from sqlalchemy import MetaData, Table, Column, Integer, String, \ ForeignKey, create_engine from sqlalchemy.orm import mapper, relationship, sessionmaker # this example illustrates a polymorphic load of two classes metadata = MetaData() # a table to store companies companies = Table('companies', metadata, Column('company_id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('name', String(50))) # we will define an inheritance relationship between the table "people" and # "engineers", and a second inheritance relationship between the table # "people" and "managers" people = Table('people', metadata, Column('person_id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('company_id', Integer, ForeignKey('companies.company_id')), Column('name', String(50)), Column('type', String(30))) engineers = Table('engineers', metadata, Column('person_id', Integer, ForeignKey('people.person_id'), primary_key=True), Column('status', String(30)), Column('engineer_name', String(50)), Column('primary_language', String(50)), ) managers = Table('managers', metadata, Column('person_id', Integer, ForeignKey('people.person_id'), primary_key=True), Column('status', String(30)), Column('manager_name', String(50)) ) # create our classes. The Engineer and Manager classes extend from Person. class Person(object): def __init__(self, **kwargs): for key, value in kwargs.iteritems(): setattr(self, key, value) def __repr__(self): return "Ordinary person %s" % self.name class Engineer(Person): def __repr__(self): return "Engineer %s, status %s, engineer_name %s, "\ "primary_language %s" % \ (self.name, self.status, self.engineer_name, self.primary_language) class Manager(Person): def __repr__(self): return "Manager %s, status %s, manager_name %s" % \ (self.name, self.status, self.manager_name) class Company(object): def __init__(self, **kwargs): for key, value in kwargs.iteritems(): setattr(self, key, value) def __repr__(self): return "Company %s" % self.name person_mapper = mapper(Person, people, polymorphic_on=people.c.type, polymorphic_identity='person') mapper(Engineer, engineers, inherits=person_mapper, polymorphic_identity='engineer') mapper(Manager, managers, inherits=person_mapper, polymorphic_identity='manager') mapper(Company, companies, properties={'employees' : relationship(Person, lazy='joined', backref='company', cascade='all, delete-orphan')}) engine = create_engine('sqlite://', echo=True) metadata.create_all(engine) session = sessionmaker(engine)() c = Company(name='company1') c.employees.append(Manager(name='pointy haired boss', status='AAB', manager_name='manager1')) c.employees.append(Engineer(name='dilbert', status='BBA', engineer_name='engineer1', primary_language='java')) c.employees.append(Person(name='joesmith', status='HHH')) c.employees.append(Engineer(name='wally', status='CGG', engineer_name='engineer2', primary_language='python' )) c.employees.append(Manager(name='jsmith', status='ABA', manager_name='manager2')) session.add(c) session.commit() c = session.query(Company).get(1) for e in c.employees: print e, e._sa_instance_state.key, e.company assert set([e.name for e in c.employees]) == set(['pointy haired boss', 'dilbert', 'joesmith', 'wally', 'jsmith']) print "\n" dilbert = session.query(Person).filter_by(name='dilbert').one() dilbert2 = session.query(Engineer).filter_by(name='dilbert').one() assert dilbert is dilbert2 dilbert.engineer_name = 'hes dibert!' session.commit() c = session.query(Company).get(1) for e in c.employees: print e # illustrate querying using direct table access: print session.query(Engineer.engineer_name).\ select_from(engineers).\ filter(Engineer.primary_language=='python').\ all() session.delete(c) session.commit()