Django automatically compress Model Field on save() and decompress when field is accessed

Answer 1

Custom field types are definitely the way to go here. This is the only reliable way to ensure that the field is compressed on save and decompressed on load. Make sure you set the metaclass as described in your link.

Answer 2

You need to implement to_python and get_prep_value in your custom field type to respectively decompress and compress your data.

Answer 3

http://djangosnippets.org/snippets/1495/