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Flask SQLAlchemy: adding third column to joining table

Context: I'm making an auctioning website for which I am using Flask-SQLAlchemy. My tables will need to have a many-to-many relationship (as one artpiece can have many user bids and a user can bid on many artpieces)
My question is: it is possible to add another column to my joining table to contain the id of the user bidding, the id of artpiece that they are bidding on and also how much they bid? Also if yes, how would I include this bid in the table when I add a record to said table?
bid_table = db.Table("bid_table",
db.Column("user_id", db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("user.user_id")),
db.Column("item_id", db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("artpiece.item_id"))
)
class User(db.Model):
user_id = db.Column(db.Integer, unique=True, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
username = db.Column(db.Integer, unique=True, nullable=False)
email = db.Column(db.String(50), unique =True, nullable=False)
password = db.Column(db.String(60), nullable=False)
creation_date = db.Column(db.DateTime, default=str(datetime.datetime.now()))
bids = db.relationship("Artpiece", secondary=bid_table, backref=db.backref("bids", lazy="dynamic"))
class Artpiece(db.Model):
item_id = db.Column(db.Integer, unique=True, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
artist = db.Column(db.String(40), nullable=False)
buyer = db.Column(db.String(40), nullable=False)
end_date = db.Column(db.String(40))
highest_bid = db.Column(db.String(40))

It is possible to do this with SQL Alchemy, but it's very cumbersome in my opinion.
SQLAlchemy uses a concept called an Association Proxy to turn a normal table into an association table. This table can have whatever data fields you want on it, but you have to manually tell SQLAlchemy which columns are foreign keys to the other two tables in question.
This is a good example from the documentation.
In your case, the UserKeyword table is the association proxy table that you want to build for your user/bid scenario.
The special_key column is the arbitrary data you would store like the bid amount.
from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, String, ForeignKey
from sqlalchemy.ext.associationproxy import association_proxy
from sqlalchemy.orm import backref, declarative_base, relationship
Base = declarative_base()
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'user'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String(64))
# association proxy of "user_keywords" collection
# to "keyword" attribute
keywords = association_proxy('user_keywords', 'keyword')
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
class UserKeyword(Base):
__tablename__ = 'user_keyword'
user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), primary_key=True)
keyword_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('keyword.id'), primary_key=True)
special_key = Column(String(50))
# bidirectional attribute/collection of "user"/"user_keywords"
user = relationship(User,
backref=backref("user_keywords",
cascade="all, delete-orphan")
)
# reference to the "Keyword" object
keyword = relationship("Keyword")
def __init__(self, keyword=None, user=None, special_key=None):
self.user = user
self.keyword = keyword
self.special_key = special_key
class Keyword(Base):
__tablename__ = 'keyword'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
keyword = Column('keyword', String(64))
def __init__(self, keyword):
self.keyword = keyword
def __repr__(self):
return 'Keyword(%s)' % repr(self.keyword)
Check out the full documentation for instructions on how to access and create this kind of model.
Having used this in a real project, it's not particularly fun and if you can avoid it, I would recommend it.
https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/14/orm/extensions/associationproxy.html

How to store data via relationship in constructor of SQLAlchemy model?

