id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
12780	Provide a hook for compound form/formset validation in ModelAdmin	mrts	Ramez Issac	"Sometimes it is necessary to validate inline formset data based on the main form data and vice-versa.

See e.g. http://groups.google.com/group/django-users/browse_thread/thread/259c1679ddaaceb8/6ad3698e5451d3fe for a use case.

My use case is somewhat similar: an object can be published only if its associated items meet certain criteria. Thus, to validate the ""is published"" flag in the form, access to formsets is required.

For advanced users a simple change is sufficient: substitute `if all_valid(formsets) and form_validated:` with `if self.formsets_are_valid(formsets, form, form_validated) and form_validated:` in `admin/options.py`, where `def formset_are_valid(self, formsets, ...): return all_valid(formsets)`. The latter can then be overriden for arbitrary further manipulations. Will upload a patch eventually.

However, this means that people have to mess with either `Form` or `FormSet` internals directly (`_non_form_errors` etc) to expose the errors.

This is yet another proof of a conceptual problem, quoting myself from http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers/browse_thread/thread/f9aae709a7fda689/fb16a17ab6a31931 :

""''Inline formsets usually represent
composition, i.e. the inline objects are inseparable from the
main entity. The relation is stronger than a ForeignKey (from the
main entity to another entity), yet the latter is displayed as a
field of the form and can be easily manipulated -- but not the inlines.''""

So, this is yet another reason for introducing !FormsetFields in the long run -- `Form.clean()` would have access to formsets both in the admin and ordinary forms."	New feature	closed	contrib.admin	dev	Normal	wontfix		shaun@… Carlton Gibson Natalia Bidart Mariusz Felisiak	Accepted	1	0	0	0	0	0