inline_related_objects

[Edit, Feb 2008: fixed typo—changed extra_content to extra_context]

Today's neat Django trick: getting the create_update generic views for a model to display entries from a subsidiary model in-line—like the admin interface does when you add edit_inline=models.TABULAR.

The (oldforms) Form object that gets generated by the create_update view already has most of the required gubbins inside it; we just need a few extra steps to get at it:

1. In urls.py, set an extra_context argument for the view to be a dictionary that contains inline_related_objects:

    {'inline_related_objects': model._meta.get_followed_related_objects(None) } 

2. In the template, include a loop to pull in all of the related objects:

    {% for related_object in inline_related_objects %}{% edit_inline related_object %}{% endfor %} 

   within the <form> tag.
3. Since the edit_inline template tag is not a built-in Django tag, the template also needs to load up the admin_modify extension:

    {% load admin_modify %} 

4. Make local copies of the relevant admin templates (such as admin/edit_inline_tabular.html and widget/foreign.html) and tweak appropriately.

Of course, I didn't figure this out until after I'd spent a couple of hours dismantling the admin interface code with a view to stealing the relevant bits. Roll on the Django book.