Query Django model trees using adjacency lists and recursive common table expressions. Supports PostgreSQL, sqlite3 (3.8.3 or higher) and MariaDB (10.2.2 or higher) and MySQL (8.0 or higher, if running without ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY
).
Supports Django 3.2 or better, Python 3.8 or better. See the GitHub actions build for more details.
"parent"
at the moment (but why would you want to name it differently?)tree_depth
, tree_path
and tree_ordering
. The names cannot be changed. tree_depth
is an integer, tree_path
an array of primary keys and tree_ordering
an array of values used for ordering nodes within their siblings. Note that the contents of the tree_path
and tree_ordering
are subject to change. You shouldn't rely on their contents.TreeNode
abstract model class has some protection against this.tree_path
and tree_ordering
upfront.Here's a blog post offering some additional insight (hopefully) into the reasons for django-tree-queries' existence.
django-tree-queries
using pip.tree_queries.models.TreeNode
or build your own queryset and/or manager using tree_queries.query.TreeQuerySet
. The TreeNode
abstract model already contains a parent
foreign key for your convenience and also uses model validation to protect against loops.with_tree_fields()
queryset method if you require the additional fields respectively the CTE.order_siblings_by("field_name")
queryset method if you want to order tree siblings by a specific model field. Note that Django's standard order_by()
method isn't supported -- nodes are returned according to the depth-first search algorithm.tree_filter()
and tree_exclude()
for better performance when working with large tables - these filter the base table before building the tree structure.tree_fields()
to aggregate ancestor field values into arrays.TreeQuerySet.as_manager(with_tree_fields=True)
if you want to add tree fields to queries by default.The following two examples both extend the TreeNode
which offers a few agreeable utilities and a model validation method that prevents loops in the tree structure. The common table expression could be hardened against such loops but this would involve a performance hit which we don't want -- this is a documented limitation (non-goal) of the library after all.
from tree_queries.models import TreeNode class Node(TreeNode): name = models.CharField(max_length=100)Tree node with ordering among siblings
Nodes with the same parent may be ordered among themselves. The default is to order siblings by their primary key but that's not always very useful.
from tree_queries.models import TreeNode class Node(TreeNode): name = models.CharField(max_length=100) position = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0) class Meta: ordering = ["position"]Add custom methods to queryset
from tree_queries.models import TreeNode from tree_queries.query import TreeQuerySet class NodeQuerySet(TreeQuerySet): def active(self): return self.filter(is_active=True) class Node(TreeNode): is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True) objects = NodeQuerySet.as_manager()
All examples assume the Node
class from above.
# Basic usage, disregards the tree structure completely. nodes = Node.objects.all() # Fetch nodes in depth-first search order. All nodes will have the # tree_path, tree_ordering and tree_depth attributes. nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields() # Fetch any node. node = Node.objects.order_by("?").first() # Fetch direct children and include tree fields. (The parent ForeignKey # specifies related_name="children") children = node.children.with_tree_fields() # Fetch all ancestors starting from the root. ancestors = node.ancestors() # Fetch all ancestors including self, starting from the root. ancestors_including_self = node.ancestors(include_self=True) # Fetch all ancestors starting with the node itself. ancestry = node.ancestors(include_self=True).reverse() # Fetch all descendants in depth-first search order, including self. descendants = node.descendants(include_self=True) # Temporarily override the ordering by siblings. nodes = Node.objects.order_siblings_by("id") # Revert to a queryset without tree fields (improves performance). nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().without_tree_fields()
IMPORTANT: For large tables, always use tree_filter()
or tree_exclude()
to limit which nodes are processed by the recursive CTE. Without these filters, the database evaluates the entire table, which can be extremely slow.
# Get a specific tree from a forest by filtering on root category product_tree = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_filter(category="products") # Get organizational chart for a specific department engineering_tree = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_filter(department="engineering") # Exclude entire trees/sections you don't need content_trees = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_exclude(category="archived") # Chain multiple tree filters for more specific trees recent_products = (Node.objects.with_tree_fields() .tree_filter(category="products") .tree_filter(created_date__gte=datetime.date.today())) # Get descendants within a filtered tree subset product_descendants = (Node.objects.with_tree_fields() .tree_filter(category="products") .descendants(some_product_node)) # Filter by site/tenant in multi-tenant applications site_content = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_filter(site_id=request.site.id)
Performance note: tree_filter()
and tree_exclude()
filter the base table before the recursive CTE processes relationships, dramatically improving performance for large datasets compared to using regular filter()
after with_tree_fields()
. Best used for selecting complete trees or tree sections rather than scattered nodes.
