Question

Is it possibly to denormalize a multi-level relationship using django-denorm?

Specifically, I have the following structure:

Question --> User --> CustomProfile --> Avatar

I want to denormalize the avatar name on the Question model. At the moment, I have to traverse through these 4 tables to get that information.

I am using Postgresql.

Answer 1

Normally chaining dependencies works and is the way to handle this situation.

In this case where one model in the chain is not supplied by you, your best option would be to implement your own dependency class similar to those found in:
https://github.com/initcrash/django-denorm/blob/master/denorm/dependencies.py

so you get:

class Question(models.Model):
    @denormalized(...)
    @depend_on_related("User")
    @depend_on_indirectly_related("CustomProfile",through="User")
    def avatar(self):
        return self.user.custom_profile.avatar_name

class CustomProfile(models.Model):
    @denormalized(...)
    @depend_on_related("Avatar")
    def avatar_name(self):
        return self.avatar.name

this would of course be a welcome patch for django-denorm.