Even though a field is marked as 'editable=False'
in the model, I would like the admin page to display it. Currently, it hides the field altogether.. How can this be achieved?

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7 Answers
Use Readonly Fields. Like so (for django >= 1.2):
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
readonly_fields=('first',)
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9+1. Especially if you _don't_ plan to edit the field at all in Admin. – Manoj Govindan Oct 19 '10 at 16:05
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4This does not work here (Django 2.0). The field is not displayed then in the admin interface. – nerdoc Sep 05 '18 at 12:47
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1I just created a sample application to reproduce your error (django 2.0.8, python 3.5). This still works fine. Maybe something else is wrong in your app @nerdoc? – tback Sep 05 '18 at 13:29
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oOops. Typical fast-shot. Did not test, seems to be a problem with my installation. Thanks, and sorry. – nerdoc Sep 06 '18 at 15:35
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4For me admin crashed when I added it to `fields`, but when I added it to `readonly_fields` it didn't show up until I added it to both and then it appeared in admin. – owenfi Sep 17 '18 at 06:04
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To confirm @nerdoc make sure you add 'MyModelAdmin' to the admin.site.register(...) it should work. If it doesn't you have other issues. – Jody Fitzpatrick Jan 15 '19 at 01:35
Update
This solution is useful if you want to keep the field editable in Admin but non-editable everywhere else. If you want to keep the field non-editable throughout then @Till Backhaus' answer is the better option.
Original Answer
One way to do this would be to use a custom ModelForm
in admin. This form can override the required field to make it editable. Thereby you retain editable=False
everywhere else but Admin. For e.g. (tested with Django 1.2.3)
# models.py
class FooModel(models.Model):
first = models.CharField(max_length = 255, editable = False)
second = models.CharField(max_length = 255)
def __unicode__(self):
return "{0} {1}".format(self.first, self.second)
# admin.py
class CustomFooForm(forms.ModelForm):
first = forms.CharField()
class Meta:
model = FooModel
fields = ('second',)
class FooAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
form = CustomFooForm
admin.site.register(FooModel, FooAdmin)

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2This does not work, at least on django 1.6 The form is displayed correctly in the admin panel, but when I save a form and return to it again, the forms value is default again. – Euphorbium Oct 07 '14 at 12:42
Add the fields you want to display on your admin page.
Then add the fields you want to be read-only.
Your read-only fields must be in fields
as well.
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
fields = ['title', 'author', 'published_date', 'updated_date', 'created_date']
readonly_fields = ('updated_date', 'created_date')

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1Thanks, this solved the issue for me. I simply put the `readonly_fields` on top and let `fields` be the editable fields `+ readonly_fields` (both are tuples in my code; I don't see why one would declare them as lists). – theberzi Oct 20 '20 at 13:14
You could also set the readonly fields as editable=False
in the model (django doc reference for editable
here). And then in the Admin overriding the get_readonly_fields
method.
# models.py
class MyModel(models.Model):
first = models.CharField(max_length=255, editable=False)
# admin.py
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
def get_readonly_fields(self, request, obj=None):
return [f.name for f in obj._meta.fields if not f.editable]

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With the above solution I was able to display hidden fields for several objects but got an exception when trying to add a new object.
So I enhanced it like follows:
class HiddenFieldsAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
def get_readonly_fields(self, request, obj=None):
try:
return [f.name for f in obj._meta.fields if not f.editable]
except:
# if a new object is to be created the try clause will fail due to missing _meta.fields
return ""
And in the corresponding admin.py file I just had to import the new class and add it whenever registering a new model class
from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Example, HiddenFieldsAdmin
admin.site.register(Example, HiddenFieldsAdmin)
Now I can use it on every class with non-editable fields and so far I saw no unwanted side effects.

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You can try this
@admin.register(AgentLinks)
class AgentLinksAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
readonly_fields = ('link', )

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You can display editable=False
fields with readonly_fields as shown below:
@admin.register(MyModel)
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
readonly_fields = ('updated_date', 'created_date')
And, if assigning editable=False
fields to fields, you also need to assign them to readonly_fields
as shown below:
@admin.register(MyModel)
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
fields = ('updated_date', 'created_date')
readonly_fields = ('updated_date', 'created_date')
Because, if only assigning editable=False
fields to fields
without assigning them to readonly_fields
as shown below:
@admin.register(MyModel)
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
fields = ('updated_date', 'created_date')
# readonly_fields = ('updated_date', 'created_date')
Then, the error below occurs:
django.core.exceptions.FieldError: 'updated_date' cannot be specified for MyModel model form as it is a non-editable field. Check fields/fieldsets/exclude attributes of class MyModelAdmin.

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