Uniform database interaction API using django ORM

Hi,

I have a requirement to constantly update data in my database tables
(after the final schema has been designed) based on some external data
source. I have written scripts to auto populate them (create/modify/
delete entries). I have been using a crude method for database
interactions and I am presently in the process of standardizing it.
Can you please help with some ideas?

This is one of the scenario

I get list of current users from an external source, add new users,
modify few attributes of current users (if changed), remove/deactivate
those entries who are not present in source. I do a similar activity
for 8 more tables.

Current Procedure I follow

- loop over all entries in the source
- verify if the entry is present in database with all its attributes
same as in source
- update and create entries as required from above result
- In parallel get a list of all entries which are in database and not
in source remove them.

I use django ORM. I have hard coded Model classes names with their
arguments in the populating scripts which does seem bad.

Standardization

As part of standardizing, I have decided to set up a uniform database
interactions (starting with insertions) for any model with any number
of arguments where I should not hardcode model name and arguments in
the script.

One simple way of doing this would be as follows (though not it does
not work for deleting the entries)

- Write scripts to build dictionaries in the standard format which can
then be deserialzed using serializers.deserialize.
- While saving the deserialized objects a new entry will be created if
the entry does not exist.
- using natural keys is helpful for updating entries (without querying
for pk value)

- I am still exploring about deleting stale entries in database

Can some one quickly help me with better ideas or pointers for my
purpose?

Thanks

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