CRUD

INSERT

Insert node with parent_id==6

node = Tree(parent_id=6)
session.add(node)

Tree state before insert

level           Before INSERT
1                    1(1)22
        _______________|___________________
       |               |                   |
2    2(2)5           6(4)11             12(7)21
       |               ^                   ^
3    3(3)4       7(5)8   9(6)10    13(8)16   17(10)20
                                      |          |
4                                  14(9)15   18(11)19

After insert

level           After INSERT
1                    1(1)24
        _______________|_________________
       |               |                 |
2    2(2)5           6(4)13           14(7)23
       |           ____|___          ____|____
       |          |        |        |         |
3    3(3)4      7(5)8    9(6)12  15(8)18   19(10)22
                           |        |         |
4                      10(23)11  16(9)17   20(11)21

UPDATE

Set parent_id=5 for node with id==8

node = session.query(Tree).filter(Tree.id == 8).one()
node.parent_id = 5
session.add(node)

Tree state before update

level           Before UPDATE
1                    1(1)22
        _______________|___________________
       |               |                   |
2    2(2)5           6(4)11             12(7)21
       |               ^                   ^
3    3(3)4       7(5)8   9(6)10    13(8)16   17(10)20
                                      |          |
4                                  14(9)15   18(11)19

After update

level               Move 8 - > 5
    1                     1(1)22
             _______________|__________________
            |               |                  |
    2     2(2)5           6(4)15            16(7)21
            |               ^                  |
    3     3(3)4      7(5)12   13(6)14      17(10)20
                       |                       |
    4                8(8)11                18(11)19
                       |
    5                9(9)10

DELETE

Delete node with id==4

node = session.query(Tree).filter(Tree.id == 4).one()
session.delete(node)

Tree state before delete

level           Before DELETE
1                    1(1)22
        _______________|___________________
       |               |                   |
2    2(2)5           6(4)11             12(7)21
       |               ^                   ^
3    3(3)4       7(5)8   9(6)10    13(8)16   17(10)20
                                      |          |
4                                  14(9)15   18(11)19

After delete

level         Delete node == 4
1                    1(1)16
        _______________|_____
       |                     |
2    2(2)5                 6(7)15
       |                     ^
3    3(3)4            7(8)10   11(10)14
                        |          |
4                     8(9)9    12(11)13

For more example see sqlalchemy_mptt.tests.TestTree