Question

I want to add a layout model to my website (a general settings file), and I want it to be available in the admin interface for configuration.

class Layout(...Model):
    primary_header
    logo_image
    ...

This structure shouldn’t saved be in a table.

I am wondering if there is a built-in feature that can help me do this.

Thanks

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My use case is a configurable layout of the website. WordPress style. I would like to store that data in a concrete class, without having to implement the file /xml serialization myself.

Answer 1

What about an abstract model? It does not save in the database and is meant to be subclassed, but you are allowed to create instances of it and use its attributes. I assume you want some kind of temporary data structure to pass around that meets the requirements of a model instance.

class Layout(models.Model):

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

If you for some reason need actual concrete models, and are fine with it creating tables for them, you could technically also re-implement the save() method and make it no-op.

I don’t really understand where and how you will be using this, but this is indeed a model that doesn’t save.

Personally, I have actually used models that aren’t intended to be saved, in a project that uses mongodb and the nonrel django fork. I create models that are purely meant to be embedded into other models as nested sub-documents and I never want them to be committed to a separate collection.

Update
Here is another suggestion that might make things a whole lot easier for your goal. Why not just use a normal django model, save it to the database like normal, and create a simple import/export function to save it out to XML or read into an instance from XML. That way you get 100% normal admin functionality, you can still query the database for the values, and the XML part is just a simple add-on. You can also use this to version up preferences and mark a certain one as active.