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.

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