Django Object Actions

If you've ever tried making your own admin object tools and you were like me, you immediately gave up. Why can't they be as easy as making Django Admin Actions? Well now they can be.

Similar Packages

Django Object Actions is very similar to django-object-tools, but does not require messing with your urls.py, does not do anything special with permissions, and uses the same patterns as making admin actions in Django.

Installation

Install Django Object Actions:

pip install django-object-actions

Add django_object_actions to your INSTALLED_APPS.

Alternate Installation

You don't have to add this to INSTALLED_APPS, all you need to to do is copy the template django_object_actions/change_form.html some place Django's template loader will find it.

Usage

Tools are defined just like defining actions as modeladmin methods, see: admin actions for examples and detailed syntax. You can return nothing or an http response. The major difference being the functions you write will take an object instance instead of a queryset:

def toolfunc(self, request, obj)

Tools are exposed by putting them in an objectactions attribute in your modeladmin like:

class MyModelAdmin(DjangoObjectActions, admin.ModelAdmin):
    def toolfunc(self, request, obj):
        pass
    toolfunc.label = "This will be the label of the button"  # optional
    toolfunc.short_description = "This will be the tooltip of the button"  # optional

    objectactions = ('toolfunc', )

Just like actions, you can send a message with self.message_user. Normally, you would do something to the object and go back to the same place, but if you return a HttpResponse, it will follow it (hey, just like actions!).

Re-using Admin Actions

If you would like an admin action to also be an object tool, add the takes_instance_or_queryset decorator like:

from django_object_actions import DjangoObjectActions
from django_object_actions.utils import takes_instance_or_queryset


class RobotAdmin(DjangoObjectActions, admin.ModelAdmin):
    # ... snip ...

    @takes_instance_or_queryset
    def tighten_lug_nuts(self, request, queryset):
        queryset.update(lugnuts=F('lugnuts') - 1)

    objectactions = ['tighten_lug_nuts']
    actions = ['tighten_lug_nuts']

Limitations

1. django-object-actions expects functions to be methods of the model admin.
2. If you provide your own custom change_form.html, you'll also need to manually copy in the relevant bits of our change form.

Development

Getting started (with virtualenvwrapper):

# get a copy of the code
git clone [email protected]:texastribune/django-object-actions.git
cd django-object-actions
# set up your virtualenv
mkvirtualenv django-object-actions
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=example_project.settings
add2virtualenv .
# start doing stuff
make test
make resetdb
python example_project/manage.py runserver

The fixtures will create a user, admin:admin, you can use to log in immediately.

Various helpers are available as make commands.