populate_user.connect statement - Where to place it?

[LDAP Warrior]

I asked a question[1] where the answer to me was to create a function
and register it like this:

import django_auth_ldap.backend

def update_groups(sender, user=None, ldap_user=None, **kwargs):
# Remember that every attribute maps to a list of values
descriptions = ldap_user.attrs.get("description", [])

if "IT - Help Desk" in descriptions:
# Add user to group
else:
# Remove user from group

django_auth_ldap.backend.populate_user.connect(update_groups)

My first question is where to place this code? I tried adding it to
settings.py but I'm getting this error:
ImportError: Settings cannot be imported, because environment variable
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is undefined.

Secondly, what do I write in the function above where it says "#add
user to group". Am I altering the user object somehow? Do I return
the user object?

Any help is much appreciated!

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5463366/django-ldap-how-to-map-description-field-to-django-group

[Peter Sagerson]

Settings is not generally a good place to put nontrivial code. In general, I think the recommend place to put this sort of thing is in one of your models.py. This module will always get imported fairly early.

The User model has a many-to-many relationship with the Group model, which you can manipulate like any other.[1][2] Here's a slightly more fleshed out example. This assumes that the target group already exists.

from django.contrib.auth.models import Group

def update_groups(sender, user=None, ldap_user=None, **kwargs):
# Remember that every attribute maps to a list of values
descriptions = ldap_user.attrs.get("description", [])

group = Group.objects.get(name="help_desk")

if "IT - Help Desk" in descriptions:

user.groups.add(group)
else:
user.groups.remove(group)

[1] http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/topics/auth/#methods
[2] http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/topics/db/queries/#many-to-many-relationships

[LDAP Warrior]

Thanks. That makes sense. I'll give it a try.

Also as a related question.

How would I make users with "IT - Help Desk" in descriptions
automatically get the is_staff flag? Actually I guess I could just
add it to the function you wrote, right?

thanks again,

-Greg

On Mar 29, 2:59 pm, Peter Sagerson <psag...@ignorare.net> wrote:
> Settings is not generally a good place to put nontrivial code. In general, I think the recommend place to put this sort of thing is in one of your models.py. This module will always get imported fairly early.
>
> The User model has a many-to-many relationship with the Group model, which you can manipulate like any other.[1][2] Here's a slightly more fleshed out example. This assumes that the target group already exists.
>
> from django.contrib.auth.models import Group
>
> def update_groups(sender, user=None, ldap_user=None, **kwargs):
>     # Remember that every attribute maps to a list of values
>     descriptions = ldap_user.attrs.get("description", [])
>
>     group = Group.objects.get(name="help_desk")
>     if "IT - Help Desk" in descriptions:
>         user.groups.add(group)
>     else:
>         user.groups.remove(group)
>
> [1]http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/topics/auth/#methods

> [2]http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/topics/db/queries/#many-to-many-...

>
> On Mar 29, 2011, at 11:43 AM, LDAP Warrior wrote:
>
> > I asked a question[1] where the answer to me was to create a function
> > and register it like this:
>
> > import django_auth_ldap.backend
>
> > def update_groups(sender, user=None, ldap_user=None, **kwargs):
> >    # Remember that every attribute maps to a list of values
> >    descriptions = ldap_user.attrs.get("description", [])
>
> >    if "IT - Help Desk" in descriptions:
> >        # Add user to group
> >    else:
> >        # Remove user from group
>
> > django_auth_ldap.backend.populate_user.connect(update_groups)
>
> > My first question is where to place this code?  I tried adding it to
> > settings.py but I'm getting this error:
> > ImportError: Settings cannot be imported, because environment variable
> > DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is undefined.
>
> > Secondly, what do I write in the function above where it says "#add
> > user to group".  Am I altering the user object somehow?  Do I return
> > the user object?
>
> > Any help is much appreciated!
>

> > [1]http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5463366/django-ldap-how-to-map-des...

[Peter Sagerson]

There's no direct connection between group membership and the user flags, so you would have to add that step to the signal handler.