Question

I am beginning to learn Python and Django. I want to know how if I have a simple class of “player” with some properties, like: name, points, inventory, how would I make the class also write the values to the database if they are changed. My thinking is that I create Django data models and then call the .save method within my classes. Is this correct?

Answer 1

You are correct that you call the save() method to save models to your db, But you don’t have to define the save method within your model classes if you don’t want to. It would be extremely helpful to go through the django tutorial which explains all.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/intro/tutorial01/

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/models/
Explains django models

django uses its own ORM (object-relational mapping)

This does exacxtly what it sounds like maps your django/python objects (models) to your backend.

It provides a sleek, intuitive, pythonic, very easy to use interface for creating models (tables in your rdbms) adding data and retrieving data.

First you would define your model

class Player(models.Model):
  points = models.IntegerField()
  name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

django provides commands for chanign this python object into a table.

python manage.py syncdb

you could also use python manage.py sql <appname> to show the actual sql that django is generating to turn this object into a table.

Once you have a storage for this object you can create new ones in the same manner you would create python objects

new_player = Player(points=100, name='me')
new_player.save()

Calling save() actually writes the object to your backend.