How to add a custom field in list_display[Django]

In today's short article, I will discuss adding nonmodel fields to list_display in Django Admin.

Django has a powerful built-in admin panel. But sometimes we need extra customization.

Custom Django Admin Actions

But today I want to talk about especially list_display field. I will show you how to add “nonmodel” and “many to many ” fields to list_display.

Now initially let's create our models. I will create two simple models Category and Product.

from django.db import models


class Category(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

    class Meta:
        verbose_name_plural = "Categories"


class Product(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    category = models.ManyToManyField(Category)
    price = models.IntegerField()
    discount = models.IntegerField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

Adding custom fields to list_display

Now let’s look at some useful examples based on our models.

In the admin.py file, we will create custom methods and include its name in list_display.

from django.contrib import admin
from django.utils.html import format_html

from .models import Category, Product


class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ["name", "price", "discount_p", "discounted_price", "product_link", "categories"]

    def discount_p(self, obj):
        return f"{obj.discount} %"

    def discounted_price(self, obj):
        return f"{obj.price - obj.price * obj.discount / 100} $"

    def product_link(self, obj):
        return format_html(
            '<a  href="https://127.0.0.1:8000/product/{0}" >{1}</a>&nbsp;',
            obj.id, obj.name
        )

    def categories(self, obj):
        return list(obj.category.all())


admin.site.register(Category)
admin.site.register(Product, ProductAdmin)

Now let’s explain the above code.

1. Formatting existing model field.

def discount_p(self, obj):
        return f"{obj.discount} %"

Here we formatted the model’s discount field. Added a dollar sign at the end of the value.

2. Adding custom nonmodel field.

def discounted_price(self, obj):
    return f"{obj.price - obj.price * obj.discount / 100} $"

def product_link(self, obj):
    return format_html(
        '<a  href="https://127.0.0.1:8000/product/{0}" >{1}</a>&nbsp;',
        obj.id, obj.name
    )

Here we created new custom nonmodel fields.

In the first method, we calculated discounted prices.

With the next method, we created a product link.

3. Adding ManytoMany relationships.

def categories(self, obj):
    return list(obj.category.all())

And finally, here, we create a list of the categories.

Our Admin Panel’s final view.

To sum up, we can create custom list_display items by creating methods and including them in list_display. With this option, Django gives us big opportunities to customize the admin panel.

How to create multiple fields validation in Django Admin

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it ❤. If you found the article useful don’t forget to clap and follow me.

This is my #10/52 story in 2023, I’m on a challenge to write 52 stories in 2023.

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