If you're interested in helping maintain and expand this library, please reach out to me. Due to other responsibilities and circumstances, I have basically no time to address issues for this codebase. I would greatly appreciate the help!
This project makes it easy to add drag-and-drop ordering to any model in Django admin. Inlines for a sortable model may also be made sortable, enabling individual items or groups of items to be sortable.
If you find Django Admin Sortable to be helpful, consider buying me a coffee!
Sorting model instances with a sortable parent:
Sorting inlines:
For Django 3 use the latest version
For Django 1.8.x < 3.0, use 2.1.8.
For Django 1.5.x to 1.7.x, use version 2.0.18.
django-admin-sortable 1.5.2 introduced backward-incompatible changes for Django 1.4.x
django-admin-sortable 1.6.6 introduced a backward-incompatible change for the sorting_filters
attribute. Please convert your attributes to the new tuple-based format if you haven't already.
django-admin-sortable 1.7.1 and higher are compatible with Python 3.
django-admin-sortable 2.1.6 has a bug. Please don't use it :)
$ pip install django-admin-sortable
--or--
Download django-admin-sortable from source
- Unzip the directory and cd into the uncompressed project directory
-
- Optional: Enable your virtualenv
- Run
$ python setup.py install
or addadminsortable
to your PYTHONPATH.
- Add
adminsortable
to yourINSTALLED_APPS
. - Ensure
django.template.context_processors.static
is in yourTEMPLATES["OPTIONS"]["context_processors"]
.- (In older versions of Django, ensure
django.core.context_processors.static
is inTEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS
instead.)
- (In older versions of Django, ensure
- Ensure that
CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY
has not been set toTrue
, as django-admin-sortable is currently incompatible with that setting.
Preferred: Use the staticfiles app
Alternate:
Copy the adminsortable
folder from the static
folder to the
location you serve static files from.
Have a look at the included sample_project to see working examples. The login credentials for admin are: admin/admin
When a model is sortable, a tool-area link will be added that says "Change Order". Click this link, and you will be taken to the custom view where you can drag-and-drop the records into order.
Inlines may be drag-and-dropped into any order directly from the change form.
To add "sortability" to a model, you need to inherit SortableMixin
and at minimum, define:
-
The field which should be used for
Meta.ordering
, which must resolve to one of the integer fields defined in Django's ORM:PositiveIntegerField
IntegerField
PositiveSmallIntegerField
SmallIntegerField
BigIntegerField
-
⚠️ Meta.ordering
must only contain one value, otherwise, your objects will not be sorted correctly. -
⚠️ IMPORTANT: You must name the field you use for ordering something other than "order_field" as this name is reserved by theSortableMixin
class. -
It is recommended that you set
editable=False
anddb_index=True
on the field defined inMeta.ordering
for a seamless Django admin experience and faster lookups on the objects.
Sample Model:
# models.py
from adminsortable.models import SortableMixin
class MySortableClass(SortableMixin):
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
class Meta:
verbose_name = 'My Sortable Class'
verbose_name_plural = 'My Sortable Classes'
ordering = ['the_order']
# define the field the model should be ordered by
the_order = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0, editable=False, db_index=True)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.title
Support for models that don't use an AutoField
for their primary key are also supported in version 2.0.20 or higher.
A common use case is to have child objects that are sortable relative to a parent. If your parent object is also sortable, here's how you would set up your models and admin options:
# models.py
from adminsortable.fields import SortableForeignKey
class Category(SortableMixin):
class Meta:
ordering = ['category_order']
verbose_name_plural = 'Categories'
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
# ordering field
category_order = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0, editable=False, db_index=True)
class Project(SortableMixin):
class Meta:
ordering = ['project_order']
category = SortableForeignKey(Category)
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
# ordering field
project_order = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0, editable=False, db_index=True)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.title
# admin.py
from adminsortable.admin import SortableAdmin
from your_app.models import Category, Project
admin.site.register(Category, SortableAdmin)
admin.site.register(Project, SortableAdmin)
Sometimes you might have a parent model that is not sortable, but has child models that are. In that case define your models and admin options as such:
from adminsortable.fields import SortableForeignKey
# models.py
class Category(models.Model):
class Meta:
verbose_name_plural = 'Categories'
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
...
class Project(SortableMixin):
class Meta:
ordering = ['project_order']
category = SortableForeignKey(Category)
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
# ordering field
project_order = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0, editable=False, db_index=True)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.title
# admin
from adminsortable.admin import NonSortableParentAdmin, SortableStackedInline
from your_app.models import Category, Project
class ProjectInline(SortableStackedInline):
model = Project
extra = 1
class CategoryAdmin(NonSortableParentAdmin):
inlines = [ProjectInline]
admin.site.register(Category, CategoryAdmin)
The NonSortableParentAdmin
class is necessary to wire up the additional URL patterns and JavaScript that Django Admin Sortable needs to make your models sortable. The child model does not have to be an inline model, it can be wired directly to Django admin and the objects will be grouped by the non-sortable foreign key when sorting.
