Advanced Admin

🏰 Django Advanced Admin: Your Magic Control Room

Imagine you’re the boss of a huge toy factory. You have a special control room where you can do amazing things — move toys around, change how things look, and make special buttons that do cool stuff. That’s exactly what Django’s Advanced Admin is!

🎯 The Big Picture

Django Admin is like a super-powered control panel for your website’s data. Today, we’re learning the advanced tricks — the ones that make you feel like a wizard! 🧙‍♂️

graph TD
    A["🏰 Django Admin"] --> B["⚡ Admin Actions"]
    A --> C["🎨 Custom Actions"]
    A --> D["📦 Inline Classes"]
    A --> E["✨ Site Customization"]
    style A fill:#667eea,color:#fff
    style B fill:#4ECDC4,color:#fff
    style C fill:#FF6B6B,color:#fff
    style D fill:#45B7D1,color:#fff
    style E fill:#96CEB4,color:#fff

⚡ Admin Actions: Magic Buttons for Many Things

What Are Admin Actions?

Think of Admin Actions like a TV remote with special buttons. Instead of changing channels one by one, you press ONE button and it does something to MANY things at once!

Real Example: You have 100 blog posts. Some are “draft” and you want to make 50 of them “published” at once. Without actions, you’d click each one — 50 times! 😫 With actions, you select them all, press ONE button, and DONE! ✨

Django’s Built-in Action

Django already gives you one action for free:

# This comes FREE with Django!
# It's the "Delete selected" action
# Select items → Action dropdown → Delete

When you check boxes next to items and pick “Delete selected items” — that’s an admin action working!

How Actions Work

1. Select — Check the boxes next to items you want
2. Choose — Pick an action from the dropdown menu
3. Go! — Click the button and magic happens to ALL selected items

🎨 Custom Admin Actions: Build Your Own Magic Buttons

Why Make Your Own?

The “Delete” button is nice, but what if you want buttons like:

• ✅ “Mark as Published”
• ⭐ “Make Featured”
• 📧 “Send Email to Authors”
• 🏷️ “Add Discount”

You can build these yourself!

Your First Custom Action

Let’s make a “Publish” button for blog posts:

# In your admin.py file

# Step 1: Create the action function
@admin.action(
    description="📢 Publish selected posts"
)
def make_published(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    # queryset = all the items you selected
    queryset.update(status='published')

# Step 2: Tell Admin to use it
@admin.register(Post)
class PostAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ['title', 'status']
    actions = [make_published]

What happens:

1. You select 10 posts ☑️
2. Choose “Publish selected posts” from dropdown
3. Click “Go” → All 10 posts become published!

Understanding the Three Magic Ingredients

Every action function gets three things:

def my_action(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    # modeladmin = the admin page itself
    # request = info about who clicked
    # queryset = the items you selected

Think of it like this:

• modeladmin = The kitchen (where you work)
• request = The waiter (who asked for food)
• queryset = The ingredients (items to cook)

More Cool Examples

Example 1: Mark items as featured

@admin.action(description="⭐ Mark as featured")
def make_featured(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    queryset.update(is_featured=True)

Example 2: Give feedback message

from django.contrib import messages

@admin.action(description="✅ Approve selected")
def approve_items(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    count = queryset.update(approved=True)
    messages.success(
        request,
        f"Approved {count} items!"
    )

Example 3: Send to specific users

@admin.action(description="📧 Notify authors")
def notify_authors(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    for item in queryset:
        send_email(item.author.email)
    messages.info(
        request,
        "Emails sent successfully!"
    )

📦 Admin Inline Classes: Show Related Stuff Together

The Problem Without Inlines

Imagine you have:

• Authors (people who write books)
• Books (written by authors)

Without inlines, to add books for an author:

1. Go to Authors page → Edit author
2. Go to Books page → Add book → Pick author
3. Go back to Books → Add another book → Pick same author
4. Back and forth, back and forth… 😵

The Magic of Inlines

With inlines, when you edit an Author, you see their Books right there on the same page! Add, edit, delete — all without leaving!

graph TD
    A["📝 Author Edit Page"] --> B["Author Name: J.K. Rowling"]
    A --> C["Author Email: jk@magic.com"]
    A --> D["📚 BOOKS INLINE"]
    D --> E["Book 1: Harry Potter 1"]
    D --> F["Book 2: Harry Potter 2"]
    D --> G["+ Add another book"]
    style A fill:#667eea,color:#fff
    style D fill:#4ECDC4,color:#fff

Two Types of Inlines

1. TabularInline — Like a spreadsheet (side by side)

class BookInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = Book
    extra = 1  # Show 1 empty row for new book

2. StackedInline — Like stacked cards (one below another)

class BookInline(admin.StackedInline):
    model = Book
    extra = 1

Complete Inline Example

# models.py
class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    email = models.EmailField()

class Book(models.Model):
    author = models.ForeignKey(
        Author,
        on_delete=models.CASCADE
    )
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    published = models.DateField()

# admin.py
class BookInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = Book
    extra = 2  # Show 2 empty rows
    fields = ['title', 'published']

@admin.register(Author)
class AuthorAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ['name', 'email']
    inlines = [BookInline]  # Magic line!

