Django documentation

13. Adding hooks before/after saving and deleting

This example is for Django's SVN release, which can be significantly different from previous releases. Get old examples here: 0.96, 0.95.

To execute arbitrary code around save() and delete(), just subclass the methods.

Model source code

from django.db import models

class Person(models.Model):
    first_name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
    last_name = models.CharField(max_length=20)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return u"%s %s" % (self.first_name, self.last_name)

    def save(self):
        print "Before save"
        super(Person, self).save() # Call the "real" save() method
        print "After save"

    def delete(self):
        print "Before deletion"
        super(Person, self).delete() # Call the "real" delete() method
        print "After deletion"

Sample API usage

This sample code assumes the above model has been saved in a file mysite/models.py. 

>>> from mysite.models import Person

>>> p1 = Person(first_name='John', last_name='Smith')
>>> p1.save()
Before save
After save

>>> Person.objects.all()
[<Person: John Smith>]

>>> p1.delete()
Before deletion
After deletion

>>> Person.objects.all()
[]

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