How can I display a Django admin inline model within a fieldset?

Question

Consider the following ModelAdmin. In this instance, I'd like to have the inline "Book" UI display between the "None" fieldset and the Notes fieldset. Is that possible?

class AuthorAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    inlines = [BookInline]

    fieldsets = (
            (None, {
                'fields': ('author_name', 'date_of_birth')
            }),
            ('Notes', {
                'fields': (['notes'])
            }),
    )

Answer 1

Bertrand Bortage posted another solution here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-users/yUq2Nvx_4eM

A late reply to say that I just pushed a fairly clean solution to this problem in one of my projects: https://github.com/dezede/dezede/commit/ed13ccaf34494e71fd913fd785c229052f6acdc8.

The idea is to define fieldsets_and_inlines_order in your ModelAdmin(s), an iterable of 'f' and 'i' characters (for "fieldset" and "inline") that specifies the order between the first fieldsets and inlines. If len(fieldsets_and_inlines_order) < len(fieldsets) + len(inlines), the remaining follows the original behaviour (fieldsets first, then all inlines).

Example: you have 5 fieldsets and 3 inlines, defining fieldsets_and_inlines_order = ('f', 'f', 'i', 'f', 'i') will give you: fieldset fieldset inline fieldset inline fieldset fieldset inline Hope it helps, Bertrand

I had another idea which is worth considering. Create a readonly placeholder field in your fieldsets for each inline then use jQuery to move the inlines into place for each placeholder. Something like this (jQuery omitted as I haven't written it yet):

fieldsets = (
        (None, {
            'fields': (
                ('inline_images',)
                ('thumbnail_image',),
                ('inline_authors',)
                ('title', 'is_active', 'order',)
            ),
        }),
    )

readonly_fields = ('inline_images', 'inline_authors')

inline_images = '<span class="replaceme inline_images"></span>'
inline_images.allow_tags = True
inline_authors = '<span class="replaceme inline_authors"></span>'
inline_authors.allow_tags = True

One more thing - there is an open Django issue asking for this positioning of inlines: https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/4848

Answer 2

Unfortunately this is not possible with (the standard template from) django. If you look at the template for the change_form, you can see that inlines are always rendered separately after the fieldset: https://github.com/django/django/blob/master/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin/change_form.html

The only work-around I see is to write a custom template with respect to the order you want.

Answer 3

I have constructed another quite generic solution...

In your admin.py add a new field to your Inline:

class YourModelInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = YourModel
    after_field = "fieldname_of_field_before_inline"

Then customize render_change_form of AdminClass of the model that holds the Inline:

class EditModelAdmin(model.ModelAdmin):
    inlines = [YourModelInline,]

    def render_change_form(self, request, context, add=False, change=False, form_url='', obj=None):
        sorted_inline_formsets = {}
        inline_admin_formsets = context['inline_admin_formsets']
        formsets_to_remove = []

        for inline_formset in inline_admin_formsets:
            if hasattr(inline_formset.opts, 'after_field'):
                fieldname = inline_formset.opts.after_field
                if fieldname in sorted_inline_formsets:
                    sorted_inline_formsets[fieldname].append(inline_formset)
                else:
                    sorted_inline_formsets.update({
                        fieldname: [inline_formset,]
                    })
                formsets_to_remove.append(inline_formset)
        for inline_formset in formsets_to_remove:
            inline_admin_formsets.remove(inline_formset)

        context.update({
            'sorted_inline_formsets': sorted_inline_formsets,
            'inline_admin_formsets': inline_admin_formsets
        })
        return super(EditModelAdmin, self).render_change_form(request, context, add=add,
                                                       change=change, obj=obj, form_url=form_url)

We are moving all Inlines with extra field into own dictionary with fieldname as key... For it to be rendered correctly create file /templates/admin/includes/fieldset.html that overrides standard django fieldset.html with following content:

{% load custom_filter %}
<fieldset class="module aligned {{ fieldset.classes }}">
        {% if fieldset.name %}<h2>{{ fieldset.name }}</h2>{% endif %}
        {% if fieldset.description %}
            <div class="description">{{ fieldset.description|safe }}</div>
        {% endif %}
        {% for line in fieldset %}
            <div class="form-row{% if line.fields|length_is:'1' and line.errors %} errors{% endif %}{% if not line.has_visible_field %} hidden{% endif %}{% for field in line %}{% if field.field.name %} field-{{ field.field.name }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}">
                {% if line.fields|length_is:'1' %}{{ line.errors }}{% endif %}
                {% for field in line %}
                    <div{% if not line.fields|length_is:'1' %} class="field-box{% if field.field.name %} field-{{ field.field.name }}{% endif %}{% if not field.is_readonly and field.errors %} errors{% endif %}{% if field.field.is_hidden %} hidden{% endif %}"{% elif field.is_checkbox %} class="checkbox-row"{% endif %}>
                        {% if not line.fields|length_is:'1' and not field.is_readonly %}{{ field.errors }}{% endif %}
                        {% if field.is_checkbox %}
                            {{ field.field }}{{ field.label_tag }}
                        {% else %}
                            {{ field.label_tag }}
                            {% if field.is_readonly %}
                                <div class="readonly">{{ field.contents }}</div>
                            {% else %}
                                {{ field.field }}
                            {% endif %}
                        {% endif %}
                        {% if field.field.help_text %}
                            <div class="help">{{ field.field.help_text|safe }}</div>
                        {% endif %}
                    </div>
                    {% if field.field.name %}
                        {% with field.field.name as fieldname %}
                            {% if sorted_inline_formsets|get_dict_value:fieldname != False %}
                                {% for inline_admin_formset in sorted_inline_formsets|get_dict_value:fieldname %}
                                    {% include inline_admin_formset.opts.template %}
                                {% endfor %}
                            {% endif %}
                        {% endwith %}
                    {% endif %}
                {% endfor %}
            </div>
        {% endfor %}
    </fieldset>

This will add sorted inlines after the corresponding field... Now you only need the custom_filter for working with the dictionary in django template, create templatetags/custom_filter.py and add:

@register.filter
def get_dict_value(dict, key):
    if key in dict:
        return dict[key]
    else:
        return False

And voila: You can enter any fieldname into any Inline to add it after that field... It is a bit work to setup but if you have several inlines to sort it might be a cleaner way...