Django Admin – Show a Secondary Table of Related Objects in the Admin List View

As a Django developer, you’ve likely spent hours perfecting your admin interface, making it a breeze for your team to manage and update data. But what happens when you need to display related objects in the admin list view? That’s where things can get tricky. In this article, we’ll dive into the world of Django admin customization and show you exactly how to display a secondary table of related objects in the admin list view.

Why do I need to show related objects in the admin list view?

Imagine you’re building an e-commerce platform, and you want to display a list of orders with their corresponding order items in the admin interface. Or, perhaps you’re creating a blog, and you want to show a list of articles with their related comments. In both cases, displaying related objects in the admin list view can simplify data management and provide valuable insights.

By showing related objects, you can:

• Streamline data management: View and edit related objects in a single interface, reducing the need to navigate between separate pages.
• Enhance data visibility: Get a better understanding of the relationships between objects and make informed decisions.
• Improve user experience: Provide a more intuitive and user-friendly interface for your team, reducing friction and increasing productivity.

Step 1: Define Your Models

Before we dive into the admin customization, let’s define our models. For this example, we’ll use a simple Order-OrderItem relationship.

from django.db import models

class Order(models.Model):
    customer_name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    order_date = models.DateField()

class OrderItem(models.Model):
    order = models.ForeignKey(Order, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    product_name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    quantity = models.IntegerField()

Note that we’ve defined a ForeignKey relationship between OrderItem and Order. This will allow us to access the related OrderItems from an Order instance.

Step 2: Create a Custom Admin Class

To display related objects in the admin list view, we’ll need to create a custom admin class. Let’s create a file called `admin.py` in our app directory and define our custom admin class:

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Order, OrderItem
from django.utils.html import format_html

class OrderItemInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = OrderItem

class OrderAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    inlines = [OrderItemInline]

admin.site.register(Order, OrderAdmin)

In this example, we’ve defined an `OrderItemInline` class that inherits from `admin.TabularInline`. This class tells Django to display a table of related OrderItems in the admin interface. We’ve also defined an `OrderAdmin` class that inherits from `admin.ModelAdmin`, which registers our custom admin class with the Order model.

Step 3: Customize the Admin Template

By default, Django’s admin interface uses a generic template to display model data. To display our related OrderItems, we’ll need to customize this template. Let’s create a file called `change_list.html` in our app’s `templates/admin` directory:

{% extends 'admin/change_list.html' %}

{% block result_list %}
    {{ block.super }}
    
            {% for obj in cl.result_list %}
                
            {% endfor %}
        

        

            

                
Order ID
                
Order Items
            
        
        

                    
{{ obj.id }}
                    

                        
                                {% for item in obj.orderitem_set.all %}
                                    
                                {% endfor %}
                            

                            

                                

                                    
Product Name
                                    
Quantity
                                
                            
                            

                                        
{{ item.product_name }}
                                        
{{ item.quantity }}
                                    
                        
                    
                
    
{% endblock %}

This template extends the default `change_list.html` template and adds a new table to display the related OrderItems. We’ve added a nested loop to iterate over the OrderItems associated with each Order.

Step 4: Register the Custom Template

To use our custom template, we need to register it with the Django admin. Let’s add the following code to our `admin.py` file:

class OrderAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    # ...

    def get_changelist_template(self, request):
        return 'admin/order/change_list.html'

This code tells Django to use our custom `change_list.html` template for the Order model.

Putting it all together

With our custom admin class, inline, and template in place, let’s take a look at the final result:

Order ID	Order Items
1	Product Name Quantity Product A 2 Product B 3
2	Product Name Quantity Product C 1

Voilà! We’ve successfully displayed a secondary table of related objects in the admin list view. This customization provides a more intuitive and user-friendly interface for managing Order-OrderItem relationships.

Conclusion

Displaying related objects in the admin list view is a powerful customization technique that can greatly enhance your team’s productivity and data management capabilities. By following these steps, you can create a more streamlined and intuitive admin interface that meets your specific needs.

Remember to experiment with different template customizations and explore the vast range of possibilities offered by Django’s admin framework. Happy coding!

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