Django2 now supports AutoComplete via select2, can django-admin-list-filter-dropdown?

[macolo]

The Autocomplete URL can be retrieved via a template tag:

register = template.Library()

@register.simple_tag(takes_context=True)
def get_autocomplete_url(context):
    spec = context.get('spec')
    app_label = spec.field.related_model._meta.app_label
    model_name = spec.field.related_model._meta.model_name

    return reverse('admin:{}_{}_autocomplete'.format(
        app_label,
        model_name,
    ))

The problem is to insert admin/js/vendor/select2/select2.full.js after admin/js/vendor/jquery/jquery.js but before /static/admin/js/jquery.init.js which enables noConflict for jQuery and hides jQuery from the global scope (which select2 needs). The filter's __init__ gets ModelAdmin instance passed, however its Media instance cannot be changed at this point. The only option I found is extending the admin's change_list.html template, which adds complexity to the module (needs to be inserted before django.contrib.admin in INSTALLED_APPS.

It works, but its far from being modular.

[mrts]

Excellent, many thanks for the suggestion! I was thinking about this, but didn't look into the implementation yet. I'll take a look at your pull request in near future.

[rocchidavide]

Any news about this feature? It will be implemented? Thanks

[mrts]

@rocchidavide see discussions and code at pull request #8, at the moment it is incomplete and it seems @macolo does not currently have time to finish the implementation. Feel free to help out :)!

[kigawas]

You can add a custom js file, say file name is autoselect.js, like:

(function ($) {
  console.debug($, 'LOADED');

  $(function () {
    $('select[auto-select=1]').select2();
  });

}(django.jQuery));

Then, define a custom widget like:

class AutoSelectWidget(Select):
    @property
    def media(self):
        extra = "" if settings.DEBUG else ".min"
        return Media(
            js=[
                f"admin/js/vendor/jquery/jquery{extra}.js",
                f"admin/js/vendor/select2/select2.full{extra}.js",
                "admin/js/jquery.init.js",
                "js/autoselect.js",
            ]
        )

Finally, use it in a form:

class SomeForm(ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = SomeModel
        fields = "__all__"

        widgets = {
            "field":  AutoSelectWidget(attrs={"auto-select": 1})
        }

And get rid of this library to use pure django.

[mrts]

@kigawas How do you envision integrating your solution to Django admin list_filter that this project is about?

That is, what would you write instead of ??? in the following snippet?

class EntityAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    ...
    list_filter = ( ??? )

Note that the solution proposed by @macolo here uses AJAX to fetch select results from the backend - do you have a suggestion how to implement this?

[kigawas]

@kigawas How do you envision integrating your solution to Django admin list_filter that this project is about?

That is, what would you write instead of ??? in the following snippet?

class EntityAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    ...
    list_filter = ( ??? )

Note that the solution proposed by @macolo here uses AJAX to fetch select results from the backend - do you have a suggestion how to implement this?

FYI:

• Implementation of Django's Ajax searchable widget
• About an example usage of the custom widget mentioned above, you can check this repo

[mrts]

@kigawas Cool, thanks for the links! Would you consider submitting a pull request to add autocomplete functionality? Note that this project is MIT-licensed though, similar to the liberal BSD license of Django itself.

[MHM5000]

Anybody working on this?

[mrts]

Not at the moment, sorry. Getting it right seems not to be trivial unfortunately. Let's hope a brave champion arises :woman_firefighter:, if not then eventually I hope to get time for this.

[merwok]

To answer this question:

class EntityAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    ...
    list_filter = ( ??? )

This is what I would want:

class EntityAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_filter = (("field", AutocompleteFilter),)

(i.e. similar to how one uses SimpleRelatedFilter from django)

I haven’t looked yet in how to achieve that; in a previous project with lots of custom filter, I stopped at the simpler form list_filter = (make_filter("field"), CustomFilterXyz("other")).

[mrts]

As this is large work and I don't currently have time for this, perhaps we could set up a bounty at Issuehunt (or some other bounty site)? Please comment if you support that and how much you would be willing to contribute - or if you would like to pick up the bounty. I'm willing to contribute $20 myself.

[merwok]

FWIW, I have used https://github.com/farhan0581/django-admin-autocomplete-filter in my project and it works pretty well. Thanks nonetheless for writing this one and making it available!

I haven’t looked recently if this package provides features that that other doesn’t, in which case maybe joining forces could be an idea?

[macolo]

Jup that's true, I actually am also using that solution :)

[mrts]

Many thanks for the link @merwok (and thanks to @kigawas once more for suggesting it previously) and cheers for your great work @farhan0581! Would be awesome to collaborate, but Farhan's work is licensed under GPL 3, so I cannot even look at the code for the time being if I want to keep the more liberal MIT license. @farhan0581, what do you think about joining forces? I'm more than happy to merge your code and hand over maintenance.

[farhan0581]

Yeah sure man ! ,BTW thanks for your great work. It would be great to have someone like you, helping with the project since django is ever evolving which attracts the need for maintenance.

[mrts]

Great :)!

I propose the following action plan then:

• I will set up a new organization django-admin-list-filter-addons and add you and me as owners
• I will move the current repository to django-admin-list-filter-addons/django-admin-list-filter-addons (we will keep the stars :star2: this way :wink:)
• I will merge your code, update the README and verify that everything works well together, maybe add tests.

Does this sound good? Is it OK for you to redirect farhan0581/django-admin-autocomplete-filter to django-admin-list-filter-addons/django-admin-list-filter-addons? Are you OK with licensing your code with MIT license (which resembles Django's own license)?

I'll wait for your confirmation before proceeding.

[mrts]

@farhan0581, did you have time to think about the plan that I proposed in April? Please feel free to suggest amendments to the plan or decline freely, then I can explore other avenues forward.

[qcoumes]

@farhan0581 @mrts, Any news about the merge ?

[mrts]

@qcoumes, still waiting for @farhan0581's answer on the proposal.

[dmwyatt]

Taking a look at @farhan0581's github activity, I wouldn't expect an answer from him.

[mrts]

I cannot unfortunately merge GPL 3-licensed code, so his opinion is needed - @farhan0581, any news from your side?

[mrts]

@merwok @macolo you mention that you use https://github.com/farhan0581/django-admin-autocomplete-filter. Do you use it in closed-source commercial projects? If yes, then how do you comply with the GPL 3 license? As far as I can understand, using GPL 3 licensed code means that you have to publish the source code of your project as well?

[ryanhiebert]

As long as your project doesn't release software for your users to install, GPL isn't a problem, to my understanding. If you wanted to protect a library from use in a closed source Service, for example, you would want to use the AGPL, not the GPL.

[mrts]

Alright, all good then, thanks for explaining! I have to admit that I haven’t investigated licensing implications thoroughly enough.

[ryanhiebert]

@mrts I'd be up for a chat or call sometime on the subject if you'd find that useful.

[mrts]

I see that https://github.com/shamanu4/dal_admin_filters is MIT-licensed, this could be used for inspiration instead of https://github.com/farhan0581/django-admin-autocomplete-filter.