Django Tabbed Model Admin

Give each tab its own Django ModelAdmin, form, validation, and save operation, while editing the same model instance. Extracted from Vortexia's existing tabbed admin implementation; this is page navigation, not JavaScript fieldset hiding.

Installation

pip install django-tabbed-model-admin

Place the app before django.contrib.admin so Django finds its template:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    "tabbed_model_admin.apps.TabbedModelAdminConfig",
    "django.contrib.admin",
    # ...
]

Run collectstatic as usual for deployment. No database migrations are needed.

Usage

from django.contrib import admin
from tabbed_model_admin import TabbedModelAdmin
from .models import Event

class SettingsTab(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ("name", "date")

class AppearanceTab(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ("colour",)

@admin.register(Event)
class EventAdmin(TabbedModelAdmin):
    list_display = ("name", "date")
    model_admins = (
        ("Settings", SettingsTab),
        ("Appearance", AppearanceTab),
    )

Do not separately register the tab classes. All tab classes edit the parent model. The standard add page uses the first tab and does not show navigation until an object exists. The standard change URL redirects to the first tab. Each tab has its own URL, <object_id>/change/<slugified-tab-name>/, named admin:<app_label>_<model_name>_change_<slugified-tab-name>.

Provide at least one tab and unique, nonempty slugified tab names. The first tab must support creating the object, including its required fields or defaults. Each tab saves only its own form and inlines. Save changes before navigating away; there is no automatic saving or unsaved-change prompt.

Put shared permission checks, queryset restrictions, and save hooks in a common base class inherited by every tab. Options and overrides on the outer admin control its own views and are not automatically inherited by its tab admins. The initial release preserves the default admin URL namespace.

Templates and styling

The package extends admin/change_form.html and renders tabs in form_top. Project template overrides should preserve {{ block.super }} in that block. CSS ships at tabbed_model_admin/css/tabbed_model_admin.css; customize the --admin-tabs-active-color, --admin-tabs-inactive-color, and --admin-tabs-border-color CSS variables to match your admin theme.

Development

uv venv --python 3.12
uv pip install -e '.[test]'
uv run --no-project pytest
uv build

CI tests Django 4.2, 5.2, 6.0, and 6.1. Releases use GitHub Actions trusted publishing to PyPI from version tags after tests pass.