Django admin template override not working

Question

Django 1.6.11

App structure looks like:

my_project/
     |-- new_app/
     |-- templates/

in my config:

TEMPLATE_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_ROOT, 'templates/')
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    TEMPLATE_ROOT,
)
INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    ...
    'new_app',
)

I've also tried listing new_app before contrib.admin and that didn't help.

When I copy venv/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin/change_list.html to my /templates/admin/new_app/change_list.html I don't see my customizations show up.

my_project/
     |-- new_app/
     |-- templates/
         |-- admin/
             |-- new_app/
                 |-- change_list.html

When I move change_list.html up one level so it's under the admin path, the changes show up just fine:

my_project/
     |-- new_app/
     |-- templates/
         |-- admin/
             |-- change_list.html
             |-- new_app/   (now an empty folder)

... but of course that would mean my changes are going to affect every admin page, not just for the app I'm trying to modify.

I've added this to the app's only model within admin.py:

class MyModelAdmin(reversion.VersionAdmin):
    change_list_template = 'admin/new_app/change_list.html'

... this gives me some of what I need, but I also need change_list_results.html and there's no ModelAdmin override for that.

I'm following the documentation guide found at readthedocs in section 2.4.8 on page 31, but I don't seem to be having any luck.

Answer 1

When several applications provide different versions of the same resource (template, static file, management command, translation), the application listed first in INSTALLED_APPS has precedence. See docs.

Change:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    ...
    'new_app',
)

To:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'new_app',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    ...
)

Your templates in new_app should now be found before the templates in contrib.admin.