It is also possible to make many-to-many relations sortable, but it requires an explicit many-to-many model.
models.py
:
from django.db import models
from adminsortable.models import SortableMixin
from adminsortable.fields import SortableForeignKey
class Image(models.Model):
...
class Gallery(models.Model):
class Meta:
verbose_name_plural = 'Galleries'
...
images = models.ManyToManyField(
Image,
through_fields=('gallery', 'image'),
through='GalleryImageRelation',
verbose_name=_('Images')
)
class GalleryImageRelation(SortableMixin):
"""Many to many relation that allows users to sort images in galleries"""
class Meta:
ordering = ['image_order']
gallery = models.ForeignKey(Gallery, verbose_name=_("Gallery"))
image = SortableForeignKey(Image, verbose_name=_("Image"))
image_order = models.PositiveIntegerField(default=0, editable=False, db_index=True)
admin.py
:
from django.contrib import admin
from adminsortable.admin import (SortableAdmin, SortableTabularInline)
from .models import (Image, Gallery, GalleryImageRelation)
class GalleryImageRelationInlineAdmin(SortableTabularInline):
model = GalleryImageRelation
extra = 1
class GalleryAdmin(NonSortableParentAdmin):
inlines = (GalleryImageRelationInlineAdmin,)
admin.site.register(Image, admin.ModelAdmin)
admin.site.register(Gallery, GalleryAdmin)
Any non-editable space in each rendered inline will let you drag and drop them into order.
If you previously used Django Admin Sortable, DON'T PANIC - everything will still work exactly as before without any changes to your code. Going forward, it is recommended that you use the new SortableMixin
on your models, as pre-2.0 compatibility might not be a permanent thing.
Please note however that the Sortable
class still contains the hard-coded order
field, and meta inheritance requirements:
# legacy model definition
from adminsortable.models import Sortable
class Project(Sortable):
class Meta(Sortable.Meta):
pass
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
def __unicode__(self):
return self.title
Each instance of a sortable model has two convenience methods to get the next or previous instance:
.get_next()
.get_previous()
By default, these methods will respect their order in relation to a SortableForeignKey
field, if present. Meaning, that given the following data:
| Parent Model 1 | |
| | Child Model 1 |
| | Child Model 2 |
| Parent Model 2 | |
| | Child Model 3 |
| | Child Model 4 |
| | Child Model 5 |
"Child Model 2" get_next()
would return None
"Child Model 3" get_previous
would return None
If you wish to override this behavior, pass in: filter_on_sortable_fk=False
:
your_instance.get_next(filter_on_sortable_fk=False)
You may also pass in additional ORM "filer_args" as a list, or "filter_kwargs" as a dictionary, should you need to:
your_instance.get_next(
filter_args=[Q(field1=True) | Q(field2=True)],
filter_kwargs={'title__icontains': 'blue'}
)
Previously "filter_kwargs" was named "extra_filters". With the addition of "filter_args", "extra_filters" was renamed for consistency.
If you're adding Sorting to an existing model, it is recommended that you use django-south to create a schema migration to add the "order" field to your model. You will also need to create a data migration in order to add the appropriate values for the "order" column.
Example assuming a model named "Category":
def forwards(self, orm):
for index, category in enumerate(orm.Category.objects.all()):
category.order = index + 1
category.save()
See: this link for more information on South Data Migrations.
Since schema migrations are built into Django 1.7, you don't have to use south, but the process of adding and running migrations is nearly identical. Take a look at the Migrations documentation to get started.
