Understanding MyModel._meta.get_fields()

[Thomas Güttler]

We try to understand what MyModel._meta.get_fields() does.

​https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/models/meta/#django.db.models.options.Options.get_fields

 Returns a tuple of fields ...

get_fields() returns two different types of objects:

• django.db.models.fields
• ManyToOneRel, OneToOneRel or ManyToManyRel

If you print the items of get_fields() you see the difference:

<ManyToOneRel: foo.tickettype>
<ManyToOneRel: foo.ticket>
...
foo.Tickettype.id
foo.Tickettype.parent
foo.Tickettype.name
...

According to the docs you get "fields". But you get first Rel-Objects and then DB-fields.

The example in the docs is the same: ​https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/models/meta/#django.db.models.options.Options.get_fields

(<ManyToOneRel: admin.logentry>,
 <django.db.models.fields.AutoField: id>,
...

We are missing a common base class.

The wording is confusing since you speak of "field" but get_fields() returns fields and rels.

OK, I was not aware of #24317. I close this issue as a duplicate.

[Tim Graham]

Replacing "rel" objects with real fields is the subject of #24317. Until then, I'm not sure how to proceed documentation-wise since rel objects aren't explicitly public API.