django-admin-table-widget 0.1.0

A searchable, filterable data-table checkbox widget for Django Admin to make ManyToManyField selection efficient, allowing searches by multiple properties, not just by name.

django-admin-table-widget

A searchable, filterable data-table checkbox widget for Django Admin to make M2M (ManyToManyField) field selection efficiently, so it can be searchable not by name only, but by multiple columns simultaneously.

The Problem

Django's default admin interface provides a <select multiple> box for ManyToMany fields. While you can use filter_horizontal to get a dual-list box, there is no built-in way to display related items as a rich data table with custom columns, colored badges, inline textual search, and column-specific dropdown filters.

If you have a form with a complex M2M relationship where the admin user needs to pick items based on multiple properties (e.g. status, type, platform), the standard widgets fall short.

The Solution

django-admin-table-widget provides a drop-in TableListingWidget that replaces the default M2M widget with a robust, client-side searchable and filterable table.

(Replace screenshot.png with an actual screenshot of the widget in action!)

Installation

pip install django-admin-table-widget

Ensure it's in your INSTALLED_APPS so Django can find the widget templates (optional but recommended):

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    'django_admin_table_widget',
]

Usage

Define your columns using ListingColumn and pass them to the TableListingWidget:

from django import forms
from django.contrib import admin
from django_admin_table_widget.widgets import ListingColumn, TableListingWidget
from .models import MyModel, RelatedItem

MY_COLUMNS = [
    ListingColumn("id", "ID", searchable=True),
    ListingColumn("name", "Name", searchable=True),
    ListingColumn("type", "Type", value=lambda obj: obj.get_type_display(), filterable=True),
    ListingColumn("is_active", "Status", badge=True, filterable=True),
]

class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
    items = forms.ModelMultipleChoiceField(
        queryset=RelatedItem.objects.all(),
        widget=TableListingWidget(columns=MY_COLUMNS),
        required=False,
    )

    class Meta:
        model = MyModel
        fields = '__all__'

@admin.register(MyModel)
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    form = MyModelForm

Read-Only Display

You can also use this widget to render a read-only table in your admin display methods (no checkboxes):

from django_admin_table_widget.widgets import render_listing_table

@admin.register(MyModel)
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    readonly_fields = ('items_table',)

    def items_table(self, obj):
        return render_listing_table(MY_COLUMNS, obj.items.all(), name="items")
    items_table.short_description = "Items"

Compatibility

• Highly compatible with third-party admin themes like Django Jet and Jazzmin. It binds to all available jQuery instances and native DOM events to ensure filters always work.
• Inlines its CSS/JS for zero-configuration static file deployment (no need to run collectstatic for the widget to work).