Models Meta Options

Patterns

Complete Meta Configuration

class Firmware(TimestampedModel):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    brand = models.ForeignKey("Brand", on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name="firmwares_brand")
    version = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)

    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return f"{self.brand} - {self.name} v{self.version}"

    class Meta:
        db_table = "firmwares_firmware"
        verbose_name = "Firmware"
        verbose_name_plural = "Firmwares"
        ordering = ["-created_at"]
        indexes = [
            models.Index(fields=["brand", "is_active"], name="idx_firmware_brand_active"),
            models.Index(fields=["-created_at"], name="idx_firmware_created"),
        ]
        constraints = [
            models.UniqueConstraint(
                fields=["brand", "name", "version"],
                name="unique_firmware_brand_name_version",
            ),
        ]

Dissolved App Table Preservation

class CrawlerRule(TimestampedModel):
    """Migrated from dissolved apps.crawler_guard."""
    path_pattern = models.CharField(max_length=500)
    action = models.CharField(max_length=20)

    class Meta:
        db_table = "crawler_guard_crawlerrule"  # keeps existing table
        verbose_name = "Crawler Rule"
        verbose_name_plural = "Crawler Rules"
        ordering = ["path_pattern"]

Abstract Model Meta

class StatusMixin(models.Model):
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True  # No table created — fields inherited by children

Permissions

class Firmware(TimestampedModel):
    class Meta:
        db_table = "firmwares_firmware"
        verbose_name = "Firmware"
        verbose_name_plural = "Firmwares"
        ordering = ["-created_at"]
        permissions = [
            ("can_approve_firmware", "Can approve firmware submissions"),
            ("can_export_firmware", "Can export firmware data"),
        ]

Meta Options Reference

Anti-Patterns

• Missing db_table — Django auto-generates but explicit is better
• Missing verbose_name — admin shows ugly auto-generated names
• Using unique_together for new code — use UniqueConstraint instead
• Using index_together — deprecated, use Index(fields=[...]) instead
• Setting heavy ordering on large tables — adds ORDER BY to every query
• Changing db_table on dissolved-app models — breaks existing data

Quality Gate

& .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m ruff check . --fix
& .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m ruff format .
& .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe manage.py check --settings=app.settings_dev

References

• Django Model Meta