Hi All,
I've been looking for a way to define database tables and alter them via a Django API.
For example, I'd like to be write some code which directly manipulates table DDL and allow me to define tables or add columns to a table on demand programmatically (without running a syncdb). I realize that django-south and django-evolution may come to mind, but I don't really think of these tools as tools meant to be integrated into an application and used by and end user... rather these tools are utilities used for upgrading your database tables. I'm looking for something where I can do something like:
class MyModel(models.Model): # wouldn't run syncdb.. instead do something like below
a = models.CharField()
b = models.CharField()
model = MyModel()
model.create() # this runs the create table (instead of a syncdb)
model.add_column(c = models.CharField()) # this would set a column to be added
model.alter() # and this would apply the alter statement
model.del_column('a') # this would set column 'a' for removal
model.alter() # and this would apply the removal
This is just a toy example of how such an API would work, but the point is that I'd be very interested in finding out if there is a way to programatically create and change tables like this. This might be useful for things such as content management systems, where one might want to dynamically create a new table. Another example would be a site that stores datasets of an arbitrary width, for which tables need to be generated dynamically by the interface or data imports. Dose anyone know any good ways to dynamically create and alter tables like this?
(Granted, I know one can do direct SQL statements against the database, but that solution lacks the ability to treat the databases as objects)
Just curious as to if people have any suggestions or approaches to this...
Joe