How to limit choice field options based on another choice field in django admin

Question

I have the following models:

class Category(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=40)

class Item(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=40)
    category = models.ForeignKey(Category)

class Demo(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=40)
    category = models.ForeignKey(Category)
    item = models.ForeignKey(Item)

In the admin interface when creating a new Demo, after user picks category from the dropdown, I would like to limit the number of choices in the "items" drop-down. If user selects another category then the item choices should update accordingly. I would like to limit item choices right on the client, before it even hits the form validation on the server. This is for usability, because the list of items could be 1000+ being able to narrow it down by category would help to make it more manageable.

Is there a "django-way" of doing it or is custom JavaScript the only option here?

Answer 1

Here is some javascript (JQuery based) to change the item option values when category changes:

<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript">
  $(function(){
    $("select#id_category").change(function(){
      $.getJSON("/items/",{id: $(this).val(), view: 'json'}, function(j) {
        var options = '<option value="">--------&nbsp;</option>';
        for (var i = 0; i < j.length; i++) {
          options += '<option value="' + j[i].optionValue + '">' + j[i].optionDisplay + '</option>';
        }
        $("#id_item").html(options);
        $("#id_item option:first").attr('selected', 'selected');
      })
      $("#id_category").attr('selected', 'selected');
    })
  })
</script>

You need a view to be called on the /items/ URL that supplies a JSON list of the valid items.

You can hook this into your admin by using model admin media definitions.