Drop support for positional arguments when instantiating a document

For example, if you had the following class:
```
class Person(Document):
    name = StringField()
    age = IntField()
```

You could instantiate an object of such class by doing one of the following:
1. `new_person = Person('Tom', 30)`
2. `new_person = Person('Tom', age=30)`
3. `new_person = Person(name='Tom', age=30)`

From now on, only option (3) is allowed.

Supporting positional arguments may sound like a reasonable idea in this
heavily simplified example, but in real life it's almost never what you want
(especially if you use inheritance in your document definitions) and it may
lead to ugly bugs. We should not rely on the *order* of fields to match a given
value to a given name.

This also helps us simplify the code e.g. by dropping the confusing (and
undocumented) `BaseDocument._auto_id_field` attribute.

docs/changelog.rst

@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ Changelog
 Development
 ===========
 - (Fill this out as you fix issues and develop your features).
+- BREAKING CHANGE: Drop support for positional arguments when instantiating a document. #?
+  - From now on keyword arguments (e.g. `Doc(field_name=value)`) are required.
 
 Changes in 0.18.1
 =================

mongoengine/base/document.py

@@ -60,18 +60,10 @@ class BaseDocument(object):
         self._created = True
 
         if args:
-            # Combine positional arguments with named arguments.
+            raise TypeError(
-            # We only want named arguments.
+                'Instantiating a document with positional arguments is not '
-            field = iter(self._fields_ordered)
+                'supported. Please use `field_name=value` keyword arguments.'
-            # If its an automatic id field then skip to the first defined field
+            )
-            if getattr(self, '_auto_id_field', False):
-                next(field)
-            for value in args:
-                name = next(field)
-                if name in values:
-                    raise TypeError(
-                        'Multiple values for keyword argument "%s"' % name)
-                values[name] = value
 
         __auto_convert = values.pop('__auto_convert', True)
 

mongoengine/base/metaclasses.py

@@ -385,30 +385,35 @@ class TopLevelDocumentMetaclass(DocumentMetaclass):
                     new_class._meta['id_field'] = field_name
                     new_class.id = field
 
-        # Set primary key if not defined by the document
+        # If the document doesn't explicitly define a primary key field, create
-        new_class._auto_id_field = getattr(parent_doc_cls,
+        # one. Make it an ObjectIdField and give it a non-clashing name ("id"
-                                           '_auto_id_field', False)
+        # by default, but can be different if that one's taken).
         if not new_class._meta.get('id_field'):
-            # After 0.10, find not existing names, instead of overwriting
             id_name, id_db_name = mcs.get_auto_id_names(new_class)
-            new_class._auto_id_field = True
             new_class._meta['id_field'] = id_name
             new_class._fields[id_name] = ObjectIdField(db_field=id_db_name)
             new_class._fields[id_name].name = id_name
             new_class.id = new_class._fields[id_name]
             new_class._db_field_map[id_name] = id_db_name
             new_class._reverse_db_field_map[id_db_name] = id_name
-            # Prepend id field to _fields_ordered
+
+            # Prepend the ID field to _fields_ordered (so that it's *always*
+            # the first field).
             new_class._fields_ordered = (id_name, ) + new_class._fields_ordered
 
-        # Merge in exceptions with parent hierarchy
+        # Merge in exceptions with parent hierarchy.
         exceptions_to_merge = (DoesNotExist, MultipleObjectsReturned)
         module = attrs.get('__module__')
         for exc in exceptions_to_merge:
             name = exc.__name__
-            parents = tuple(getattr(base, name) for base in flattened_bases
+            parents = tuple(
-                            if hasattr(base, name)) or (exc,)
+                getattr(base, name)
-            # Create new exception and set to new_class
+                for base in flattened_bases
+                if hasattr(base, name)
+            ) or (exc,)
+
+            # Create a new exception and set it as an attribute on the new
+            # class.
             exception = type(name, parents, {'__module__': module})
             setattr(new_class, name, exception)
 
@@ -416,17 +421,35 @@ class TopLevelDocumentMetaclass(DocumentMetaclass):
 
