlalchemy.exc.NoForeignKeysError: Could not determine join condition between parent/child tables on relationship Table2.rela1 - there are no foreign keys linking these tables. Ensure that referencing columns are associated with a ForeignKey or ForeignKeyConstraint, or specify a 'primaryjoin' expression.
So here is my relationship table
class Relationship(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key = True)
table1_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Table1.id')),
table2_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Table2.id')),
value = db.Column(db.Integer), #a number
date = db.Column(db.DateTime) #actual time of the entry
here is my table1
class Table1(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key = True)
rela1 = db.relationship('Relationship', backref = 'rel1', lazy = 'dynamic')
rela2 = db.relationship('Table2', backref = 'rel2', lazy = 'dynamic')
here is my table 2
class Table2(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key = True)
table1_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('table1.id'))
rela1 = db.relationship('Relationship', backref = 'rel3', lazy = 'dynamic')
Thanks for helping me.
If that can be solved then my second issue is creating a function to compute the total 'value' per Table2 object, regardless of the which table1 object post the value. something like a select with sum and group by table2.id , but i dont really understand how to do it with python and flask and sqlalchemy.
Thanks.
EDIT1
Using http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/rel_0_9/orm/relationships.html#association-object
i changed to
class Relationship(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'relationship'
table1_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Table1.id'), primary_key = True),
table2_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('Table2.id'), primary_key = True),
value = db.Column(db.Integer), #a number
date = db.Column(db.DateTime) #actual time of the entry
table2obj = db.relationship("Table2", backref="table2_assocs")
then
class Table2(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'table2'
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key = True)
table1_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('table1.id'))
and table 1 is unchanged except the addition of tablename
but now i get
sqlalchemy.exc.ArgumentError: Mapper Mapper|Relationship|relatioship could not assemble any primary key columns for mapped table 'Relationship'

there are two relationship declarations on Table1, but from the code you've posted, I can see only one path to Table2, through Relationship.table2_id.
It looks like you are trying to have a many-to-many relationship with extra metadata on the intermediate relation. This is called the association object pattern in the sqlalchemy docs. For that, everything you've got so far, except the Table1.rela2 is good, you pretty well have it. That "rogue" relationship needs to be removed.
to get the convenience of having a real relationship from Table1 to Table2, you need to use an association proxy.

Long chained exists query with multiple one-to-many mappings in the chain

Edit: Following piece seems to be the right way:
session.query(User).join("userGadgets", "gadget", "components","gadgetComponentMetals")
Original:
I have the following tables configured:
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = "user"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String)
class Gadget(Base):
__tablename__ = "gadget"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
brand = Column(String)
class UserGadget(Base):
__tablename__ = "user_gadget"
user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), primary_key=True)
gadget_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('gadget.id'), primary_key=True)
user = relationship("User", backref=backref('userGadgets', order_by=user_id))
gadget = relationship("Gadget", backref=backref('userGadgets', order_by=gadget_id))
class GadgetComponent(Base):
__tablename__ = "gadget_component"
id = Column(String, primary_key=True)
gadget_id = Column(Integer,ForeignKey('gadget.id'))
component_maker = Column(String)
host = relationship("Gadget", backref=backref('components', order_by=id))
class ComponentUsingMetal(Base):
__tablename__ = "component_metal"
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
component_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('GadgetComponent.id'))
metal = Column(String)
component = relationship("GadgetComponent", backref=backref('gadgetComponentMetals', order_by=id))
I want to find all user names for users who own gadgets having at least one component containing some kind of metal. SQL query for this will be something along the lines of:
SELECT distinct u.name FROM user u join user_gadget ug on (u.id = ug.user_id) join gadget_component gc on (ug.gadget_id = gc.id) join component_metal cm on (gc.id = cm.component_id) order by u.name
I have tried various versions along the line of: session.query(User).filter(User.userGadgets.any(UserGadget.gadget.components.any(GadgetComponent.gadgetComponentMetals.exists())))
I get the below error:
AttributeError: Neither 'InstrumentedAttribute' object nor 'Comparator' object associated with UserGadget.gadget has an attribute 'gadgetComponents'
Any ideas on what I am doing wrong or is there a better way to do this kind of query in SQLAlchemy?

the join() is the better way to go here since any() is going to produce lots of expensive nested subqueries. but the mistake you made with the "any" is using syntax like: UserGadget.gadget.components. SQLAlchemy doesn't continue the namespace of attributes in a series like that, e.g. there is no UserGadget.gadget.components; there is just UserGadget.gadget and Gadget.components, separately. Just like SQL won't let you say, "SELECT * from user_gadget.gadget_id.gadget.component_id" or something, SQLAlchemy needs you to tell it how you want to join together multiple tables that you're querying from. With the any() here it would be something like any(and_(UserGadget.gadget_id == GadgetComponent.gadget_id)), but using JOIN is better in any case.

SQLAlchemy foreign key lazy loading

I have a basic one to many relationship:
class Term(Base):
__tablename__ = 'term'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
class Node(Base):
__tablename__ = 'node'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
term = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('term.id'))
But when I load the Node object, access the "term" property, I just get the numeric term id, not the Term object.
node = session.query(Node).filter(Node.id == 1).one()
print node.term # 123
How do I get Foreign Key fields to lazy load the object?
Thanks very much.
Ben

because your term attribute is a Column, sqlalchemy maps it as that column's value. You can get sqlalchemy to actually load the referent row by using relationship:
from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship
class Term(Base):
__tablename__ = 'term'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
class Node(Base):
__tablename__ = 'node'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
term = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('term.id'))
related_term = relationship(Term, backref="nodes")
Because my_node.related_term looks a bit odd, I tend to prefer a naming convention of having the column called table_column instead of just table, so that I can also name the relationship attribute after the table, instead of inventing some other, odd name.

Use the returned value of node.term for a new query, to get the related objects:
node = session.query(Node).filter(Node.id == 1).one()
related_term = session.query(Term).filter(Term.id == node.term).one()