Customize Django Admin Interface

https://appliku.com/post/customize-django-admin-interface

by appliku • 3 years ago

61 32 3 years ago

snide2• 3 years ago

I'm sort of fascinated by the resilience of the Django admin. It's nearly 20 years old at this point and really hasn't changed too much since I first used it in 2007. I've always thought it was a good example of what having a strong designer early in your project life-cycle can do.

quickthrower22• 3 years ago

I am strongly considering django for the next side project. I am new to python but enjoy it’s low ceremony approach (you sort of forget what language you are using, it gets out of the way) and then django to have more bases covered including this admin. Then htmx to avoid JS, maybe Elm if it needs interactivity

bboygravity• 3 years ago

Every time I read a new comment about webapp stuff, new languages and "technologies" seem to be mentioned.

How does anybody keep up with this stuff, let alone create it all? :p

fernandotakai• 3 years ago

so, my 2 cents (and it's something i've said before here):

every time i start a project with something other than django, i end up with django, but "homebrewed".

example: you start with flask. you need auth, so you add flask-login.

you need some database access, so you add SQLAlchemy (and its flask plugin). you also need some kind of admin page, so you add flask-admin.

when you are finished, you have a flask-django framework, but not as well integrated -- with django, you get ALL of those all of those out-of-the-box, everything is well oiled and well integrated.

so, yeah, imho django is an amazing backend framework that does its job perfectly, specially when you add some really good libraries (like django-rest-framework).

leetrout2• 3 years ago

Strong opinion: DO NOT break up your project into apps.

Make 1 app called core or common of whatever and replace models.py with models/<namespace_or_domain>.py and import those into models/__init__.py

Everyone jumps into apps with foreign keys across app boundaries and it makes a mess of things from the start that doesnt buy you anything.

1 app. 1 set of migrations. Turn models, views, etc into a package instead of the single file module.

Its the one thing I wish the docs would prescribe and demonstrate for new project advice. .

pedrovhb2• 3 years ago

Yup. No project of this size is without some ugliness, but Django really is an impressive piece of technology and complex but cohesive architecture. The more I understood its layers the more I appreciated how much it does, and how well it allows you not to worry about things until you need them.

You mentioned having a strong designer early in the project; did you have a specific name in mind? I'd love to see what they're up to and study some of their other projects.

dsissitka• 3 years ago

I'm guessing Wilson Miner:

https://wilsonminer.com

samwillis• 3 years ago

The Django admin is a superpower, it's a x10 productivity multiplayer at the beginning of (or even far to far into) a project.

However, I also dislike so much of it. The hacks I have used to contort it to do what I want I would be embarrassed for another developer to see...

Former Django fellow Carlton is working on a nice toolkit called "Neapolitan", it's early stage, but is designed to enable building CRUD views very quickly. There is a good chance that in time it, or a layer on top of it, will become the perfect successor to the Admin.

https://github.com/carltongibson/neapolitan

appliku5• 3 years ago

The common wisdom was always not to rely on it for any of your users (for far too long) and build something separate as soon as possible. But i must admit that lately it got much much better. I only recently discovered that you can have multiple admins with it's own admin models. So way less hacks.

I actually want to try build an app just to see how far I can push it with Django admin and see how hacks it will end up.

pedrovhb2• 3 years ago

I haven't seen it used by users, but it's amazing for non-technical staff (PMs, support to some extent, etc). They can inspect and modify the database while making sure everything still validates, run batch jobs, actions, etc and it's all very low effort to implement. No need to fetch a dev to debug an issue with data or understand whether the cron job run or why it may have failed. It helps with understanding a platform's internals, which improves understanding and communication all around.

raphael_kimmig• 3 years ago

We have been working on something that sounds similar. It ain’t perfect yet, but we are using it quite a bit already.

https://github.com/django-beam/django-beam

r_singh2• 3 years ago

Just want to chime in and say I've been using AppLiku to host a Django service since over a year and it's a great alternative to Heroku if one is bogged down by the limitations. Kudos to the maker!

appliku5• 3 years ago

Thanks! Super happy to hear that it keeps being valuable and useful for you! Keep deploying

r_singh2• 3 years ago

Thanks for the awesome and super affordable service. It's truly a saviour for me.

Deploys from today: https://imgur.com/a/3h7yYlO

indymike• 3 years ago

django admin > database console.

Even though the admin is far from perfect it is a fantastic alternative to having operations people have to contend wit a database control panel.

appliku5• 3 years ago

Yes absolutely. Ops people love spreadsheets and it is done in admin easily.

Also, with Admin site you can limit their ability to screw things up massively.

The amount of stress and time waste you remove by giving them pretty user friendly admin with such low effort is astonishing.

santiagobasulto• 3 years ago

We use the Django Admin A LOT. It's an amazing power. Lately, we've also added a Jupyter server connected to a read-only DB replica, with the Django models available.

It's impressive how much you can do with these two tools. There's no need for an internal management dashboard or a BI tool. Just the admin and a bunch of notebooks.

(Obligatory note: we are a bootstrapped startup)

appliku5• 3 years ago

This is a great idea. Have you ever written about it somewhere? I would like to read and share with others. I know a few people who could benefit from that.

blooalien• 3 years ago

Love Jupyter. Fantastic tools.

delbronski• 3 years ago

I’ve found htmx to be the ultimate Django customising machine. Just make an htmx view and stick it anywhere in your admin. You can do this either by overriding a specific model admin’s template for more complex logic (for example the change template), or by sticking the htmx view in an admin read only field (super simple and works very well).

This approach allows you to have some very complex views in the Django admin without ever touching the internal of the Django admin itself. I used to waste hours trying to get the admin to do what I wanted until I figured out this neat little trick.

Customize Django Admin Interface

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