To enable sorting in the admin, you need to inherit from SortableAdmin
:
from django.contrib import admin
from myapp.models import MySortableClass
from adminsortable.admin import SortableAdmin
class MySortableAdminClass(SortableAdmin):
"""Any admin options you need go here"""
admin.site.register(MySortableClass, MySortableAdminClass)
To enable sorting on TabularInline models, you need to inherit from SortableTabularInline:
from adminsortable.admin import SortableTabularInline
class MySortableTabularInline(SortableTabularInline):
"""Your inline options go here"""
To enable sorting on StackedInline models, you need to inherit from SortableStackedInline:
from adminsortable.admin import SortableStackedInline
class MySortableStackedInline(SortableStackedInline):
"""Your inline options go here"""
There are also generic equivalents that you can inherit from:
from adminsortable.admin import (SortableGenericTabularInline,
SortableGenericStackedInline)
"""Your generic inline options go here"""
If your parent model is not sortable, but has child inlines that are, your parent model needs to inherit from NonSortableParentAdmin
:
from adminsortable.admin import (NonSortableParentAdmin,
SortableTabularInline)
class ChildTabularInline(SortableTabularInline):
model = YourModel
class ParentAdmin(NonSortableParentAdmin):
inlines = [ChildTabularInline]
django-admin-sortable supports custom queryset overrides on admin models and inline models in Django admin!
If you're providing an override of a SortableAdmin or Sortable inline model, you don't need to do anything extra. django-admin-sortable will automatically honor your queryset.
Have a look at the WidgetAdmin class in the sample project for an example of
an admin class with a custom queryset()
override.
This is a special case, which requires a few lines of extra code to properly determine the sortability of your model. Example:
# add this import to your admin.py
from adminsortable.utils import get_is_sortable
class ComponentInline(SortableStackedInline):
model = Component
def queryset(self, request):
qs = super(ComponentInline, self).queryset(request).filter(
title__icontains='foo')
# You'll need to add these lines to determine if your model
# is sortable once we hit the change_form() for the parent model.
if get_is_sortable(qs):
self.model.is_sortable = True
else:
self.model.is_sortable = False
return qs
If you override the queryset of an inline, the number of objects present
may change, and adminsortable won't be able to automatically determine
if the inline model is sortable from here, which is why we have to set the
is_sortable
property of the model in this method.
It is also possible to sort a subset of objects in your model by adding a sorting_filters
tuple. This works exactly the same as .filter()
on a QuerySet, and is applied after get_queryset()
on the admin class, allowing you to override the queryset as you would normally in admin but apply additional filters for sorting. The text "Change Order of" will appear before each filter in the Change List template, and the filter groups are displayed from left to right in the order listed. If no sorting_filters
are specified, the text "Change Order" will be displayed for the link.
You can specify a self-referential SortableForeignKey field, however the admin interface will currently show a model that is a grandchild at the same level as a child. I'm working to resolve this issue.
django-admin-sortable 1.6.6 introduced a backwards-incompatible change for sorting_filters
. Previously this attribute was defined as a dictionary, so you'll need to change your values over to the new tuple-based format.
An example of sorting subsets would be a "Board of Directors". In this use case, you have a list of "People" objects. Some of these people are on the Board of Directors and some not, and you need to sort them independently.
class Person(Sortable):
class Meta(Sortable.Meta):
verbose_name_plural = 'People'
first_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
last_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
is_board_member = models.BooleanField('Board Member', default=False)
sorting_filters = (
('Board Members', {'is_board_member': True}),
('Non-Board Members', {'is_board_member': False}),
)
def __unicode__(self):
return '{} {}'.format(self.first_name, self.last_name)
By default, adminsortable's change form and change list views inherit from Django admin's standard templates. Sometimes you need to have a custom change form or change list, but also need adminsortable's CSS and JavaScript for inline models that are sortable for example.
SortableAdmin has two attributes you can override for this use case:
change_form_template_extends
change_list_template_extends
These attributes have default values of:
change_form_template_extends = 'admin/change_form.html'
change_list_template_extends = 'admin/change_list.html'
If you need to extend the inline change form templates, you'll need to select the right one, depending on your version of Django. For 1.10.x or below, you'll need to extend one of the following:
templates/adminsortable/edit_inline/stacked-1.10.x.html
templates/adminsortable/edit_inline/tabular-inline-1.10.x.html
otherwise, extend:
templates/adminsortable/edit_inline/stacked.html
templates/adminsortable/edit_inline/tabular.html
The height of a stacked inline model can dynamically increase, which can make them difficult to sort. If you anticipate the height of a stacked inline is going to be very tall, I would suggest using SortableTabularInline instead.
