How to extend the User model with custom fields in Django

Question

What's the best way to extend the User model (bundled with Django's authentication app) with custom fields? I would also possibly like to use the email as the username (for authentication purposes).

Answer 1

Hello @kartik,

Define an object manager for your new customized model then define your model as:

from django.db import models
from django.contrib.auth.models import PermissionsMixin, AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager

class User_manager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, username, email, gender, nickname, password):
        email = self.normalize_email(email)
        user = self.model(username=username, email=email, gender=gender, nickname=nickname)
        user.set_password(password)
        user.save(using=self.db)
        return user

    def create_superuser(self, username, email, gender, password, nickname=None):
        user = self.create_user(username=username, email=email, gender=gender, nickname=nickname, password=password)
        user.is_superuser = True
        user.is_staff = True
        user.save()
        return user



  class User(PermissionsMixin, AbstractBaseUser):
    username = models.CharField(max_length=32, unique=True, )
    email = models.EmailField(max_length=32)
    gender_choices = [("M", "Male"), ("F", "Female"), ("O", "Others")]
    gender = models.CharField(choices=gender_choices, default="M", max_length=1)
    nickname = models.CharField(max_length=32, blank=True, null=True)

    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)
    is_staff = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    REQUIRED_FIELDS = ["email", "gender"]
    USERNAME_FIELD = "username"
    objects = User_manager()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.username

Don't forget to add this line of code in your settings.py:

AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'YourApp.User'

Hope it works!!

Thank You!!