How to use Django model inheritance with signals?

I have a few model inheritance levels in Django:

class WorkAttachment(models.Model):
    """ Abstract class that holds all fields that are required in each attachment """
    work            = models.ForeignKey(Work)
    added           = models.DateTimeField(default=datetime.datetime.now)
    views           = models.IntegerField(default=0)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True


class WorkAttachmentFileBased(WorkAttachment):
    """ Another base class, but for file based attachments """
    description     = models.CharField(max_length=500, blank=True)
    size            = models.IntegerField(verbose_name=_('size in bytes'))

    class Meta:
        abstract = True


class WorkAttachmentPicture(WorkAttachmentFileBased):
    """ Picture attached to work """
    image           = models.ImageField(upload_to='works/images', width_field='width', height_field='height')
    width           = models.IntegerField()
    height          = models.IntegerField()

There are many different models inherited from WorkAttachmentFileBased and WorkAttachment. I want to create a signal, which would update an attachment_count field for parent work, when attachment is created. It would be logical, to think that signal made for parent sender (WorkAttachment) would run for all inherited models too, but it does not. Here is my code:

@receiver(post_save, sender=WorkAttachment, dispatch_uid="att_post_save")
def update_attachment_count_on_save(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    """ Update file count for work when attachment was saved."""
    instance.work.attachment_count += 1
    instance.work.save()

Is there a way to make this signal work for all models inherited from WorkAttachment?

Python 2.7, Django 1.4 pre-alpha

P.S. I've tried one of the solutions I found on the net, but it did not work for me.

Solution 1:

You could register the connection handler without sender specified. And filter the needed models inside it.

from django.db.models.signals import post_save
from django.dispatch import receiver


@receiver(post_save)
def my_handler(sender, **kwargs):
    # Returns false if 'sender' is NOT a subclass of AbstractModel
    if not issubclass(sender, AbstractModel):
       return
    ...

Ref: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/django-users/E_u9pHIkiI0/YgzA1p8XaSMJ

Solution 2:

The simplest solution is to not restrict on the sender, but to check in the signal handler whether the respective instance is a subclass:

@receiver(post_save)
def update_attachment_count_on_save(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    if isinstance(instance, WorkAttachment):
        ...

However, this may incur a significant performance overhead as every time any model is saved, the above function is called.

I think I've found the most Django-way of doing this: Recent versions of Django suggest to connect signal handlers in a file called signals.py. Here's the necessary wiring code:

your_app/__init__.py:

default_app_config = 'your_app.apps.YourAppConfig'

your_app/apps.py:

import django.apps

class YourAppConfig(django.apps.AppConfig):
    name = 'your_app'
    def ready(self):
        import your_app.signals

your_app/signals.py:

def get_subclasses(cls):
    result = [cls]
    classes_to_inspect = [cls]
    while classes_to_inspect:
        class_to_inspect = classes_to_inspect.pop()
        for subclass in class_to_inspect.__subclasses__():
            if subclass not in result:
                result.append(subclass)
                classes_to_inspect.append(subclass)
    return result

def update_attachment_count_on_save(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    instance.work.attachment_count += 1
    instance.work.save()

for subclass in get_subclasses(WorkAttachment):
    post_save.connect(update_attachment_count_on_save, subclass)

I think this works for all subclasses, because they will all be loaded by the time YourAppConfig.ready is called (and thus signals is imported).