Django library that add to your models the draft/publish features.

$ pip install django-publishable

1. Add "publishable" to your INSTALLED_APPS setting like this::

       INSTALLED_APPS = [
           ...
           'publishable',
       ]

2. Run python manage.py migrate to create the publishable models.
3. Try to replicate this with your models:

   from django.db import models
   from publishable.models import Publishable, Publisher
   
   # A Publisher is responsible for triggering 
   # the publish all drafts that he contains
   class User(Publisher):
       pass
   
   # Overdide the Publishable to implement the logic
   # of broadcast_need_to_published
   class MyPublishable(Publishable):
       class Meta:
           abstract = True
       
       def broadcast_need_to_published(self):
           """
               This function will return a Draft instance
               then it's up to you select your Publisher
               and add it to it's draft
           """
           draft = super(MyPublishable, self).broadcast_need_to_published()
           chatbot, _ = User.objects.get_or_create(pk=1)
           chatbot.add_draft(draft)
   
   # After setting up your Publishable
   # then inherit from it into the model that you need to receie
   # draft/publish features
   class Article(MyPublishable):
       title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
       content = models.TextField()
   
       comments = models.ManyToManyField('Comment', related_name='comments')
   
       highlighted_comment = models.ForeignKey('Comment', related_name='highlighted_comment', null=True)
   
   
   class Comment(MyPublishable):
       content = models.CharField(max_length=255)

4. By default now all your model will store changes into the draft

   # Add changes and publish one model
   >>> a = Article.objects.create()
   >>> a.title = "foo"
   >>> a.publish()
   >>> a.published.title
   foo
   
   # Let's add changes and publish using a publisher
   >>> a.title = "boo"
   >>> a.save()
   >>> a.published.title
   foo
   >>> user = User.objects.get(pk=1)
   >>> user.publish()
   
   # You can track the status of the publishing process
   >>> user.publishing_status
   PUBLISHED

In order to keep your code clean and avoid replication of code by doing article.published all the time, you can use the PublishedContextManager. Every operation that you do inside the with will target the published version of the model. But be carful do not do any changes to the published, you're only supposed to read data, inserting the data should target the draft.

>>> from publishable.context_managers import PublishedContextManager
>>> a = Article.objects.create(title="foo")
>>> a.publish()
>>> a.title = "boo"
>>> a.save()
>>> with PublishedContextManager():
        print(a.title)
foo
>>> print(a.title)
boo