How can I use Django permissions without defining a content type or model?

For those of you, who are still searching:

You can create an auxiliary model with no database table. That model can bring to your project any permission you need. There is no need to deal with ContentType or create Permission objects explicitly.

from django.db import models        class RightsSupport(models.Model):                class Meta:                managed = False  # No database table creation or deletion  \                         # operations will be performed for this model.                         default_permissions = () # disable "add", "change", "delete"                                 # and "view" default permissions        permissions = (             ('customer_rights', 'Global customer rights'),              ('vendor_rights', 'Global vendor rights'),             ('any_rights', 'Global any rights'),         )

Right after manage.py makemigrations and manage.py migrate you can use these permissions like any other.

# Decorator@permission_required('app.customer_rights')def my_search_view(request):    …# Inside a viewdef my_search_view(request):    request.user.has_perm('app.customer_rights')# In a template# The currently logged-in user’s permissions are stored in the template variable {{ perms }}{% if perms.app.customer_rights %}    <p>You can do any customer stuff</p>{% endif %}

Django's Permission model requires a ContentType instance.

I think one way around it is creating a dummy ContentType that isn't related to any model (the app_label and model fields can be set to any string value).

If you want it all clean and nice, you can create a Permission proxy model that handles all the ugly details of the dummy ContentType and creates "modelless" permission instances. You can also add a custom manager that filters out all Permission instances related to real models.

Following Gonzalo's advice, I used a proxy model and a custom manager to handle my "modelless" permissions with a dummy content type.

from django.db import modelsfrom django.contrib.auth.models import Permissionfrom django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentTypeclass GlobalPermissionManager(models.Manager):    def get_query_set(self):        return super(GlobalPermissionManager, self).\            get_query_set().filter(content_type__name='global_permission')class GlobalPermission(Permission):    """A global permission, not attached to a model"""    objects = GlobalPermissionManager()    class Meta:        proxy = True    def save(self, *args, **kwargs):        ct, created = ContentType.objects.get_or_create(            name="global_permission", app_label=self._meta.app_label        )        self.content_type = ct        super(GlobalPermission, self).save(*args, **kwargs)