Making a Custom Django User Model Tutorial

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Django User model
• Django User fields
  • Authentication
  • Communication
  • Authorization
• Do I need a custom Django User model?
• Application-specific data
  • Storing application data on the User model
  • Storing application data in a profile model
• Additional / different authentication data
• Why do it anyway?
• Tutorial: Defining the custom model
  • foo_auth application
  • Defining the model
  • Registering the model
  • Generating the database migrations
• The model in action
  • Setting up the database
  • Creating an admin user
  • Making the custom user available in the admin
  • Customizing the admin User page
• Referencing the User model
  • Referencing the User model (without using the actual model class)
  • Getting the User model
• What’s next?
• Key takeaways
  • Use a custom User model
  • Correctly reference the User model

Understanding the Django User model

The Django User model is at the center of Django’s authentication system. It is the mechanism for identifying the users of your web application.

A user will log in by providing their username and password. Then (depending on your authentication backend) the identity of that user is preserved across requests either through a session, a token, or some other mechanism.

When a request is made to your web application, Django loads an instance of the User model that represents (and identifies) the user of your web application.

Django User fields

All the fields on the built-in Django User model are used for authenticating the user, communicating with the user, and understanding what the user is authorized to access.

Authentication

• username
• password
• last_login
• date_joined

Communication

• first_name
• last_name
• email

Authorization

• groups
• user_permissions
• is_staff
• is_active
• is_superuser

Do I need a custom Django User model?

The short answer is: No, but use one anyway.

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