When saving, how can you check if a field has changed?

Question

In my model I have :

class Alias(MyBaseModel):
    remote_image = models.URLField(max_length=500, null=True, help_text=\"A URL that is downloaded and cached          


        

Answer 1

Best way is with a pre_save signal. May not have been an option back in '09 when this question was asked and answered, but anyone seeing this today should do it this way:

@receiver(pre_save, sender=MyModel)
def do_something_if_changed(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    try:
        obj = sender.objects.get(pk=instance.pk)
    except sender.DoesNotExist:
        pass # Object is new, so field hasn't technically changed, but you may want to do something else here.
    else:
        if not obj.some_field == instance.some_field: # Field has changed
            # do something