Is it possible to do something similar to this with a list, dictionary or something else?

data_dict = {
    'title' : 'awesome title',
    'body' : 'great body of text',
}

Model.objects.create(data_dict)

Even better if I can extend it:

Model.objects.create(data_dict, extra='hello', extra2='world')

If title and body are fields in your model, then you can deliver the keyword arguments in your dictionary using the ** operator.

Assuming your model is called MyModel:

# create instance of model
m = MyModel(**data_dict)
# don't forget to save to database!
m.save()

As for your second question, the dictionary has to be the final argument. Again, extra and extra2 should be fields in the model.

m2 =MyModel(extra='hello', extra2='world', **data_dict)
m2.save()

Not directly an answer to the question, but I find this code helped me create the dicts that save nicely into the correct answer. The type conversions made are required if this data will be exported to json.

I hope this helps:

  #mod is a django database model instance
def toDict( mod ):
  import datetime
  from decimal import Decimal
  import re

    #Go through the object, load in the objects we want
  obj = {}
  for key in mod.__dict__:
    if re.search('^_', key):
      continue

      #Copy my data
    if isinstance( mod.__dict__[key], datetime.datetime ):
      obj[key] = int(calendar.timegm( ts.utctimetuple(mod.__dict__[key])))
    elif isinstance( mod.__dict__[key], Decimal ):
      obj[key] = float( mod.__dict__[key] )
    else:
      obj[key] = mod.__dict__[key]

  return obj 

def toCsv( mod, fields, delim=',' ):
  import datetime
  from decimal import Decimal

    #Dump the items
  raw = []
  for key in fields:
    if key not in mod.__dict__:
      continue

      #Copy my data
    if isinstance( mod.__dict__[key], datetime.datetime ):
      raw.append( str(calendar.timegm( ts.utctimetuple(mod.__dict__[key]))) )
    elif isinstance( mod.__dict__[key], Decimal ):
      raw.append( str(float( mod.__dict__[key] )))
    else:
      raw.append( str(mod.__dict__[key]) )

  return delim.join( raw )