How does one use Django custom management command option?

Question

The Django doc tell me how to add an option to my django custom management command, via an example:

from optparse import make_option

class Command(BaseCommand):
    option_list = BaseCommand.option_list + (
        make_option('--delete',
            action='store_true',
            dest='delete',
            default=False,
            help='Delete poll instead of closing it'),
    )

Then the docs just stop. How would one write the handle method for this class to check whether the user has supplied a --delete option? At times Django makes the easy things difficult :-(

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 18 '14 at 17:24

19

You can do it like this:

from optparse import make_option

class Command(BaseCommand):
    option_list = BaseCommand.option_list + (
        make_option('--del',
            action='store_true',
            help='Delete poll'),
        make_option('--close',
            action='store_true',
            help='Close poll'),
    )

    def handle(self, close, *args, **kwargs):
        del_ = kwargs.get('del')

Do note that some keywords in Python are reserved so you can handle those using **kwargs. Otherwise you can use normal arguments (like I did with close)

edited Nov 18 '14 at 17:24

radtek

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answered Nov 17 '10 at 19:13

Wolph

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1

The reserved word is `del`. `delete` is permitted as a variable name. – Mechanical snail Feb 28 '12 at 21:23
For others coming to this thread, this resource helped me out too : http://www.alexonlinux.com/pythons-optparse-for-human-beings#telling_optparse_to_parse_arguments – Javed Ahamed Aug 17 '16 at 21:14

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 13 '14 at 15:24

A little suggestion about defining the commands (key name, dest) and handling default values (in make_option and in the command):

class Command(BaseCommand):
    option_list = BaseCommand.option_list + (
        make_option('--del',
            action='store_true',
            help='Delete all polls.',
            dest='your_name_for_delete',
            default=False),
        make_option('--close',
            action='store_true',
            help='Close all polls.'),
    )

    def handle(self, close, *args, **options):
        if options.get('your_name_for_delete'):
            Poll.objects.delete()
        if options.get('close', False):
            Poll.objects.update(closed=True)

In Django code you'll find "keyword arguments" (**kwargs) often named as **options, which is more suggestive (I stick to this naming convention).

The default value can be either specified in make_option, or through the dict.get method, which allows for a default value.

There's no reason not u use both defaults, should your Command.handle method be called manually, where the **options dictionary could be missing this entry.

How does one use Django custom management command option?

2 Answers2

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