Django_tables2: Dynamically hiding columns based on the request

Question

I have a table that's based on a model that has several fields. I also have two TemplateColumns, one for editing the specific entity and another for deleting it. Here is my code:

class EntitetTable(tables.Table):
    edit = tables.TemplateColumn(template_name='azuriranje/izmena.html',
                            orderable=False, visible=False)
    delete = tables.TemplateColumn(template_name='azuriranje/brisanje.html',
                            orderable=False, visible=False)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True
        attrs = {'class': 'paleblue', }

class TipPredmetaTable(EntitetTable):
    class Meta(EntitetTable.Meta):
        model = models.TipPredmeta

Now, I have a user hierarchy in my system and only users that are bookkeepers can edit and delete the data. That being said, I tried to implement a check in my view to hide the two TemplateColumns:

@login_required
def tippredmeta(request):
    try:
        korisnik = request.user.radnik
    except ObjectDoesNotExist:
        return HttpResponseRedirect("/main/")
    queryset = TipPredmeta.objects.all()
    table = TipPredmetaTable(queryset)
    if korisnik.is_kustos:
        table.edit.visible = True
        table.delete.visible = True
    RequestConfig(request).configure(table)
    return render_to_response('azuriranje/tabelaPrikaz.html', {'table': table, },
                              context_instance=RequestContext(request))

However, I get the following exception on the table.edit.visible = True line:

Exception Type:  AttributeError
Exception Value: 'TipPredmetaTable' object has no attribute 'edit'

Now, here are the things I've tried: - First I thought about using fields and exclude, but I couldn't alter that dynamically. - Then I thought about placing all of this into the __init__ method, effectively making edit and delete attributes of my EntitetTabel (the idea was to solve the error) but while the error was gone, so were my TemplateColumns. I tried displaying them via fields, but that didn't help. My guess is that the superclass, the tables.Table, doesn't work like that.

Answer 1

You can use the exclude attribute of the tables.Table for excluding unwanted fields. It also works after creating the table instance. So in your case, you can do something like this.

First leave your columns visible (i removed the visible=False):

class EntitetTable(tables.Table):
    edit = tables.TemplateColumn(template_name='azuriranje/izmena.html',
                                 orderable=False)
    delete = tables.TemplateColumn(template_name='azuriranje/brisanje.html',
                                 orderable=False)

Then based on your condition, you can exclude the edit and delete fields:

table = TipPredmetaTable(queryset)
if not korisnik.is_kustos:
    table.exclude = ('edit', 'delete',)