How to add objects in the constructor with relationship? The id is not yet ready when constructor is evaluated. In simpler cases it is possible to just provide a list, calculated beforehand. In the example below I tried to say there is a complex_cls_method, in a way it is more like black box.
from sqlalchemy import create_engine, MetaData, Column, Integer, String, ForeignKey
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship
from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
DB_URL = "mysql://user:password#localhost/exampledb?charset=utf8"
engine = create_engine(DB_URL, encoding='utf-8', convert_unicode=True, pool_recycle=3600, pool_size=10)
session = sessionmaker(autocommit=False, autoflush=False, bind=engine)()
Model = declarative_base()
class User(Model):
__tablename__ = 'user'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
simple = Column(String(255))
main_address = Column(String(255))
addresses = relationship("Address",
cascade="all, delete-orphan")
def __init__(self, addresses, simple):
self.simple = simple
self.main_address = addresses[0]
return # because the following does not work
self.addresses = Address.complex_cls_method(
user_id_=self.id, # <-- this does not work of course
key_="address",
value_=addresses
)
class Address(Model):
__tablename__ = 'address'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
keyword = Column(String(255))
value = Column(String(255))
user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), nullable=False)
parent_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('address.id'), nullable=True)
#classmethod
def complex_cls_method(cls, user_id_, key_, value_):
main = Address(keyword=key_, value="", user_id=user_id_, parent_id=None)
session.add_all([main])
session.flush()
addrs = [Address(keyword=key_, value=item, user_id=user_id_, parent_id=main.id) for item in value_]
session.add_all(addrs)
return [main] + addrs
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Model.metadata.create_all(engine)
user = User([u"address1", u"address2"], "simple")
session.add(user)
session.flush()
# as it can't be done in constructor, these additional statements needed
user.addresses = Address.complex_cls_method(
user_id_=user.id,
key_="address",
value_=[u"address1", u"address2"]
)
session.commit()
The question is, is there syntactically elegant (and technically sound) way to do this with User's constructor, or is it safer to just call a separate method of User class after session.flush to add desired objects to relationships (as in the example code)?
Giving up on constructor altogether is still possible, but less desirable option as resulting signature change would require significant refactorings.

Instead of manually flushing and setting ids etc. you could let SQLAlchemy handle persisting your object graph. You'll just need one more adjacency list relationship in Address and you're all set:
class User(Model):
__tablename__ = 'user'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
simple = Column(String(255))
main_address = Column(String(255))
addresses = relationship("Address",
cascade="all, delete-orphan")
def __init__(self, addresses, simple):
self.simple = simple
self.main_address = addresses[0]
self.addresses = Address.complex_cls_method(
key="address",
values=addresses
)
class Address(Model):
__tablename__ = 'address'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
keyword = Column(String(255))
value = Column(String(255))
user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), nullable=False)
parent_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('address.id'), nullable=True)
# For handling parent/child relationships in factory method
parent = relationship("Address", remote_side=[id])
#classmethod
def complex_cls_method(cls, key, values):
main = cls(keyword=key, value="")
addrs = [cls(keyword=key, value=item, parent=main) for item in values]
return [main] + addrs
if __name__ == "__main__":
user = User([u"address1", u"address2"], "simple")
session.add(user)
session.commit()
print(user.addresses)
Note the absence of manual flushes etc. SQLAlchemy automatically figures out the required order of insertions based on the object relationships, so that dependencies between rows can be honoured. This is a part of the Unit of Work pattern.

