[patch] Support help_text with ManyToMany field widgets

[Steven Armstrong <sa@…>]

Currently the help_text for ManyToMany fields is not showed in the admin if you use the nifty filter interfaces.

It is removed while generating the widget in SelectFilter2.js.

The attached patch fixes that by putting the help texts in a place where they don't interfere with the markup of the select filter widget.

Only tested in firefox. I don't have any other browser at hand atm.

[Brian Rosner]

This looks good and pretty trivial to get included. Test your patch on all browsers and patch up anything that breaks. However this isn't critical before merging to trunk. Tagging with nfa-someday.

[kit1980]

Newforms-admin merged to trunk long time ago.
Maybe someday is now? :-)

[Lakin Wecker]

Yeah I'd be interested in getting this added to trunk too.

[Karen Tracey]

#11452 and #6459 were closed as dupes of this.

[Chris Adams]

Updated patch for 1.1

[Chris Adams]

The attached patch is updated against 1.1 and changes the mechanics slightly: instead of appending the help_text to the bottom of the widget, it ensures that it will be the first element in the container, which doesn't interfere with the filter widgets.

[Chris Adams]

Much smaller patch, tested in Safari/IE/Firefox/Chrome

[Chris Adams]

I've uploaded a much more concise version of this patch which behaves the same as django-6183.patch and doesn't require the change to related.py. Tested in Safari 4, Firefox 3.5, IE7 (don't have 6 or 8 handy) and Chrome 4. Can someone review the patch?

[mattjmorrison]

I'm not sure if this is really a separate issue, but it seems related to this one... First off, why is there default help text in the ManyToManyField specific to a widget that COULD be used for that type of field? It seems like that "Hold down control..." wording really doesn't belong in a database level field class at all. Secondly, I'm sure this was added for a reason, but why is the help_text of a ManyToManyField not over-writable? Looking at the trunk, any specified help_text that I specify on my ManyToManyFields still has the "widget specific" wording appended to the end of it. In my case, I'd like to specify some help_text for a ManyToManyField and I also happen to be using my own custom widget for that same field. Since the "Hold down control..." wording doesn't make any sense for my custom widget, I should be able to override it with my own help_text.

IMHO, I think the real patch should remove the default help_text from the ManyToManyField class all together, and have that help_text added to the SelectMultiple widget instead.

Let me know if you think this should be a separate ticket/patch...

[Chris Adams]

I think the larger question of where the help text comes from is definitely worth some changes but it's beyond the scope of this ticket.

Current patch here after testing:
​http://github.com/acdha/django/compare/django-bug-6183

[Chris Adams]

Replying to acdha:

I think the larger question of where the help text comes from is definitely worth some changes but it's beyond the scope of this ticket.

Current patch here after testing:
​http://github.com/acdha/django/compare/django-bug-6183

Direct patch link: ​http://github.com/acdha/django/compare/django-bug-6183.patch

[Ramiro Morales]

See also #14402.

[Chris Adams]

Updated patch against current trunk:

​https://github.com/acdha/django/compare/django-master...django-6183-1.3
​https://github.com/acdha/django/compare/django-master...django-6183-1.3.patch

[Jannis Leidel]

(In [15150]) Fixed #6183 -- Stopped hiding the help text for SelectFilter widgets. Thanks, acdha.

[Jacob]

Milestone 1.3 deleted