django-itemlist 2026.1.7

A customizable Django Admin ChangeList-like app for use outside of the admin.

ItemList is a customizable Django Admin ChangeList-like app for use outside of the admin. It can be used to create versatile paginated lists of objects which can be searched, filtered and provide links to detail pages similarly to the admin ChangeLists.

Provides a generic class-based view ItemListView.

ItemListView

class itemlist.views.ItemListView

A page representing a list of objects, with a search box, list filters, sortable columns, pagination and optional links to detailed pages.

Ancestors (MRO)

This view inherits methods and attributes from the following Django views:

• django.views.generic.list.ListView

• django.views.generic.list.MultipleObjectTemplateResponseMixin

• django.views.generic.base.TemplateResponseMixin

• django.views.generic.list.BaseListView

• django.views.generic.list.MultipleObjectMixin

• django.views.generic.base.View

Methods and attributes

list_columns

A list of field names to display in columns. Supports double underscore lookups. Non-field model attributes and methods can be used by specifying the attribute or method name as a string. In this case the value of the attribute or the result of the method will be displayed in the column. However, sorting and filtering will not work for these columns by default. To enable sorting through an associated field, set the sort_field attribute on the method. The title of the column can be customized by adding a ‘short_description’ attribute to the method.

list_filters

A list of field names or django.contrib.admin.SimpleListFilter instances for generating filters on the list.

list_search

A list of field names to include in search operations. Supports double underscore lookups.

list_transforms

A dictionary mapping field names to functions for transforming column values before display. Transform functions must take two arguments transform(value, obj), where obj is the object corresponding to the list row.

list_headers

A dictionary mapping field names to header names for explicitly specifying the column header text.

list_styles

A dictionary mapping field names to css style classes to add to the HTML of the columns.

list_title

A string to use as the title of the list. If None (default), the model name is used.

link_url

A named url for creating links to detailed pages. If None (default), no links are created.

link_kwarg

The link kwarg parameter for link_url. Default is ‘pk’

link_attr

By default links are created with the url in the href attribute of an anchor tag. The attribute can be changed by setting the link_attr parameter of the view. For example setting link_attr to data-link will create a tag that looks like <a href=”#!” data-link=”http://…”>…</a>. This is useful for loading content using JavaScript into modals or for ajax. This parameter replaces link_data boolean in previous versions.

link_field

Column name on which to create links. Must be one of the names included in list_columns. By default the first column will be used.

add_facets

Boolean to show or hide the facet counts within the filter titles. Default is False.

get_list_columns()

Return the field names to display in columns. By default, simply returns the value of list_columns.

get_list_filters()

Return the list_filters to display. By default, simply returns the value of list_filters.

get_list_search()

Return the list of field names to include in search operations. By default, simply returns the value of list_search.

get_list_transforms()

Return the dictionary of transforms to use for the columns. By default, simply returns the value of list_transforms.

get_list_headers()

Return the dictionary of column headings. By default, simply returns the value of list_headers.

get_list_styles()

Return the dictionary of column css styles. By default, simply returns the value of list_styles.

get_list_title()

Return the title of the list. By default, simply returns the value of list_title.

get_link_url(obj)

Return the detail url link for the current object/row. By default, uses the named url from link_url, the kwarg from link_kwarg and the value of the attribute.

get_link_kwarg()

Return the kwarg to use for the detail link_url. By default, simply returns the value of link_kwarg.

get_link_field()

Return the name of the column on which to create the detail links. By default, returns the first column.

get_link_attr()

Return the attr to use for the detail link_url. By default, simply returns the value of link_attr.

Example views.py:

from django.utils import timezone
from itemlist import ItemListView

from library.models import Topic

class TopicList(ItemListView):
    template_name = 'myapp/topic_list.html'
    model = Topic
    list_filters = ['kind', 'parent']
    list_columns = ['id', 'name', 'acronym', 'kind', 'parent__name']
    list_search = ['name', 'kind__name']
    list_headers = {'parent__name': 'Mommy'}

    link_url = 'library:topic-detail'
    link_field = 'name'
    paginate_by = 20

    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        context = super().get_context_data(**kwargs)
        context['now'] = timezone.now()
        return context

Example urls.py:

from django.urls import path

from library.views import TopicList

app_label = 'library'
urlpatterns = [
    path('', TopicList.as_view(), name='topic-list'),
]

Examples for myapp/topic_list.html. The default template if none is specified is exactly the same as below:

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block content %}
    {% include "itemlist/embed_list.html" %}
{% endblock %}

Another template example, equivalent to above. This allows you to reorder/omit components.

{% include "itemlist/filters.html" %}
{% include "itemlist/list.html" %}
{% include "itemlist/pagination.html" %}

Screenshots