SQLAlchemy Inserting Data in a Many-to-Many Relationship with Association Table

I've seen a few questions similar to this but none quite hit the nail on the head. Essentially I have three table models Center(), Business(), and CenterBusiness() in a Flask Application using SQLAlchemy. Currently I'm adding to said relationship in this manner:
biz = Business(typId=form.type.data, name=form.name.data,
contact=form.contact.data, phone=form.phone.data)
db.session.add(biz)
db.session.commit()
assoc = CenterBusiness(bizId=biz.id, cenId=session['center'])
db.session.add(assoc)
db.session.commit()
As you can see that's a bit ugly and I know there is a way to do it in one hit with the relationship as they are defined. I see on SQLAlchemy's docs they have a explanation of working with such a table but I can't seem to get it to work.
#Directly from SQLAlchemy Docs
p = Parent()
a = Association(extra_data="some data")
a.child = Child()
p.children.append(a)
#My Version Using my Tables
center = Center.query.get(session['center']
assoc = CenterBusiness()
assoc.business = Business(typId=form.type.data, name=form.name.data,
contact=form.contact.data, phone=form.phone.data)
center.businesses.append(assoc)
db.session.commit()
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be doing the trick... Any help would be greatly appreciated and below I've posted the models involved.
class Center(db.Model):
id = db.Column(MEDIUMINT(8, unsigned=True), primary_key=True,
autoincrement=False)
phone = db.Column(VARCHAR(10), nullable=False)
location = db.Column(VARCHAR(255), nullable=False)
businesses = db.relationship('CenterBusiness', lazy='dynamic')
employees = db.relationship('CenterEmployee', lazy='dynamic')
class Business(db.Model):
id = db.Column(MEDIUMINT(8, unsigned=True), primary_key=True,
autoincrement=True)
typId = db.Column(TINYINT(2, unsigned=True),
db.ForeignKey('biz_type.id',
onupdate='RESTRICT',
ondelete='RESTRICT'),
nullable=False)
type = db.relationship('BizType', backref='businesses',
lazy='subquery')
name = db.Column(VARCHAR(255), nullable=False)
contact = db.Column(VARCHAR(255), nullable=False)
phone = db.Column(VARCHAR(10), nullable=False)
documents = db.relationship('Document', backref='business',
lazy='dynamic')
class CenterBusiness(db.Model):
cenId = db.Column(MEDIUMINT(8, unsigned=True),
db.ForeignKey('center.id',
onupdate='RESTRICT',
ondelete='RESTRICT'),
primary_key=True)
bizId = db.Column(MEDIUMINT(8, unsigned=True),
db.ForeignKey('business.id',
onupdate='RESTRICT',
ondelete='RESTRICT'),
primary_key=True)
info = db.relationship('Business', backref='centers',
lazy='joined')
archived = db.Column(TINYINT(1, unsigned=True), nullable=False,
server_default='0')

I was able to get this working, my problem lied in the following bit of code (error in bold):
#My Version Using my Tables
center = Center.query.get(session['center']
assoc = CenterBusiness()
**assoc.info** = Business(typId=form.type.data, name=form.name.data,
contact=form.contact.data, phone=form.phone.data)
center.businesses.append(assoc)
db.session.commit()
As explained in my comment in the question:
Alright my issue was that I was not using the relationship key "info"
I have in my CenterBusiness model to define the appended association.
I was saying center.business thinking that the term business in that
case was arbitrary. However, I needed to actually reference that
relationship. As such, the appropriate key I had setup already in
CenterBusiness was info.
I will still accept any updates and/or better ways to handle this situation, though I think this is the best route at the time.

below example can help u
more details http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/orm/extensions/associationproxy.html
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'user'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(String(64))
# association proxy of "user_keywords" collection
# to "keyword" attribute
keywords = association_proxy('user_keywords', 'keyword')
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
class UserKeyword(Base):
__tablename__ = 'user_keyword'
user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), primary_key=True)
keyword_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('keyword.id'), primary_key=True)
special_key = Column(String(50))
# bidirectional attribute/collection of "user"/"user_keywords"
user = relationship(User,
backref=backref("user_keywords",
cascade="all, delete-orphan")
)
# reference to the "Keyword" object
keyword = relationship("Keyword")
def __init__(self, keyword=None, user=None, special_key=None):
self.user = user
self.keyword = keyword
self.special_key = special_key
class Keyword(Base):
__tablename__ = 'keyword'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
keyword = Column('keyword', String(64))
def __init__(self, keyword):
self.keyword = keyword
def __repr__(self):
return 'Keyword(%s)' % repr(self.keyword)

Validation in SQLAlchemy

How can I get the required validator in SQLAlchemy? Actually I just wanna be confident the user filled all required field in a form. I use PostgreSQL, but it doesn't make sense, since the tables created from Objects in my models.py file:
from sqlalchemy import (
Column,
Integer,
Text,
DateTime,
)
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from sqlalchemy.orm import (
scoped_session,
sessionmaker,
)
from zope.sqlalchemy import ZopeTransactionExtension
from pyramid.security import (
Allow,
Everyone,
)
Base = declarative_base()
class Article(Base):
""" The SQLAlchemy declarative model class for a Article object. """
__tablename__ = 'article'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(Text, nullable=False, unique=True)
url = Column(Text, nullable=False, unique=True)
title = Column(Text)
preview = Column(Text)
content = Column(Text)
cat_id = Column(Integer, nullable=False)
views = Column(Integer)
popular = Column(Integer)
created = Column(DateTime)
def __unicode__(self):
return unicode(self.name)
So this nullable=False doesn't work, because the records added in any case with empty fields. I can of course set the restrictions at the database level by set name to NOT NULL for example. But there must be something about validation in SQLAlchemy isn't it? I came from yii php framework, there it's not the problem at all.