If you need to define a custom event or other callback to be executed after sorting is completed, you'll need to:
- Create a custom template for to add your JavaScript
- Populate the
after_sorting_js_callback_name
on your model admin
An example of this can be found in the "samples" application in the source. Here's a model admin for a model called "Project":
class ProjectAdmin(SortableAdmin):
inlines = [
CreditInline, NoteInline, GenericNoteInline,
NonSortableCreditInline, NonSortableNoteInline
]
list_display = ['__str__', 'category']
after_sorting_js_callback_name = 'afterSortCallback' # do not include () - just function name
sortable_change_list_template = 'adminsortable/custom_change_list.html'
sortable_change_form_template = "adminsortable/custom_change_form.html"
This example is going to add a custom callback on the parent model, and it's inlines. Here is the JavaScript added to the custom change list:
{% extends 'adminsortable/change_list.html' %}
{% block extrahead %}
{{ block.super }}
<script>
django.jQuery(document).on('order:changed', function(event) {
console.log(event.message);
// your code here
});
window['{{ after_sorting_js_callback_name }}'] = function() {
django.jQuery(document).trigger({ type: 'order:changed', message: 'Order changed', time: new Date() });
};
</script>
{% endblock %}
and the custom change form, for the inline models:
{% extends "adminsortable/change_form.html" %}
{% block extrahead %}
{{ block.super }}
<script>
django.jQuery(document).on('order:changed', function(event) {
console.log(event.message);
// your code here
});
window['{{ after_sorting_js_callback_name }}'] = function() {
django.jQuery(document).trigger({ type: 'order:changed', message: 'Order changed', time: new Date() });
};
</script>
{% endblock %}
Ideally, you'd pull in a shared piece of code for your callback to keep your code DRY.
Django-CMS plugins use their own change form, and thus won't automatically
include the necessary JavaScript for django-admin-sortable to work. Fortunately,
this is easy to resolve, as the CMSPlugin
class allows a change form template to be
specified:
# example plugin
from cms.plugin_base import CMSPluginBase
class CMSCarouselPlugin(CMSPluginBase):
admin_preview = False
change_form_template = 'cms/sortable-stacked-inline-change-form.html'
inlines = [SlideInline]
model = Carousel
name = _('Carousel')
render_template = 'carousels/carousel.html'
def render(self, context, instance, placeholder):
context.update({
'carousel': instance,
'placeholder': placeholder
})
return context
plugin_pool.register_plugin(CMSCarouselPlugin)
The contents of sortable-stacked-inline-change-form.html
at a minimum need to extend
the extrahead block with:
{% extends "admin/cms/page/plugin_change_form.html" %}
{% load static from staticfiles %}
{% block extrahead %}
{{ block.super }}
<script src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/jquery-ui-django-admin.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/jquery.ui.touch-punch.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/jquery.django-csrf.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/admin.sortable.stacked.inlines.js' %}"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static 'adminsortable/css/admin.sortable.inline.css' %}" />
{% endblock extrahead %}
Sorting within Django-CMS is really only feasible for inline models of a plugin as Django-CMS already includes sorting for plugin instances. For tabular inlines, just substitute:
<script src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/admin.sortable.stacked.inlines.js' %}"></script>
with:
<script src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/admin.sortable.tabular.inlines.js' %}"></script>
From django-cms 3.x
the path of change_form.html has changed. Replace the follwing line:
{% extends "admin/cms/page/plugin_change_form.html" %}
with
{% extends "admin/cms/page/plugin/change_form.html" %}
From django-admin-sortable 2.0.13
the jquery.django-csrf.js
was removed and you have to include the snippet-template.
Change the following line:
<script type="text/javascript" src="{% static 'adminsortable/js/jquery.django-csrf.js' %}"></script>
to
{% include 'adminsortable/csrf/jquery.django-csrf.html' with csrf_cookie_name='csrftoken' %}
Please note, if you change the CSRF_COOKIE_NAME
you have to adjust csrf_cookie_name='YOUR_CSRF_COOKIE_NAME'
Other projects have added drag-and-drop ordering to the ChangeList view, however this introduces a couple of problems...
- The ChangeList view supports pagination, which makes drag-and-drop ordering across pages impossible.
- The ChangeList view by default, does not order records based on a foreign key, nor distinguish between rows that are associated with a foreign key. This makes ordering the records grouped by a foreign key impossible.
- The ChangeList supports in-line editing, and adding drag-and-drop ordering on top of that just seemed a little much in my opinion.
django-admin-sortable is currently used in production.
- Updated inline sortable templates to fix FontAwesome icon visibility and be compatible with Django 2 & 3.
- Better template support for foreign keys that are self referential. If someone would like to take on rendering recursive sortables, that would be super.
django-admin-sortable is released under the Apache Public License v2.