django admin: separate read-only view and change view

Question

I'd like to use the django admin to produce a read-only view of an object which contains an "Edit" button which switches you to the usual change view of the same object.

I know how to use the readonly attributes to produces a read-only view, but I don't know how to produce two views, one read-only and one that allows changes.

I'd like to reuse as much of the admin interface for this as possible, rather than writing a view from scratch.

Note that this question isn't about permissions: all users will have permission to change the objects. It's just that I would prefer that they not use the change_view unless they do intend to make changes, reducing the risk of accidental changes or simultaneous changes.

Answer 1

Here's an answer that literally does what I asked with only a few lines of code and just a couple of template changes:

class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):     fieldsets = [...]      def get_readonly_fields(self, request, obj=None):         if 'edit' not in request.GET:             return <list all fields here>         else:             return self.readonly_fields 

Now the usual URL for the change_form will produce a read only change_form, but if you append "?edit=1" to the URL, you will be able to edit.

The change_form template can also be customized depending on whether "?edit=1" is in the URL. To do this, put 'django.core.context_processors.request' in TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS in settings.py, and then use request.GET.edit in the template.

For example, to add an "Edit" button when not in edit mode, insert

  {% if not request.GET.edit %}                                                    <li><a href="?edit=1">Edit</a></li>                                              {% endif %}  

just after <ul class="object-tools"> in change_form.html.

As another example, changing change_form.html to contain

{% if save_on_top and request.GET.edit %}{% submit_row %}{% endif %}             

will mean that the submit row will only be shown in edit mode. One can also hide the Delete buttons on inlines, etc, using this method.

For reference, here is what I put in settings.py:

TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (                                                      'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',                                   'django.core.context_processors.debug',                                          'django.core.context_processors.i18n',                                           'django.core.context_processors.media',                                          'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',                           # Above here are the defaults.                                                   'django.core.context_processors.request',                                    )