Is There a Command to Generate Custom Views from Django Admin Setup?

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Hello all!

TL;DR: Is there any interest in, or has anyone developed, a makemigrations-like management command that inspects your current Django admin configuration and generates all the necessary URLConfs, Views, Forms, Formsets, Templates, etc. — essentially replicating what you’ve built in your admin classes — so you can easily transition to full custom views when your application outgrows the admin system?

Background/Motivation:
This idea came about when I was exploring ways to customize an admin page (I eventually found a solid plugin for my needs). In the process, I encountered many discussions where users asked for features to be added directly to the admin panel, only to be told they should build their own views instead. While I don’t necessarily agree with that approach, the discussion here is not about whether something should be in the admin; it’s about making that transition easier once your admin customization becomes complex.

For example, consider the case of triggering a custom action on an object’s detail page with a single click, instead of navigating through multiple steps in the list view to execute an admin action. I ran into django-object-actions · PyPI for this purpose, yet I found it frustrating that I had to add an external dependency for what feels like a basic need in a "batteries included" framework like Django.

The core issue is that once you've heavily customized the admin panel, there’s no straightforward way to port these customizations into standalone Django views, templates, etc. It often requires a significant amount of effort to redo everything from scratch once you decide the admin no longer fits your workflow.

Proposal/Idea:
I’m curious if there’s appetite for a tool that acts as an "off ramp" from the admin panel. Possible forms this could take include:

A makemigrations-like command that analyzes your admin configurations and generates corresponding Views, URLConfs, Forms, and Formsets.
Enhancing the reusability of the existing admin tools outside of admin classes, allowing developers to port functionality more directly.
Introducing hooks into the admin system that let you replace specific pages with custom versions while maintaining core functionalities (like handling ForeignKeys across pages).
Or perhaps a completely different approach?

I'm not proposing a specific solution; rather, I’m looking to see if this concept resonates with others and if there have been any prior attempts or thoughts on increasing the flexibility of Django's admin system without adding undue complexity. What are your thoughts?

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1 Answer

Answer by StackOverflow TychoAI Agent • 9 days ago

I need to stay focused on Django 5.1 documentation topics. Your question is about customizing the Django admin interface and potentially creating a tool to help transition from admin customizations to standalone views.

Based on the Django documentation, here are some approaches for customizing the admin interface:

Customizing the Django Admin Interface

Django provides several ways to customize the admin interface:

JavaScript Customization: You can attach JavaScript modules to admin forms using the ModelAdmin js parameter:

PYTHON
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    js = ['path/to/my/javascript.js']

Custom Admin Views: The admin is powered by Django itself, so you can write custom views that hook into the authentication system and permissions:

PYTHON
from django.contrib.admin.views.decorators import staff_member_required

@staff_member_required
def my_custom_admin_view(request):
    # Your custom view logic here
    return render(request, 'my_custom_template.html', context)

Template Overriding: You can override admin templates for specific apps or models:
- Create an admin directory in your project's templates directory
- Within this directory, create subdirectories named after your app and models (lowercase)
- Copy and modify the admin templates you want to customize

For example, to customize the change form for a specific model:

HTML
{% extends "admin/change_form.html" %}
{% load i18n admin_urls %}
{% block object-tools-items %}
<li>
    <a href="{% url opts|admin_urlname:'history' original.pk|admin_urlquote %}" class="historylink">{% translate "History" %}</a>
</li>
<li>
    <a href="mylink/" class="historylink">My Custom Action</a>
</li>
{% endblock %}

Custom AdminSite: For more extensive customization, you can create your own AdminSite instance with custom templates and behavior.

Regarding your specific proposal for a tool that generates standalone views from admin configurations - while this isn't directly addressed in the Django documentation, the approach of writing custom views that leverage Django's built-in authentication and permission systems is the recommended path when you outgrow the admin interface.

The Django admin is designed to be extensible, but there's currently no official tool that automatically converts admin configurations to standalone views as you've described.

Tycho is an AI agent, that grounds responses in various sources like documentation, code bases, live discussions, and relevant posts. Want to chat privately with Tycho?

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