Django admin select ordering different than default model ordering

Question

I have a model (Node) which is ordered by date in the admin, so latest nodes are shown first. This is fine.

The same model (Node) is referenced by another model (Device). When editing a device there is a list of nodes (in an HTML select) which is also ordered by date. I would like this select to be ordered by name and not by date.

Is it possible to have two different ordering methods, one for the list of objects and one for the select box?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The easiest thing would be to override the formfield_for_foreignkey method in the ModelAdmin for Device, something like

def formfield_for_foreignkey(self, db_field, request, **kwargs):
    if db_field.name == 'node':
        kwargs['queryset'] = Node.objects.order_by('name')
    return super(DeviceAdmin, self).formfield_for_foreignkey(db_field, request, **kwargs)

(I'm assuming a fair amount here. Hopefully it's clear!)

Similarly there's formfield_for_manytomany.

Answer 2

Have you tried something like:

class Node
        name = ...
        date = ...
        fields ....

        class Meta:
            order_with_respect_to='Device'
            ordering = ('Device', 'name')