[python] Separation of business logic and data access in django

I would have to agree with you. There are a lot of possibilities in django but best place to start is reviewing Django's design philosophy.

1. Calling an API from a model property would not be ideal, it seems like it would make more sense to do something like this in the view and possibly create a service layer to keep things dry. If the call to the API is non-blocking and the call is an expensive one, sending the request to a service worker (a worker that consumes from a queue) might make sense.

2. As per Django's design philosophy models encapsulate every aspect of an "object". So all business logic related to that object should live there:

Include all relevant domain logic

Models should encapsulate every aspect of an “object,” following Martin Fowler’s Active Record design pattern.

3. The side effects you describe are apparent, the logic here could be better broken down into Querysets and managers. Here is an example:

   models.py

   import datetime
   
   from djongo import models
   from django.db.models.query import QuerySet
   from django.contrib import admin
   from django.db import transaction
   
   
   class MyUser(models.Model):
   
       present_name = models.TextField(null=False, blank=True)
       status = models.TextField(null=False, blank=True)
       last_active = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True, editable=False)
   
       # As mentioned you could put this in a template tag to pull it
       # from cache there. Depending on how it is used, it could be
       # retrieved from within the admin view or from a custom view
       # if that is the only place you will use it.
       #def get_present_name(self):
       #    # property became non-deterministic in terms of database
       #    # data is taken from another service by api
       #    return remote_api.request_user_name(self.uid) or 'Anonymous'
   
       # Moved to admin as an action
       # def activate(self):
       #     # method now has a side effect (send message to user)
       #     self.status = 'activated'
       #     self.save()
       #     # send email via email service
       #     #send_mail('Your account is activated!', '…', [self.email])
   
       class Meta:
           ordering = ['-id']  # Needed for DRF pagination
   
       def __unicode__(self):
           return '{}'.format(self.pk)
   
   
   class MyUserRegistrationQuerySet(QuerySet):
   
       def for_inactive_users(self):
           new_date = datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(days=3*365)  # 3 Years ago
           return self.filter(last_active__lte=new_date.year)
   
       def by_user_id(self, user_ids):
           return self.filter(id__in=user_ids)
   
   
   class MyUserRegistrationManager(models.Manager):
   
       def get_query_set(self):
           return MyUserRegistrationQuerySet(self.model, using=self._db)
   
       def with_no_activity(self):
           return self.get_query_set().for_inactive_users()
   

   admin.py

   # Then in model admin
   
   class MyUserRegistrationAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
       actions = (
           'send_welcome_emails',
       )
   
       def send_activate_emails(self, request, queryset):
           rows_affected = 0
           for obj in queryset:
               with transaction.commit_on_success():
                   # send_email('welcome_email', request, obj) # send email via email service
                   obj.status = 'activated'
                   obj.save()
                   rows_affected += 1
   
           self.message_user(request, 'sent %d' % rows_affected)
   
   admin.site.register(MyUser, MyUserRegistrationAdmin)