Archive Development Notes
Models
Collection is the polymorphic base with title, type, pub_date, and hide_for_gulis. Proxy subclasses (PictureCollection, DocumentCollection, ExamCollection, PublicCollection) provide separate admin menus.Picture (ImageField) compresses uploads to JPEG via compress_image before saving. When USE_S3=False, deletions remove the underlying file manually.Document stores arbitrary files tied to a collection.PublicFile uses PublicFileField for S3/public storage.TYPE_CHOICES determines directory structure via upload_to(), producing tidy /documents/<year>/<collection>/ paths, etc.
PictureAdminForm/DocumentAdminForm/PublicAdminForm add multi-upload widgets and iterate over self.files.getlist() to create associated objects after the collection saves.- Admin classes filter
get_queryset() by type so proxy models only show their relevant records. Inline previews use mark_safe to render thumbnails.
Views
- Access control: decorators (
@user_passes_test(user_type)) reject freshmen (permission profile 3) when needed and force login via /members/login/.
year_index, picture_index, and picture_detail handle browsing and pagination for photo galleries. 2022 albums keep chronological order; others are reversed.FilteredDocumentsListView and FilteredExamsListView combine django-filter and django-tables2 for searching by title/category.- Upload helpers (
upload, exam_upload, exam_archive_upload) require staff permissions and reuse the same forms as admin for bulk operations.
Storage Considerations
Collection.delete() removes the physical directory in MEDIA_ROOT. Ensure backups exist before mass deletions.- Public files require
USE_S3=True because PublicFileField expects a storage backend with signed URLs.
Extending
- Add tagging or metadata (e.g., photographer, description) to
Picture if Getty-style search is needed.
- Move compression to async tasks if uploads become slow; currently handled synchronously in
Picture.save().
- Replace manual
user_type checks with Django permissions or groups for more flexibility.