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In Django, how do I know the currently logged-in user?

Filipe Correia
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JasonYun
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3 Answers3

117

Where do you need to know the user?

In views the user is provided in the request as request.user.

For user-handling in templates see here

If you want to save the creator or editor of a model's instance you can do something like:

model.py

class Article(models.Model):
    created_by = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name='created_by')
    created_on = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add = True)
    edited_by  = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name='edited_by')
    edited_on  = models.DateTimeField(auto_now = True)
    published  = models.BooleanField(default=None)

admin.py 

class ArticleAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields= ('title','slug','text','category','published')
    inlines = [ImagesInline]
    def save_model(self, request, obj, form, change): 
        instance = form.save(commit=False)
        if not hasattr(instance,'created_by'):
            instance.created_by = request.user
        instance.edited_by = request.user
        instance.save()
        form.save_m2m()
        return instance

    def save_formset(self, request, form, formset, change): 

        def set_user(instance):
            if not instance.created_by:
                instance.created_by = request.user
            instance.edited_by = request.user
            instance.save()

        if formset.model == Article:
            instances = formset.save(commit=False)
            map(set_user, instances)
            formset.save_m2m()
            return instances
        else:
            return formset.save()

I found this on the Internet, but I don't know where anymore

vikingosegundo
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    Just a note, in save_formset -> set_user, it should be if not hasattr(instance,'created_by') – FurtiveFelon Jun 15 '10 at 19:56
  • can I get the current user in settings.py? – Mahendra Garg Mar 18 '16 at 13:37
  • Why would you do that? (please create a new question, my django days are long gone) – vikingosegundo Mar 18 '16 at 14:11
  • @vikingosegundo I was just wondering why you don't use Django anymore? Don't you do back-end development anymore or have you moved on to NodeJS? – Alfa Bravo Jun 19 '18 at 14:27
  • I am currently working exclusively as an iOS developer, but from time to time for prototyping purposes Django is still the weapon of choice for me. – vikingosegundo Jun 19 '18 at 15:12
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    for some reason it didn't work for me using the inner function `set_user` and then mapping it through `instances`. It just didn't save new models into database. I had to use a `for instance in instances:` with the `set_user` body inside the loop and worked perfectly. Additionally, I think the `if formset.model == Article` should be `if formset.model == Image`. Thanks @vikingosegundo for your answer. I was hitting my head to the keyboard for days trying to solve this!! – ekauffmann Feb 21 '19 at 14:40
8

Extending @vikingosegundo's answer, if you want to get the username inside Models, I found a way that involves declaring a MiddleWare. Create a file called get_username.py inside your app, with this content:

from threading import current_thread

_requests = {}

def get_username():
    t = current_thread()
    if t not in _requests:
         return None
    return _requests[t]

class RequestMiddleware(object):
    def process_request(self, request):
        _requests[current_thread()] = request

Edit your settings.py and add it to the MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES:

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    ...
    'yourapp.get_username.RequestMiddleware',
)

Now, in your save() method, you can get the current username like this:

from get_username import get_username

...

def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
    req = get_username()
    print "Your username is: %s" % (req.user)
nKn
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  • Dedicated thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10991460/django-get-current-user-in-model-save – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com May 09 '16 at 08:03
  • @nKn is the really dedicated MiddleWare necessary to invoke `get_username()` in `Models` object? If so, it would be nice to have a link to a canonical docs regarding that. Are there updated native django functions in 1.9.5 to do the same? – alvas May 30 '16 at 07:25
6

Django 1.9.6 default project has user in the default templates

So you can write things like this directly:

{% if user.is_authenticated %}
    {{ user.username }}
{% else %}
    Not logged in.
{% endif %}

This functionality is provided by thedjango.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth context processor in settings.py.

Dedicated template question: How to access the user profile in a Django template?

Community
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Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
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