Enforce Django best practice

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Code Review Doctor checks that your code follows the Django documentation maintainability best practices, and offers the fix to reduce developer effort.

This frees your team to be more agile - they can focus on adding value rather than fighting with old tech debt.

Try the Code Review Doctor maintainability challenge to see the improvements Code Review Doctor suggests.

Code Review Doctor protects you against these maintainability anti-patterns:

  • ForeignKey missing related_name

    maintainabilitylow

    ORM queries are more readable and relationships more explicit when related_name is specified.

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  • Importing models.py into migrations

    maintainabilityhigh

    It's better to use apps.get_model, which guarantees the Model's fields will reflect the fields in the database even if models.py is vastly out of step with the database.

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  • Missing reverse migration

    maintainabilityhigh

    It's good to, as a minimum, specify noop in RunPython so the migration can be skipped when going backwards, and even better to specify a function that undoes the migration.

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  • Hard-coded static asset URL in template

    maintainabilitymedium

    Hard-coding static asset urls is brittle because the place the files are stored depends on the `STATICFILES_STORAGE` used - so if in prod the storage backend uploads to S3 or even renames the file then this hard-coded URL will break.

    Using "{% static ... %}" solves that as it knows exactly where the files are stored.

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  • Middleware order

    maintainabilityhigh

    The order of middleware affections the outcome. Some middleware are dependant on the functionality of other middleware. For example a middleware that requires usage of request.session should come after the SessionMiddleware.

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  • URL name not unique

    maintainabilityhigh

    URL names must be unique otherwise reverse('url_name') and {% url 'url_name' %} will link to the "wrong" page half of the time.

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  • Using reverse_lazy where reverse would be better

    maintainabilitylow

    Using reverse(...) is better than using reverse_lazy(...) when the url is being reversed after URLConf has been loaded.

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  • Middleware should be near the end

    maintainabilityhigh

    Incorrectly ordered middleware can stop the middleware working as intended.

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  • Middleware should be near the top

    maintainabilityhigh

    Incorrectly ordered middleware can stop the middleware working as intended.

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  • Hard-coded URL in template

    maintainabilitymedium

    Hard-coding urls makes changing URLs harder, and makes linking to the wrong page easier - so harms maintainability.

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  • Brittle unique_for

    maintainabilitymedium

    unique_for_date/month/year is very brittle and over time will likely be a source for unexpected behaviour.

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  • Importing setting file directly

    maintainabilitymedium

    Using from django.conf import settings simplifies the code and makes it more maintainable.

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  • CharField with huge max_length

    maintainabilitylow

    Using TextField for very long string fields would simplify the code and make is easier to maintain.

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  • Deprecated NullBooleanField

    maintainabilitymedium

    NullBooleanField is deprecated and will be removed a future version of Django.

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  • Redundant default arguments

    maintainabilitylow

    Stating defaults add complexity when reading the code but does not change Django's behaviour.

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  • Redundant setting

    maintainabilitylow

    Stating defaults add complexity when reading the code but does not change Django's behaviour.

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  • Field allows null but not blank

    maintainabilitylow

    If null is True and blank is False then validation becomes more complex.

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  • Non-unique primary_key

    maintainabilityhigh

    Primary key must be unique by definition: it's a field that uniquely identifies the record.

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  • Relative path in TEMPLATES setting

    maintainabilityhigh

    DIRS must be absolute paths. Relative paths will not work.

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  • Back slashes in TEMPLATES settings

    maintainabilityhigh

    DIRS must be forward slashes, even in Windows. Forward slashes do not need escaping, and they are cross Operating System compatible.

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  • Nullable string field

    maintainabilitylow

    ORM queries and Python code are made more complex because values will sometimes be None and other times str.

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  • ForeignKey missing related_name

    maintainabilitylow

    ORM queries are more readable and relationships more explicit when related_name is specified.

    Read more
  • Model method order

    maintainabilitylow

    The Django coding style suggests a standard order of model attributes. Increasing standardisation and predictability of your code style helps other developers read your code.

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  • Admin class not in admin.py

    maintainabilitymedium

    Predictable project structure and following common patterns simplifies maintenance of a codebase.

    Django developers come to expect Admin-related objects to be in admin.py. Failure to do this will result in more time spent looking for where code lives.

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  • Tall Model

    maintainabilitylow

    A taller Model with many fields may be more difficult to maintain than a shorter Model with fewer fields.

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  • Huge models.py

    maintainabilitylow

    Taller models.py with many Models may be more difficult to maintain than shorter models.py with fewer Models.

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  • Tall models.py with a common prefix

    maintainabilitylow

    Taller models.py with many Models may be more difficult to maintain than shorter models.py with fewer Models.

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  • Relative path in TEMPLATES setting

    maintainabilityhigh

    DIRS must be absolute paths. Relative paths will not work.

    Read more
  • Using settings.DEBUG as a feature flag hinders testing

    maintainabilitymedium

    Your code is harder to test in isolation because the value of settings.DEBUG affects other Django behaviours including error handling. Consider using a feature flag instead.

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