Override Field Option on Inherited Model in Django

Question

I've found similar questions and answers, but none seems exactly right. I've got an abstract base model like so:

class BaseModel(models.Model):
    timestamp = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    modified = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
    description = models.CharField(max_length=512, blank=True, null=True, help_text='Help')

    class Meta:
        abstract = True

And then I'm inheriting from it:

class AnotherModel(BaseModel):
    field1 = models.CharField(max_length=512)

But I want this model's help_text on the description field to be something else, like help_text='Some other help text'

What's the best way to do this? Can I override options on fields from inherited models?

Answer 1

If this is really about the help text, I suggest to just override the ModelForm. However, you can use a factory and return the inner class:

def base_factory(description_help: str = "Standard text"):
    class BaseModel(models.Model):
        timestamp = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
        modified = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
        description = models.CharField(
            max_length=512, blank=True, null=True, help_text=description_help
        )

        class Meta:
            abstract = True

    return BaseModel


class ConcreteModel(base_factory("Concrete help")):
    field1 = ...