from sqlalchemy import * metadata = BoundMetaData('sqlite://', echo=False) def association(cls, table): """create an association 'interface'.""" interface_name = table.name attr_name = "%s_rel" % interface_name metadata = table.metadata association_table = Table("%s_associations" % interface_name, metadata, Column('assoc_id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('type', String(50), nullable=False) ) class GenericAssoc(object): def __init__(self, name): self.type = name def interface(cls, name, uselist=True): mapper = class_mapper(cls) table = mapper.local_table mapper.add_property(attr_name, relation(GenericAssoc, backref=backref('_backref_%s' % table.name, uselist=False))) if uselist: # list based property decorator def get(self): if getattr(self, attr_name) is None: setattr(self, attr_name, GenericAssoc(table.name)) return getattr(self, attr_name).targets setattr(cls, name, property(get)) else: # scalar based property decorator def get(self): return getattr(self, attr_name).targets[0] def set(self, value): if getattr(self, attr_name) is None: setattr(self, attr_name, GenericAssoc(table.name)) getattr(self, attr_name).targets = [value] setattr(cls, name, property(get, set)) setattr(cls, 'member', property(lambda self: getattr(self.association, '_backref_%s' % self.association.type))) mapper(GenericAssoc, association_table, properties={ 'targets':relation(cls, backref='association'), }) return interface addresses = Table("addresses", metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('assoc_id', None, ForeignKey('addresses_associations.assoc_id')), Column('street', String(100)), Column('city', String(50)), Column('country', String(50)) ) users = Table("users", metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('name', String(50), nullable=False), Column('assoc_id', None, ForeignKey('addresses_associations.assoc_id')), ) orders = Table("orders", metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('description', String(50), nullable=False), Column('assoc_id', None, ForeignKey('addresses_associations.assoc_id')), ) class Address(object): pass mapper(Address, addresses) # create "addressable" association addressable = association(Address, addresses) class User(object): pass mapper(User, users) # use the association addressable(User, 'addresses', uselist=True) class Order(object): pass mapper(Order, orders) addressable(Order, 'address', uselist=False) metadata.create_all() u1 = User() u1.name = 'bob' o1 = Order() o1.description = 'order 1' a1 = Address() u1.addresses.append(a1) a1.street = '123 anywhere street' a2 = Address() u1.addresses.append(a2) a2.street = '345 orchard ave' o1.address = Address() o1.address.street = '444 park ave.' sess = create_session() sess.save(u1) sess.save(o1) sess.flush() sess.clear() # query objects, get their addresses bob = sess.query(User).get_by(name='bob') assert [s.street for s in bob.addresses] == ['123 anywhere street', '345 orchard ave'] order = sess.query(Order).get_by(description='order 1') assert order.address.street == '444 park ave.' # query from Address to members for address in sess.query(Address).list(): print "Street", address.street, "Member", address.member