Inline Options You Can Use

class BookInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = Book
    extra = 1       # Empty forms to show
    min_num = 0     # Minimum required
    max_num = 10    # Maximum allowed

    # Which fields to show
    fields = ['title', 'published']

    # Make some fields read-only
    readonly_fields = ['created_at']

    # Can users delete inline items?
    can_delete = True

✨ Admin Site Customization: Make It YOURS!

Why Customize?

The default admin looks… default. 😴 But you can make it:

• Show your company logo
• Change colors
• Have a custom title
• Feel like YOUR app, not just “Django Admin”

Quick Customizations (In admin.py)

Change the header and title:

# At the top of admin.py
admin.site.site_header = "🚀 My Awesome Admin"
admin.site.site_title = "My App Admin"
admin.site.index_title = "Welcome to Control Panel"

Before: “Django administration” After: “🚀 My Awesome Admin” ✨

Create a Custom Admin Site

For bigger changes, create your own admin site:

# admin.py
from django.contrib.admin import AdminSite

class MyAdminSite(AdminSite):
    site_header = "🎮 Game Control Center"
    site_title = "Game Admin"
    index_title = "Manage Your Games"

    # Custom login message
    login_template = 'admin/custom_login.html'

# Create instance
my_admin = MyAdminSite(name='myadmin')

# Register your models with YOUR site
my_admin.register(Game, GameAdmin)
my_admin.register(Player, PlayerAdmin)

In urls.py:

from .admin import my_admin

urlpatterns = [
    path('my-admin/', my_admin.urls),
    # Keep original too if needed:
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
]

Customize Model Admin Display

Make your list views beautiful:

@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    # Columns to show in list
    list_display = [
        'name',
        'price',
        'colored_status',
        'in_stock'
    ]

    # Add filters on the side
    list_filter = ['category', 'in_stock']

    # Search box
    search_fields = ['name', 'description']

    # Click column to edit
    list_editable = ['price']

    # Custom colored status!
    @admin.display(description='Status')
    def colored_status(self, obj):
        color = 'green' if obj.active else 'red'
        return format_html(
            '<span style="color:{};">{}</span>',
            color,
            'Active' if obj.active else 'Inactive'
        )

Organize Fields in Edit Form

@admin.register(Article)
class ArticleAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fieldsets = [
        ('📝 Basic Info', {
            'fields': ['title', 'slug']
        }),
        ('📄 Content', {
            'fields': ['body', 'summary'],
            'classes': ['wide']  # Full width
        }),
        ('⚙️ Settings', {
            'fields': ['status', 'published_at'],
            'classes': ['collapse']  # Collapsed!
        }),
    ]

Custom Admin Templates

Override Django’s admin templates:

your_app/
├── templates/
│   └── admin/
│       ├── base_site.html  # Main layout
│       └── your_app/
│           └── model/
│               └── change_list.html

base_site.html example:

{% extends "admin/base.html" %}

{% block branding %}
<h1 id="site-name">
    <img src="/static/logo.png" height="40">
    My Awesome Admin
</h1>
{% endblock %}

🎯 Putting It All Together

Here’s a complete example with everything:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.utils.html import format_html
from .models import Store, Product

# Custom Action
@admin.action(description="🏷️ Apply 10% discount")
def apply_discount(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    for product in queryset:
        product.price *= 0.9
        product.save()

# Inline for Products
class ProductInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = Product
    extra = 1
    fields = ['name', 'price', 'in_stock']

# Main Admin
@admin.register(Store)
class StoreAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ['name', 'location', 'product_count']
    inlines = [ProductInline]
    actions = [apply_discount]

    @admin.display(description='Products')
    def product_count(self, obj):
        count = obj.product_set.count()
        return format_html(
            '<b>{}</b> items',
            count
        )

# Customize site
admin.site.site_header = "🏪 Store Manager"
admin.site.site_title = "Store Admin"

🌟 Key Takeaways

🚀 You Did It!

You’ve learned Django Admin superpowers:

• ⚡ Make actions that affect many items at once
• 🎨 Create your own custom action buttons
• 📦 Show related items together with inlines
• ✨ Customize how your admin looks and feels

Now your admin panel isn’t just “a Django admin” — it’s YOUR admin, tailored to your needs! Go build something amazing! 🎉