Django Admin Customization

Django Admin is an auto-generated admin interface based on your models. CRUD is available immediately with no extra code.

---

Basic Admin Registration

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Category, Product, Review

admin.site.register(Category)

@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    pass

---

list_display — List Columns

@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ["id", "name", "price", "stock", "category", "is_active", "created_at"]
    list_display_links = ["id", "name"]
    list_editable = ["is_active", "stock"]
    list_filter = ["is_active", "category", "created_at"]
    search_fields = ["name", "description", "owner__email"]
    ordering = ["-created_at"]
    list_per_page = 25

    def price_display(self, obj):
        return f"${obj.price:,.2f}"
    price_display.short_description = "Price"
    price_display.admin_order_field = "price"

---

Detail Form Customization

@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fieldsets = [
        ("Basic Info", {
            "fields": ["name", "description", "category"],
        }),
        ("Price & Stock", {
            "fields": ["price", "stock"],
            "classes": ["wide"],
        }),
        ("Settings", {
            "fields": ["is_active", "owner"],
            "classes": ["collapse"],
        }),
    ]

    readonly_fields = ["created_at", "updated_at"]
    autocomplete_fields = ["category", "owner"]
    raw_id_fields = ["owner"]

---

Custom Actions

from django.contrib import admin, messages


@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ["name", "is_active", "stock"]
    actions = ["activate_products", "deactivate_products", "restock"]

    @admin.action(description="Activate selected products")
    def activate_products(self, request, queryset):
        count = queryset.update(is_active=True)
        self.message_user(request, f"{count} products activated")

    @admin.action(description="Deactivate selected products")
    def deactivate_products(self, request, queryset):
        count = queryset.update(is_active=False)
        self.message_user(request, f"{count} products deactivated", messages.WARNING)

    @admin.action(description="Reset stock to 100")
    def restock(self, request, queryset):
        count = queryset.update(stock=100)
        self.message_user(request, f"{count} products restocked to 100")

---

Inline — Edit Related Models Together

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Product, Review


class ReviewInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = Review
    fields = ["author", "rating", "comment"]
    readonly_fields = ["created_at"]
    extra = 0
    max_num = 10


@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ["name", "price", "review_count"]
    inlines = [ReviewInline]

    def review_count(self, obj):
        return obj.reviews.count()
    review_count.short_description = "Reviews"

    def get_queryset(self, request):
        return super().get_queryset(request).prefetch_related("reviews")

---

Permission Control

@admin.register(Product)
class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    def has_add_permission(self, request):
        return request.user.is_superuser

    def has_change_permission(self, request, obj=None):
        if obj and obj.owner == request.user:
            return True
        return request.user.is_staff

    def has_delete_permission(self, request, obj=None):
        return request.user.is_superuser

    def get_queryset(self, request):
        qs = super().get_queryset(request)
        if request.user.is_superuser:
            return qs
        return qs.filter(owner=request.user)

---

Admin Site Customization

admin.site.site_header = "My Shop Admin"
admin.site.site_title = "My Shop Admin"
admin.site.index_title = "Dashboard"

---

Summary

Feature	Attribute/Method
List columns	list_display
Inline edit	list_editable
Sidebar filter	list_filter
Search	search_fields
Form groups	fieldsets
Read-only	readonly_fields
Custom actions	actions + @admin.action
Related inline	TabularInline / StackedInline
Permission control	has_*_permission()

Django Admin is best suited for internal tools and content management systems.