Django Auth / Custom User Manager: Why is it important to set password=None

Question

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/django-authentication/users-and-authorization/custom-user-manager

Managed to get the code to pass, but why is it important in this step (def create_user(self, email, dob, accepted_tos=False, password=None), to set password's default = None, otherwise it would not pass?

from django.contrib.auth.models import BaseUserManager

class UserManager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, email, dob, accepted_tos=False, password=None):
        if not accepted_tos:
            raise ValueError("Accept!")
        user = self.model(
            email = self.normalize_email(email),
            dob = dob,
            accepted_tos = accepted_tos
        )
        user.set_password(password)
        user.save()
        return user

[MOD: Added ```python formatting for clarity. -cf]

Answer 1 · 2018-01-09T02:49:23Z

January 9, 2018 2:49am

Interesting question! What exactly are the minimal requirements regarding the parameter password?

For Task 1, it is not explicitly required to set password=None to pass. I tried several combinations to determine what was required:

Test 1: is the parameter "password" required?

# tried, but failed with
    def create_user(self, email, dob, accepted_tos=False):
    def create_user(self, email, dob, *args, accepted_tos=False):
    def create_user(self, email, dob, passwordish, accepted_tos=False):

# checker must be passing "password" as a keyword argument

Test 2: if required as a keyword argument, does it need a default?

# this passes
    def create_user(self, email, dob, password, accepted_tos=False):
# this also passes
    def create_user(self, email, dob, accepted_tos=False, **kwargs):
# and this passes
    def create_user(self, email, dob, accepted_tos=False, password="Bob"):
        # ...
        # but none seem to care if the parameter was actually used
        # this passes
        user.set_password("Not Bob")
        # so does this
        user.set_unusable_password()  # the equivalent to user.set_password(None)
        user.save()
        return user

So it seems the minimal requirement is that "password" must exist as a parameter, but a default value is not required.

Post back if you wish further details! Good luck!!

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Natalie Tan

Natalie Tan

Django Auth / Custom User Manager: Why is it important to set password=None

1 Answer

Chris Freeman

Chris Freeman