Are django abstract models really that useful?

Question

I have recently come across this in one of django related blog post!

class Client(models.Model):
   name = models.CharField(max_length=255, required=True)
   # .. other fields
   class Meta:
     abstract = True

After reading the docs I could not understand what the purpose of "abstract = True" is. Any help will be useful. Thanks!

Answer 1

From the docs

Abstract base classes are useful when you want to put some common information into a number of other models. You write your base class and put abstract=True in the Meta class. This model will then not be used to create any database table. Instead, when it is used as a base class for other models, its fields will be added to those of the child class.

Personally I have found that one of many advantages of using abstract models is they allow in software extension and prohibit modifications as per SOLID principles.