django-guest-user

A Django app that allows visitors to interact with your site as a guest user without requiring registration.

Largely inspired by django-lazysignup and rewritten for Django 3 and Python 3.6 and up.

Installation

Install the package with your favorite package manager from PyPI:

pip install django-guest-user

Add the app to your INSTALLED_APPS and AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "django_guest_user",
]

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
    "django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend",
    "guest_user.backends.GuestBackend",
]

Add the patterns to your URL config:

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path("convert/", include("guest_user.urls")),
]

Don't forget to run migrations:

python manage.py migrate

How to use

Guest users are not created for every unauthenticated request. Instead, use the @allow_guest_user decorator on a view to enable that view to be accessed by a temporary guest user.

from guest_user.decorators import allow_guest_user

@allow_guest_user
def my_view(request):
    # Will always be either a registered a guest user.
    username = request.user.username
    return HttpResponse(f"Hello, {username}!")

API

@guest_user.decorators.allow_guest_user

View decorator that will create a temporary guest user in the event that the decorated view is accessed by an unauthenticated visitor.

Takes no arguments.

@guest_user.decorators.guest_user_required(redirect_field_name="next", login_url=None)

View decorator that redirects to a given URL if the accessing user is anonymous or already authenticated.

Arguments:

• redirect_field_name: URL query parameter to use to link back in the case of a redirect to the login url. Defaults to django.contrib.auth.REDIRECT_FIELD_NAME ("next").
• login_url: URL to redirect to if the user is not authenticated. Defaults to the LOGIN_URL setting.

@guest_user.decorators.regular_user_required(redirect_field_name="next", login_url=None)

Decorator that will not allow guest users to access the view. Will redirect to the conversion page to allow a guest user to fully register.

Arguments:

• redirect_field_name: URL query parameter to use to link back in the case of a redirect to the login url. Defaults to django.contrib.auth.REDIRECT_FIELD_NAME ("next").
• login_url: URL to redirect to if the user is a guest. Defaults to "guest_user_convert".

guest_user.functions.get_guest_model()

The guest user model is swappable. This function will return the currently configured model class.

guest_user.functions.is_guest_user(user)

Check wether the given user instance is a temporary guest.

guest_user.signals.converted

Signal that is dispatched when a guest user is converted to a regular user.

Template tag is_guest_user

A filter to use in templates to check if the user object is a guest.

{% load guest_user %}

{% if user|is_guest_user %}
  Hello guest.
{% endif %}

Settings

Various settings are provided to allow customization of the guest user behavior.

GUEST_USER_ENABLED

bool. If False, the @allow_guest_user decorator will not create guest users. Defaults to True.

GUEST_USER_MODEL

str. The swappable model identifier to use as the guest model. Defaults to "guest_user.Guest".

GUEST_USER_NAME_GENERATOR

str. Import path to a function that will generate a username for a guest user. Defaults to "guest_user.functions.generate_uuid_username".

Included with the package are two alternatives:

"guest_user.functions.generate_numbered_username": Will create a random four digit number prefixed by GUEST_USER_NAME_PREFIX.

"guest_user.functions.generate_friendly_username": Creates a friendly and easy to remember username by combining an adjective, noun and number. Requires random_username to be installed.

GUEST_USER_NAME_PREFIX

str. A prefix to use with the generate_numbered_username generator. Defaults to "Guest".

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_FORM

str. Import path for the guest conversion form. Must implement get_credentials to be passed to Django's authenticate function. Defaults to "guest_user.forms.UserCreationForm".

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_PREFILL_USERNAME

bool. Set the generated username as initial value on the conversion form. Defaults to False.

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_URL

str. URL name for the convert view. Defaults to "guest_user_convert".

GUEST_USER_CONVERT_REDIRECT_URL

str. URL name to redirect to after conversion, unless a redirect parameter was provided. Defaults to "guest_user_convert_success".

GUEST_USER_BLOCKED_USER_AGENTS

list[str]. Web crawlers and other user agents to block from becoming guest users. The list will be combined into a regular expression. Default includes a number of well known bots and spiders.

Status

This project is currently untested. But thanks to previous work it is largely functional.

I decided to rewrite the project since the original project hasn't seen any larger updates for a few years now and the code base was written a long time ago.