Model Standards

Project-specific Django patterns for the World of Darkness application. These standards ensure consistency across gamelines.

Workflow Decision Tree

Creating a new polymorphic model? → See references/model-templates.md for Character/Item/Location inheritance patterns

Setting up CRUD views? → See references/view-templates.md for mixin order and permission patterns

Building forms? → See references/form-templates.md for ModelForm and formset patterns

Creating templates? → See references/template-patterns.md for inheritance and includes

Configuring URLs? → See references/url-patterns.md for namespace hierarchy

Checking what's implemented? → See references/model-inventory.md for full model status

Project-Specific Conventions

Model Type Registration

Every polymorphic model MUST set:

type = "model_name"      # Snake_case, matches URL pattern
gameline = "gameline"    # Lowercase: vampire, werewolf, mage, wraith, changeling, demon, mummy, hunter

URL Namespace Pattern

app:gameline:action:model_type

Example: characters:vampire:detail:vampire

Required Model Methods

def get_absolute_url(self):
    return reverse("app:gameline:detail:model_type", kwargs={"pk": self.pk})

def get_update_url(self):
    return reverse("app:gameline:update:model_type", kwargs={"pk": self.pk})

def get_heading(self):
    return f"{self.gameline}_heading"

Gameline Heading Classes

Mixin Stacking Order (left to right)

# Update views
class MyView(EditPermissionMixin, MessageMixin, UpdateView): pass

# List views  
class MyListView(VisibilityFilterMixin, ListView): pass

# Create views
class MyCreateView(LoginRequiredMixin, MessageMixin, CreateView): pass

# ST-only views
class MySTView(STRequiredMixin, MessageMixin, CreateView): pass

Reference Model Inheritance

Do NOT redefine fields inherited from core.models.Model:

• name, description, owner, chronicle, status, display
• sources (M2M) - use add_source(book_title, page_number) method

File Location Patterns

Implementation Checklist

Model Layer

• Proper base class inheritance (Character/Human, ItemModel, LocationModel, or Model)
• type and gameline attributes set
• __str__, get_absolute_url, get_update_url, get_heading methods
• Meta class with verbose_name, verbose_name_plural, ordering
• Migration created and applied

URL Layer

• List, detail, create, update URL patterns
• Registered in gameline router
• Names follow app:gameline:action:model_name convention

View Layer

• Correct mixin stacking order
• select_related/prefetch_related optimization
• Form class selection based on permissions in UpdateView

Form Layer

• Creation form with user-filtered querysets
• Limited edit form for owners (non-ST users)

Template Layer

• Extends appropriate base (characters/core/human/detail.html, etc.)
• Uses tg-card, tg-table classes (not Bootstrap defaults)
• Gameline heading class on cards