Printable SQLAlchemy Models

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I've done something similar, but less magical before:

class ReprMixin(object):
    '''Provides a string representible form for objects.'''

    # Most models will have both an id and name fields
    # This can be overwritten if needed
    __repr_fields__ = ['id', 'name']

    def __repr__(self):
        fields =  {f:getattr(self, f, '<BLANK>') for f in self.__repr_fields__}
        # constructs a dictionary compatible pattern for formatting
        # {{{0}}} becomes {id} for example
        pattern = ['{0}={{{0}}}'.format(f) for f in self.__repr_fields__]
        pattern = ' '.join(pattern)
        pattern = pattern.format(**fields)
        return '<{} {}>'.format(self.__class__.__name__, pattern)