Masking/Hashing/Encoding Database ID's

[dl-lim]

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Example Code

from hashids import Hashids
from sqlmodel import SQLModel

# Initialize Hashids with a salt and minimum length
def get_hashids():
    return Hashids(salt='some_salt_string', min_length=10)

def encode_id(value) -> str:
    """Encodes an integer to a short string."""
    return get_hashids().encode(value)

def decode_id(encoded_value):
    """Decodes the encoded string back to the original integer."""
    decoded = get_hashids().decode(encoded_value)
    return decoded[0] if decoded else None



class HeroData(SQLModel): # Or HeroBase
    name: str
    secret_name: str

class Hero(HeroData, table=True):
    id: int | None = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)

class HeroPublic(HeroData):
    id_hash: str



async def get_hero(hero_id_hash: str):
    hero_id = decode_id(hero_id_hash)
    hero = session.exec(select(Hero, hero_id))
    return HeroPublic(id_hash) = encode_id(hero.id), **hero.model_dump())



# Outputs:
{
    "id_hash": "48rnm2d8",
    "name": "Chuck Francine Yavier",
    "secret_name": "Professor Y"
}

Description

FastAPI + SQLModel

Given that items in the database often are incremented by 1 for each new item, the item id sequencing can be quite predictable to the public and this may not be something we want to expose.

So instead, we use a hashed id that one can encode/decode using a salted key.

I've been using this workaround for some of my projects and I'm wondering if this is a feature that should be out-of-the-box, especially when using SQLModel with FastAPI. This would also hopefully lead to a more simplified model when working with the HeroPublic model.

Operating System

Linux, Windows

Operating System Details

WSL

SQLModel Version

0.0.18

Python Version

3.10.5

Additional Context

No response