By empty fields I guess you mean an empty string rather than a NULL. A simple method is to add validation, e.g.:
class Article(Base):
...
name = Column(Text, unique=True)
...
#validates('name')
def validate_name(self, key, value):
assert value != ''
return value
To implement it at a database level you could also use a check constraint, as long as the database supports it:
class Article(Base):
...
name = Column(Text, CheckConstraint('name!=""')
...

How to extend the `getter`-functionality of SQLAlchemy's association_proxy?

Edit: I would like to model a 1 to 0:1 relationship between User and Comment (a User can have zero or one Comment). Instead of accessing the object Comment I would rather directly access the comment itself. Using SQLAlchemys association_proxy works perfect for that scenario except for one thing: accessing User.comment before having a Comment associated. But in this case I would rather expect None instead of AttributeError as result.
Look at the following example:
import sqlalchemy as sa
import sqlalchemy.orm as orm
from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, Text, ForeignKey, Table
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from sqlalchemy.ext.associationproxy import association_proxy
Base = declarative_base()
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'users'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(Text)
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
# proxy the 'comment' attribute from the 'comment_object' relationship
comment = association_proxy('comment_object', 'comment')
class Comment(Base):
__tablename__ = 'comments'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
comment = Column('comment', Text, nullable=False, default="")
user_id = Column(ForeignKey('users.id'), nullable=False, unique=True)
# user_id has to be unique to ensure that a User can not have more than one comments
def __init__(self, comment):
self.comment = comment
user_object = orm.relationship(
"User",
uselist=False, # added after edditing the question
backref=orm.backref('comment_object', uselist=False)
)
if __name__ == "__main__":
engine = sa.create_engine('sqlite:///:memory:', echo=True)
Session = orm.sessionmaker(bind=engine)
Base.metadata.create_all(engine)
session = Session()
Now, the following code throws an AttributeError:
u = User(name="Max Mueller")
print u.comment
What would be the best way to catch that exception and provide a default value instead (like an empty string)?

You don't really need association_proxy for this. You could really get by just fine with a regular property. The AttributeError is (probably) caused because the comment_object is itself None, since there is no dependent row, and None has no comment attribute.
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'users'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(Text)
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
# proxy the 'comment' attribute from the 'comment_object' relationship
#property
def comment(self):
if self.comment_object is None:
return ""
else:
return self.comment_object.comment
#comment.setter
def comment(self, value):
if self.comment_object is None:
self.comment_object = Comment()
self.comment_object.comment = value

Try this
import sqlalchemy as sa
import sqlalchemy.orm as orm
from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, Text, ForeignKey, Table
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from sqlalchemy.ext.associationproxy import association_proxy
Base = declarative_base()
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = 'users'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
name = Column(Text)
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
# proxy the 'comment' attribute from the 'comment_object' relationship
comment = association_proxy('comment_object', 'comment')
class Comment(Base):
__tablename__ = 'comments'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
comment = Column('comment', Text, nullable=False, default="")
user_id = Column(ForeignKey('users.id'), nullable=False)
def __init__(self, comment):
self.comment = comment
user_object = orm.relationship(
"User",
backref=orm.backref('comment_object'),
uselist=False
)
if __name__ == "__main__":
engine = sa.create_engine('sqlite:///:memory:', echo=True)
Session = orm.sessionmaker(bind=engine)
Base.metadata.create_all(engine)
session = Session()
u = User(name="Max Mueller")
# comment = Comment("")
# comment.user_object = u
# session.add(u)
# session.commit()
print "SS :", u
print u.comment
You gave uselist in backref which must be in relationship.

I do not see any answer that would solve the issue and also would work with "sort_by" for example.
Maybe it is just better to use 'column_property", see Order by association proxy: invalid sql.