User configuration

Choosing the Correct User Model in Django

We highly recommend overriding the User model at the start of the project because it becomes more difficult to do later, and in most cases, you will need to add features to the default user. Django provides two base classes that you can use to create a custom user model:

• AbstractUser: Extends Django’s base User model with all the default fields and behaviors.
• AbstractBaseUser: Provides the core implementation of a user model, including password hashing and token generation, but does not include any actual fields.

Considerations for Choosing a User Model

The choice between AbstractUser and AbstractBaseUser depends primarily on your application’s specific requirements:

• Use AbstractUser if: You are satisfied with the existing fields on the Django user model but want to add some extra fields.
• Use AbstractBaseUser if: You need to build a completely customized user model from scratch, for instance, when you want to use an email address or any other field as the primary identifier instead of a username.

Configuring AbstractUser

If you decide to extend AbstractUser, you can add additional fields and change some of the default behaviors. Here’s how to do it:

1. Define the Custom User Model

   Create a new model that inherits from AbstractUser and add your custom fields:

   from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractUser
   from django.db import models
   
   class CustomUser(AbstractUser):
       bio = models.TextField(blank=True)
   

2. Update settings.py

   Tell Django to use your custom user model by adding the following line to your settings.py:

   AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'your_app.CustomUser'
   

3. Create and Apply Migrations

   Generate migrations for your new user model and apply them:

   python manage.py makemigrations
   python manage.py migrate
   

Configuring AbstractBaseUser

Using AbstractBaseUser requires more setup because you need to define more of the model yourself, including the fields and the manager.

Start creating your model and selecting your primery key and required information for the user, then you can override the BaseUserManager

1. Define the Custom User Model

   Create a model that inherits from AbstractBaseUser. You’ll also need to inherit from PermissionsMixin if you want to use Django’s permission framework:

   from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin, BaseUserManager
   from django.db import models
   
   class CustomUserManager(BaseUserManager):
       def create_user(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields):
           if not email:
               raise ValueError('The Email must be set')
           email = self.normalize_email(email)
           user = self.model(email=email, **extra_fields)
           user.set_password(password)
           user.save(using=self._db)
           return user
   
       def create_superuser(self, email, password, **extra_fields):
           extra_fields.setdefault('is_staff', True)
           extra_fields.setdefault('is_superuser', True)
   
           if extra_fields.get('is_staff') is not True:
               raise ValueError('Superuser must have is_staff=True.')
           if extra_fields.get('is_superuser') is not True:
               raise ValueError('Superuser must have is_superuser=True.')
   
           return self.create_user(email, password, **extra_fields)
   
   class CustomUser(AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin):
       email = models.EmailField(unique=True)
       is_staff = models.BooleanField(default=False)
       is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
   
       USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
       REQUIRED_FIELDS = []
   
       objects = CustomUserManager()
   
       def __str__(self):
           return self.email
   

2. Update settings.py

   Similarly to AbstractUser, you must inform Django about your custom model:

   AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'your_app.CustomUser'
   

3. Create and Apply Migrations

   As before, create and apply migrations:

   python manage.py makemigrations
   python manage.py migrate