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Django Custom User Model Creation

23 SEP, 2022

In this article, we'll explore how to create a new custom Django user model in case the default user model doesn't fit with your project.

This recommended only on new project, if you're adding a custom user model to an existing project, be aware of migration issues. Read Django docs.

Set Up Your Django Project

shell
pip install django

Create a new Django project:

shell
django-admin startproject myproject

Create Custom User Model

Option 1: Using AbstractUser

In models.py file within Django app, define custom user model by subclassing AbstractUser:

Choose this option if you are satisfied with the existing fields in the user model and just want to remove or add some field.

python
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractUser
class CustomUser(AbstractUser):
    # Add any custom fields here
    pass

Option 2: Using AbstractBaseUser

Alternatively, if you need more control over the user model, you can subclass AbstractBaseUser and define all fields and methods yourself:

Choose this option if you want to build a completely new user model from scratch.

python
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager
class CustomUserManager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, email, password=None):
        if not email:
            raise ValueError('Users must have an email address')
        user = self.model(
            email=self.normalize_email(email),
        )
        user.set_password(password)
        user.save(using=self._db)
        return user
    def create_superuser(self, email, password):
        user = self.create_user(
            email=self.normalize_email(email),
            password=password,
        )
        user.is_admin = True
        user.is_staff = True
        user.save(using=self._db)
        return user
class CustomUser(AbstractBaseUser):
    email = models.EmailField(unique=True)
    # Add any additional fields here
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
    is_admin = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    is_staff = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    objects = CustomUserManager()
    USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
    def __str__(self):
        return self.email
    def has_perm(self, perm, obj=None):
        return self.is_admin
    def has_module_perms(self, app_label):
        return self.is_admin

Configure Your Custom User Model in settings.py

In your project's settings.py, specify the custom user model you created:

python
AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'myapp.CustomUser'  # Replace 'myapp' with the name of your Django app

Make Migrations and Migrate

Generate database migrations for your custom user model:

shell
python manage.py makemigrations

Apply the migrations to your database:

shell
python manage.py migrate

Update Django Admin

If you are using Django Admin, you may need to update it to work with your custom user model. Update admin.py:

python
from django.contrib import admin
from django.contrib.auth.admin import UserAdmin
from .models import CustomUser
class CustomUserAdmin(UserAdmin):
    model = CustomUser
    # Customize your admin view as needed
admin.site.register(CustomUser, CustomUserAdmin)

Now, we can use customUserModel with our project.

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