Note that the tree queryset doesn't support all types of queries Django supports. For example, updating all descendants directly isn't supported. The reason for that is that the recursive CTE isn't added to the UPDATE query correctly. Workarounds often include moving the tree query into a subquery:
# Doesn't work: node.descendants().update(is_active=False) # Use this workaround instead: Node.objects.filter(pk__in=node.descendants()).update(is_active=False)
Nobody wants breadth-first search but if you still want it you can achieve it as follows:
nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().extra( order_by=["__tree.tree_depth", "__tree.tree_ordering"] )
If you only want nodes from the top two levels:
nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().extra( where=["__tree.tree_depth <= %s"], params=[1], )Aggregating ancestor fields
Use tree_fields()
to aggregate values from ancestor nodes into arrays. This is useful for collecting paths, permissions, categories, or any field that should be inherited down the tree hierarchy.
# Aggregate names from all ancestors into an array nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_fields( tree_names="name", ) # Each node now has a tree_names attribute: ['root', 'parent', 'current'] # Aggregate multiple fields nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_fields( tree_names="name", tree_categories="category", tree_permissions="permission_level", ) # Build a full path string from ancestor names nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().tree_fields(tree_names="name") for node in nodes: full_path = " > ".join(node.tree_names) # "Root > Section > Subsection" # Combine with tree filtering for better performance active_nodes = (Node.objects.with_tree_fields() .tree_filter(is_active=True) .tree_fields(tree_names="name"))
The aggregated fields contain values from all ancestors (root to current node) in hierarchical order, including the current node itself.
django-tree-queries ships a model field and some form fields which augment the default foreign key field and the choice fields with a version where the tree structure is visualized using dashes etc. Those fields are tree_queries.fields.TreeNodeForeignKey
, tree_queries.forms.TreeNodeChoiceField
, tree_queries.forms.TreeNodeMultipleChoiceField
.
django-tree-queries includes template tags to help render tree structures in Django templates. These template tags are designed to work efficiently with tree querysets and respect queryset boundaries.
Add tree_queries
to your INSTALLED_APPS
setting:
INSTALLED_APPS = [ # ... other apps 'tree_queries', ]
Then load the template tags in your template:
The tree_info
filter provides detailed information about each node's position in the tree structure. It's useful when you need fine control over the tree rendering.
{% load tree_queries %} <ul> {% for node, structure in nodes|tree_info %} {% if structure.new_level %}<ul><li>{% else %}</li><li>{% endif %} {{ node.name }} {% for level in structure.closed_levels %}</li></ul>{% endfor %} {% endfor %} </ul>
The filter returns tuples of (node, structure_info)
where structure_info
contains:
new_level
: True
if this node starts a new level, False
otherwiseclosed_levels
: List of levels that close after this nodeancestors
: List of ancestor node representations from root to immediate parentExample showing ancestor information:
{% for node, structure in nodes|tree_info %} {{ node.name }} {% if structure.ancestors %} (Path: {% for ancestor in structure.ancestors %}{{ ancestor }}{% if not forloop.last %} > {% endif %}{% endfor %}) {% endif %} {% endfor %}
The recursetree
tag provides recursive rendering similar to django-mptt's recursetree
tag, but optimized for django-tree-queries. It only considers nodes within the provided queryset and doesn't make additional database queries.
Basic usage:
{% load tree_queries %} <ul> {% recursetree nodes %} <li> {{ node.name }} {% if children %} <ul>{{ children }}</ul> {% endif %} </li> {% endrecursetree %} </ul>
The recursetree
tag provides these context variables within the template:
node
: The current tree nodechildren
: Rendered HTML of child nodes (from the queryset)is_leaf
: True
if the node has no children in the querysetUsing is_leaf
for conditional rendering:
{% recursetree nodes %} <div class="{% if is_leaf %}leaf-node{% else %}branch-node{% endif %}"> <span class="node-name">{{ node.name }}</span> {% if children %} <div class="children">{{ children }}</div> {% elif is_leaf %} <span class="leaf-indicator">🍃</span> {% endif %} </div> {% endrecursetree %}
Advanced example with depth information:
{% recursetree nodes %} <div class="node depth-{{ node.tree_depth }}" data-id="{{ node.pk }}" data-has-children="{{ children|yesno:'true,false' }}"> <h{{ node.tree_depth|add:1 }}>{{ node.name }}</h{{ node.tree_depth|add:1 }}> {% if children %} <div class="node-children">{{ children }}</div> {% endif %} </div> {% endrecursetree %}Working with limited querysets
Both template tags respect queryset boundaries and work efficiently with filtered or limited querysets:
# Only nodes up to depth 2 limited_nodes = Node.objects.with_tree_fields().extra( where=["__tree.tree_depth <= %s"], params=[2] ) # Only specific branches branch_nodes = Node.objects.descendants(some_node, include_self=True)
When using these limited querysets:
recursetree
will only render nodes from the querysetis_leaf
reflects whether nodes have children in the queryset, not in the full treeExample with depth-limited queryset:
<!-- Template --> {% recursetree limited_nodes %} <li> {{ node.name }} {% if is_leaf %} <small>(leaf in limited view)</small> {% endif %} {{ children }} </li> {% endrecursetree %}
This is particularly useful for creating expandable tree interfaces or rendering only portions of large trees for performance.
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