Reusing Django Changelist Outside of Admin Site
changelist, django, django-admin
Solution
ChangeList as a class is really cool and feature-full. However, it's hard to use outside the context of the AdminSite monolith.
The ChangeList class takes 12 required `__init__()` parameters. That number alone should steer you away and doubly so when you realize those are all sourced from the Admin `changelist_view()`. While those parameters have remained the same since Django 1.1, they did change from 1.0 and it's so much a Django internal object, I wouldn't rely on its interface being stable.
The best way to use ChangeList — or specifically to get the changelist benefits (which is what you are after) — is to use the `changelist_view()` method. Using that of course requires using/subclassing AdminSite. This is worth doing, or at least trying out. Looks like you already are.
That method takes the `request` parameter and likes `/(?P<app_label>%s)/(?P<model_name>%s)/` in the URL route that points to it.
Digging into the code:
- `ChangeList` lives in `django.contrib.admin.views.main`
- `changelist_view()` is a method on `django.contrib.admin.options.ModelAdmin`
UPDATE: In Django 1.4, both `ChangeList` and `changelist_view()` changed by adding one and two new parameters respectively.
Problem
The Django changelist table is really cool - searchable, filterable, multi-select actions etc. I'm building a custom backend for an app and I keep realizing: this is exactly what I need, I should re-use it. Has anyone had any experience using the change list outside of Django's admin app? What I've arrived at currently is something like this: ``` from profile.admin import ProfileAdmin from django.contrib.admin.sites import AdminSite from profile.models import Profile profile_admin = ProfileAdmin(Profile, AdminSite()) return profile_admin.changelist_view(request) ``` I'd like to know if anyone has had experience with this or can suggest an alternative.