I have a set of dynamic database tables (Postgres 9.3 with PostGIS) that I am mapping using a python metaclass:
cls = type(str(tablename), (db.Model,), {'__tablename__':tablename})
where, db.Model is the db object via flask-sqlalchemy and tablename is a bit of unicode.
The cls is then added to an application wide dictionary current_app.class_references
(using Flask's current_app) to avoid attempts to instantiate the class multiple times.
Each table contains a geometry column, wkb_geometry
stored in Well Known Binary. I want to map these to use geoalchemy2 with the final goal of retrieving GeoJSON.
If I was declaring the table a priori, I would use:
class GeoPoly():
__tablename__ = 'somename'
wkb_geometry = db.Column(Geometry("POLYGON"))
#more columns...
Since I am trying to do this dynamically, I need to be able to override the reflection of cls1
with the known type.
Attempts:
Define the column explicitly, using the reflection override syntax.
cls = type(str(tablename), (db.Model,), {'__tablename__':tablename, 'wkb_geometry':db.Column(Geometry("POLYGON"))})
which returns the following on a fresh restart, i.e. the class has not yet been instantiated: InvalidRequestError: Table 'tablename' is already defined for this MetaData instance. Specify 'extend_existing=True' to redefine options and columns on an existing Table object
Use mixins with the class defined above (sans tablename):
cls = type(str(tablename), (GeoPoly, db.Model), {'__tablename__':tablename})
Again MetaData issues.
Override the column definition attribute after the class is instantiated:
cls = type(str(tablename), (db.Model,), {'__tablename__':tablename}) current_app.class_references[tablename] = cls cls.wkb_geometry = db.Column(Geometry("POLYGON"))
Which results in:
InvalidRequestError: Implicitly combining column tablename.wkb_geometry with column tablename.wkb_geometry under attribute 'wkb_geometry'. Please configure one or more attributes for these same-named columns explicitly.
Is it possible to use the metadata construction to support dynamic reflection **and* *override a column known will be available on all tables?