django-listview-search-admin-autocomplete 1.1.0

Django admin list view search autocomplete with related field support

Django Listview Search Admin Autocomplete

This is a fork of django-search-admin-autocomplete (archived). The original package is no longer maintained. This fork adds new features, modern Django support, and bug fixes.

Simple Django app that adds autocomplete search to the admin panel changelist view.

What’s New

• Related field search: Search across ForeignKey relations (e.g., client__name, category__title)

• List filter mode (default): Autocomplete selection filters the changelist instead of redirecting to detail

• Django 4+ / 5+ support: Fixed deprecated url() imports

• Modern build system: pyproject.toml with hatchling (no more setup.py)

• Python 3.8–3.13 support

• Comprehensive test suite (18 tests)

Requirements

• Python: 3.8+

• Django: 3.2+

Installation

pip install django-listview-search-admin-autocomplete

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'search_admin_autocomplete',
    ...
]

Usage

Basic usage with direct fields:

from search_admin_autocomplete.admin import SearchAutoCompleteAdmin

class MyModelAdmin(SearchAutoCompleteAdmin):
    search_fields = ['name', 'description']

admin.site.register(MyModel, MyModelAdmin)

Related Field Support

Search across ForeignKey and related model fields using Django’s __ lookup syntax:

from search_admin_autocomplete.admin import SearchAutoCompleteAdmin

class OrderAdmin(SearchAutoCompleteAdmin):
    search_fields = [
        'order_number',
        'client__name',        # ForeignKey → Client.name
        'client__email',       # ForeignKey → Client.email
        'category__title',     # ForeignKey → Category.title
    ]

admin.site.register(Order, OrderAdmin)

The autocomplete will search and display values from both the model and its related models.

Configuration Options

class MyModelAdmin(SearchAutoCompleteAdmin):
    search_fields = ['name', 'client__name']
    search_prefix = '__icontains'       # Search operator (default: '__contains')
    max_results = 20                    # Max autocomplete results (default: 10)
    redirect_to_detail = True           # True: go to detail page, False: filter list (default: False)

Behavior Modes

Filter list view (default):

class MyModelAdmin(SearchAutoCompleteAdmin):
    search_fields = ['name', 'client__name']
    # redirect_to_detail = False  # default

User selects from autocomplete → search form submits → changelist filters results (same as native Django search).

Redirect to detail page:

class MyModelAdmin(SearchAutoCompleteAdmin):
    search_fields = ['name', 'client__name']
    redirect_to_detail = True

User selects from autocomplete → redirects to the object’s change/detail page.

Customization

If you have a custom change_list.html:

admin.py

from search_admin_autocomplete.admin import SearchAutoCompleteAdmin

class MyModelAdmin(SearchAutoCompleteAdmin):
    change_list_template = 'admin/custom-list.html'
    search_fields = ['name', 'client__title']

admin.site.register(MyModel, MyModelAdmin)

admin/custom-list.html

{% extends 'search_admin_autocomplete/change_list.html' %}

{% block object-tools %}
Your custom html...
{{ block.super }}
{% endblock %}

Running Tests

cd example
python manage.py test search_admin_autocomplete

Changelog

1.1.0 (2026)

• Add redirect_to_detail option (default: False)

• Default behavior now filters changelist like native Django search

• Set redirect_to_detail = True for old detail-page redirect behavior

1.0.0 (2026)

• Forked from archived django-search-admin-autocomplete

• Added support for related field lookups (e.g., client__name)

• Updated for Django 4+ and 5+ compatibility

• Modernized package configuration with pyproject.toml

• Added comprehensive test suite (18 tests)

• Production-ready release

0.2.1 and earlier

• Original release by linevich (see upstream repo)