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
17295	"Admin ""View"" permission"	danny.adair@…	nobody	"In some cases it is useful to give read-only access to a !ModelAdmin (for some users/permission holders). At the moment, the ""change"" permission is needed to view an object, and then further limit this general editing form by defining readonly_fields.

Here's one way how this could be done ""manually"":
{{{
from django.contrib import admin
from django.contrib.admin.util import flatten_fieldsets

class ReadOnlyAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    def get_readonly_fields(self, request, obj=None):
        # untested, this could do:
        # readonly_fields = self.model._meta.get_all_field_names()
        # borrowed from ModelAdmin:
        if self.declared_fieldsets:
            fields = flatten_fieldsets(self.declared_fieldsets)
        else:
            form = self.get_formset(request, obj).form
            fields = form.base_fields.keys()
        return fields
    
    def has_add_permission(self, request):
        # Nobody is allowed to add
        return False
    
    def has_delete_permission(self, request, obj=None):
        # Nobody is allowed to delete
        return False
}}}

What's awkward here is that you now need the ""change"" permission for read-only access. If I want to further customize by inventing a ""view"" permission and then checking the request's user for that permission, that is still true and makes it even more awkward - what if I wanted readonly for the ""view"" permission holders, and readwrite for certain others? The ""view"" permission holders would still need the ""change"" permission to even get to see a link in the change_list.

In other words, with the readonly fields functionality taken to the extreme of all fields, at the latest, ""change"" becomes an inappropriate name for the permission.

I think it may not actually be that hard to define read-only access with a new permission:

 1. Auto-create a ""view"" permission (or maybe ""access"" is a better name)
 2. change_list shows links to objects if you have the ""view"" permission, i.e. don't need ""change""
 3. change_form checks if you have ""change"" permission, if not, automatically sets all fields as read-only

Oh the comfort! :-)

See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7920371/whole-model-as-read-only/7965193#7965193"	New feature	closed	contrib.admin		Normal	duplicate	admin readonly permission		Unreviewed	0	0	0	0	0	0