Is it possible to add your own strings to a Django SearchVectorField?

Question

I know how to do this with raw PostgreSQL commands, but want to know if there is a way to do this with Django PostgreSQL search.

class Person(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=64)
    description = models.CharField(max_length=256)
    active = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    search_vector = SearchVectorField(blank=True)

def update_search(person):
    vector = SearchVector('name') + SearchVector('description')
    if person.active:
        vector = vector + SearchVector('alive')
    person.search_vector = vector

django.core.exceptions.FieldError: Cannot resolve keyword 'alive' into field.

I tried making 'alive' a @property method, but it looks like it only wants a db field for search.

Is there a way to do this in pure Django ORM or should I go the raw SQL route?

Salaidh

Answer 1

You can use Value() expressions to add a string to in your SearchVector as in below example:

from django.db.models import Value

    ...
    vector = vector + SearchVector(Value('alive'))
    ...

Soviet

Ooooh. Nice find. Will try this. – Salaidh

On Django 3, I had to specify the output_type: Value('alive', output_field=models.CharField()) – Haskins

Used this as a starting point to keep a SearchVectorField updated in a model save() method. The problem was to use a value from a foreignkey of the model itself (the fk is category in this example), because SearchVector('category__name') gave an error on Postgres. This approach worked: SearchVector('title') + SearchVector(Value(self.category.name, output_field=models.CharField())) – Cand

Answer 2

SearchVector should not be used like this. It should be ONLY accept field name.

Please look here

Amie

Actually SearchVectori accept other than field names. You can use expressions in SearchVector as I've wrote in my answer. – Soviet