     @classmethod
     def get_auto_id_names(mcs, new_class):
+        """Find a name for the automatic ID field for the given new class.
+
+        Return a two-element tuple where the first item is the field name (i.e.
+        the attribute name on the object) and the second element is the DB
+        field name (i.e. the name of the key stored in MongoDB).
+
+        Defaults to ('id', '_id'), or generates a non-clashing name in the form
+        of ('auto_id_X', '_auto_id_X') if the default name is already taken.
+        """
         id_name, id_db_name = ('id', '_id')
-        if id_name not in new_class._fields and \
+        existing_fields = new_class._fields
-                id_db_name not in (v.db_field for v in new_class._fields.values()):
+        existing_db_fields = (v.db_field for v in new_class._fields.values())
+        if (
+            id_name not in existing_fields and
+            id_db_name not in existing_db_fields
+        ):
             return id_name, id_db_name
-        id_basename, id_db_basename, i = 'auto_id', '_auto_id', 0
+
-        while id_name in new_class._fields or \
+        id_basename, id_db_basename, i = ('auto_id', '_auto_id', 0)
-                id_db_name in (v.db_field for v in new_class._fields.values()):
+        while True:
             id_name = '{0}_{1}'.format(id_basename, i)
             id_db_name = '{0}_{1}'.format(id_db_basename, i)
-            i += 1
+            if (
-        return id_name, id_db_name
+                id_name not in existing_fields and
+                id_db_name not in existing_db_fields
+            ):
+                return id_name, id_db_name
+            else:
+                i += 1
 
 
 class MetaDict(dict):

tests/document/instance.py

@@ -3130,48 +3130,44 @@ class InstanceTest(MongoDBTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(classic_doc._data, dict_doc._data)
 
     def test_positional_creation(self):
-        """Ensure that document may be created using positional arguments."""
+        """Document cannot be instantiated using positional arguments."""
-        person = self.Person("Test User", 42)
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as e:
-        self.assertEqual(person.name, "Test User")
+            person = self.Person("Test User", 42)
-        self.assertEqual(person.age, 42)
+        expected_msg = (
+            'Instantiating a document with positional arguments is not '
+            'supported. Please use `field_name=value` keyword arguments.'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(e.exception.message, expected_msg)
 
     def test_mixed_creation(self):
-        """Ensure that document may be created using mixed arguments."""
+        """Document cannot be instantiated using mixed arguments."""
-        person = self.Person("Test User", age=42)
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as e:
-        self.assertEqual(person.name, "Test User")
+            person = self.Person("Test User", age=42)
-        self.assertEqual(person.age, 42)
+        expected_msg = (
+            'Instantiating a document with positional arguments is not '
+            'supported. Please use `field_name=value` keyword arguments.'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(e.exception.message, expected_msg)
 
     def test_positional_creation_embedded(self):
-        """Ensure that embedded document may be created using positional
+        """Embedded document cannot be created using positional arguments."""
-        arguments.
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as e:
-        """
+            job = self.Job("Test Job", 4)
-        job = self.Job("Test Job", 4)
+        expected_msg = (
-        self.assertEqual(job.name, "Test Job")
+            'Instantiating a document with positional arguments is not '
-        self.assertEqual(job.years, 4)
+            'supported. Please use `field_name=value` keyword arguments.'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(e.exception.message, expected_msg)
 
     def test_mixed_creation_embedded(self):
-        """Ensure that embedded document may be created using mixed
+        """Embedded document cannot be created using mixed arguments."""
-        arguments.
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as e:
-        """
+            job = self.Job("Test Job", years=4)
-        job = self.Job("Test Job", years=4)
+        expected_msg = (
-        self.assertEqual(job.name, "Test Job")
+            'Instantiating a document with positional arguments is not '
-        self.assertEqual(job.years, 4)
+            'supported. Please use `field_name=value` keyword arguments.'
-
+        )
-    def test_mixed_creation_dynamic(self):
+        self.assertEqual(e.exception.message, expected_msg)
-        """Ensure that document may be created using mixed arguments."""
-        class Person(DynamicDocument):
-            name = StringField()
-
-        person = Person("Test User", age=42)
-        self.assertEqual(person.name, "Test User")
-        self.assertEqual(person.age, 42)
-
-    def test_bad_mixed_creation(self):
-        """Ensure that document gives correct error when duplicating
-        arguments.
-        """
-        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
-            return self.Person("Test User", 42, name="Bad User")
 
     def test_data_contains_id_field(self):
         """Ensure that asking for _data returns 'id'."""

tests/fields/test_lazy_reference_field.py

@@ -303,8 +303,8 @@ class TestLazyReferenceField(MongoDBTestCase):
         Animal.drop_collection()
         Ocurrence.drop_collection()
 
-        animal1 = Animal('doggo').save()
+        animal1 = Animal(name='doggo').save()
-        animal2 = Animal('cheeta').save()
+        animal2 = Animal(name='cheeta').save()
 
         def check_fields_type(occ):
             self.assertIsInstance(occ.direct, LazyReference)
@@ -542,8 +542,8 @@ class TestGenericLazyReferenceField(MongoDBTestCase):
         Animal.drop_collection()
         Ocurrence.drop_collection()
 
-        animal1 = Animal('doggo').save()
+        animal1 = Animal(name='doggo').save()
-        animal2 = Animal('cheeta').save()
+        animal2 = Animal(name='cheeta').save()
 
         def check_fields_type(occ):
             self.assertIsInstance(occ.direct, LazyReference)