Original Admin UI proposal: ​http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers/browse_thread/thread/1edf77c9c8b1101d/4ecda5e4c982c7e1

Updated branch on Github: ​http://github.com/dgouldin/django/tree/soc2009/admin-ui

In general:

• Commits should be broken up into a series of patches -- 1 for each incremental improvement or feature (e.g. autocomplete, selector inlines, etc).
• All the JS for the admin should be minified, but we need to ship maximized versions too, for ease of editing, and then have a build process do the minification.
  • Note: This may be better saved for last.
• Updating the old Javascript to use jQuery is an end goal, but not one required to get admin-ui merged.
• Document where js libs come from for ease of checking on new versions and finding full source.

Suggested individual patches.

• An OrderingField as suggested here: ​http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers/browse_thread/thread/480662576c49edd/3aca77d981804528.
• Add django.forms.formset.empty_form method.
• Admin Inline updates, including
  • Dynamically add new inline on page (depends on empty_form)
  • Drag and drop inline re-ordering if order_field provided on ModelAdmin class. (depends on OrderingField)
  • Selector Inlines (with dynamic adds and drag and drop)
• ForeignKey autocomplete
• ManyToMany autocomplete

ForeignKey and ManyToMany autocomplete is being worked on by Rob Hudson on the Github tree: ​http://github.com/robhudson/django/tree/autocomplete

Current issues:

• ForeignKey autocomplete:
  • No docs
  • No tests
  • If FK is the first field in the admin, the JS focuses on the ID box rather than the text search box.
  • Similarly, if you click the text label the focus is on the ID rather than the text search box.
  • Changing the ID does not pull the name into the text search box.
  • Clicking the magnifier opens a new window to choose an object, selecting an object only updates the ID box, no the text search box.
  • Should the ID box be hidden from the user? I can see arguments either way.

• ManyToMany autocomplete:
  • No docs
  • No tests
  • m2m autocomplete doesn't display existing data
  • m2m autocomplete in an inline doesn't appear to work at all (doesn't display existing data, results in 404 for ajax search call).
  • No "plus" button to add a new m2m item, CSS is hiding it but I haven't tested it if it's unhidden.
  • No analog to FK's magnifier popup window search to select an item.
  • Some bugs when adding/editing resulting in IDs for m2m objects that don't exist.

Summary of commits on the soc2009/admin-ui branch:

1. jQuery itself.
2. Stacked Inline add new inline dynamically.
3. Selector Inlines (based on Wilson Miner's mockup ​http://media.wilsonminer.com/images/django/related-objects-stacked.gif)
4. Tabular Inline ordering. Given an order_field on the TabularInline admin object.
5. models.fields.OrderField added, subclass of IntegerField with default=0.
6. django.forms.formsets grew a empty_form method with prefix set to __prefix__ which Javascript replaces with a value when dynamically adding new inlines.
7. ForeignKeySearchInput widget, which does autocompletion on Foreign key fields.
8. ManyToManySearchInput, autocompletion for m2m fields.

Possibly related tickets:

• #2740
• #5273
• #4926
• #8165
• #9338