The default backend — django-registration 0.8 documentation

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# The default backend

A default registration backend is bundled with django-registration, as the class `registration.backends.default.DefaultBackend`, and implements a simple two-step workflow in which a new user first registers, then confirms and activates the new account by following a link sent to the email address supplied during registration.

## Default behavior and configuration

This backend makes use of the following settings:

`ACCOUNT_ACTIVATION_DAYS`
  This is the number of days users will have to activate their accounts after registering. Failing to activate during that period will leave the account inactive (and possibly subject to deletion). This setting is required, and must be an integer.
`REGISTRATION_OPEN`
  A boolean (either `True` or `False`) indicating whether registration of new accounts is currently permitted. This setting is optional, and a default of `True` will be assumed if it is not supplied.

By default, this backend uses `registration.forms.RegistrationForm` as its form class for user registration; this can be overridden by passing the keyword argument `form_class` to the `register()` view.

Upon successful registration – not activation – the default redirect is to the URL pattern named `registration_complete`; this can be overridden by passing the keyword argument `success_url` to the `register()` view.

Upon successful activation, the default redirect is to the URL pattern named `registration_activation_complete`; this can be overridden by passing the keyword argument `success_url` to the `activate()` view.

## How account data is stored for activation

During registration, a new instance of `django.contrib.auth.models.User` is created to represent the new account, with the `is_active` field set to `False`. An email is then sent to the email address of the account, containing a link the user must click to activate the account; at that point the `is_active` field is set to `True`, and the user may log in normally.

Activation is handled by generating and storing an activation key in the database, using the following model:

class `registration.models.` `RegistrationProfile`

  A simple representation of the information needed to activate a new user account. This is not a user profile; it simply provides a place to temporarily store the activation key and determine whether a given account has been activated.

  Has the following fields:

  `user`

    A `ForeignKey` to `django.contrib.auth.models.User`, representing the user account for which activation information is being stored.

  `activation_key`

    A 40-character `CharField`, storing the activation key for the account. Initially, the activation key is the hexdigest of a SHA1 hash; after activation, this is reset to `ACTIVATED`.

  Additionally, one class attribute exists:

  `ACTIVATED`

    A constant string used as the value of `activation_key` for accounts which have been activated.

  And the following methods:

  `activation_key_expired`()

    Determines whether this account’s activation key has expired, and returns a boolean (`True` if expired, `False` otherwise). Uses the following algorithm:

    1. If `activation_key` is `ACTIVATED`, the account has already been activated and so the key is considered to have expired.
    2. Otherwise, the date of registration (obtained from the `date_joined` field of `user`) is compared to the current date; if the span between them is greater than the value of the setting `ACCOUNT_ACTIVATION_DAYS`, the key is considered to have expired.

    Return type: | bool

  `send_activation_email`(site)

    Sends an activation email to the address of the account.

    The activation email will make use of two templates: `registration/activation_email_subject.txt` and `registration/activation_email.txt`, which are used for the subject of the email and the body of the email, respectively. Each will receive the following context:

    `activation_key`
      The value of `activation_key`.
    `expiration_days`
      The number of days the user has to activate, taken from the setting `ACCOUNT_ACTIVATION_DAYS`.
    `site`
      An object representing the site on which the account was registered; depending on whether `django.contrib.sites` is installed, this may be an instance of either `django.contrib.sites.models.Site` (if the sites application is installed) or `django.contrib.sites.models.RequestSite` (if not). Consult the documentation for the Django sites framework for details regarding these objects’ interfaces.

    Because email subjects must be a single line of text, the rendered output of `registration/activation_email_subject.txt` will be forcibly condensed to a single line.

    Parameters: | site (`django.contrib.sites.models.Site` or `django.contrib.sites.models.RequestSite`) – An object representing the site on which account was registered.
    Return type: | `None`

Additionally, `RegistrationProfile` has a custom manager (accessed as `RegistrationProfile.objects`):

class `registration.models.` `RegistrationManager`

  This manager provides several convenience methods for creating and working with instances of `RegistrationProfile`:

  `activate_user`(activation_key)

    Validates `activation_key` and, if valid, activates the associated account by setting its `is_active` field to `True`. To prevent re-activation of accounts, the `activation_key` of the `RegistrationProfile` for the account will be set to `RegistrationProfile.ACTIVATED` after successful activation.

    Returns the `User` instance representing the account if activation is successful, `False` otherwise.

    Parameters: | activation_key (string, a 40-character SHA1 hexdigest) – The activation key to use for the activation.
    Return type: | `User` or bool

  `delete_expired_users`()

    Removes expired instances of `RegistrationProfile`, and their associated user accounts, from the database. This is useful as a periodic maintenance task to clean out accounts which registered but never activated.

    Accounts to be deleted are identified by searching for instances of `RegistrationProfile` with expired activation keys and with associated user accounts which are inactive (have their `is_active` field set to `False`). To disable a user account without having it deleted, simply delete its associated `RegistrationProfile`; any `User` which does not have an associated `RegistrationProfile` will not be deleted.

    A custom management command is provided which will execute this method, suitable for use in cron jobs or other scheduled maintenance tasks: `manage.py cleanupregistration`.

    Return type: | `None`

  `create_inactive_user`(username, email, password, site[, send_email])

    Creates a new, inactive user account and an associated instance of `RegistrationProfile`, sends the activation email and returns the new `User` object representing the account.

    Parameters: | username (string) – The username to use for the new account. email (string) – The email address to use for the new account. password (string) – The password to use for the new account. site (`django.contrib.sites.models.Site` or `django.contrib.sites.models.RequestSite`) – An object representing the site on which the account is being registered. send_email (bool) – If `True`, the activation email will be sent to the account (by calling `RegistrationProfile.send_activation_email()`). If `False`, no email will be sent (but the account will still be inactive)
    Return type: | `User`

  `create_profile`(user)

    Creates and returns a `RegistrationProfile` instance for the account represented by `user`.

    The `RegistrationProfile` created by this method will have its `activation_key` set to a SHA1 hash generated from a combination of the account’s username and a random salt.

    Parameters: | user (`User`) – The user account; an instance of `django.contrib.auth.models.User`.
    Return type: | `RegistrationProfile`

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