How to override and extend basic Django admin templates?

Question

How do I override an admin template (e.g. admin/index.html) while at the same time extending it (see https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/admin/#overriding-vs-r

Answer 1

Chengs's answer is correct, howewer according to the admin docs not every admin template can be overwritten this way: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/contrib/admin/#overriding-admin-templates

Templates which may be overridden per app or model

Not every template in contrib/admin/templates/admin may be overridden per app or per model. The following can:

app_index.html
change_form.html
change_list.html
delete_confirmation.html
object_history.html

For those templates that cannot be overridden in this way, you may still override them for your entire project. Just place the new version in your templates/admin directory. This is particularly useful to create custom 404 and 500 pages

I had to overwrite the login.html of the admin and therefore had to put the overwritten template in this folder structure:

your_project
 |-- your_project/
 |-- myapp/
 |-- templates/
      |-- admin/
          |-- login.html  <- do not misspell this

(without the myapp subfolder in the admin) I do not have enough repution for commenting on Cheng's post this is why I had to write this as new answer.

Answer 2

You can use django-overextends, which provides circular template inheritance for Django.

It comes from the Mezzanine CMS, from where Stephen extracted it into a standalone Django extension.

More infos you find in "Overriding vs Extending Templates" (http:/mezzanine.jupo.org/docs/content-architecture.html#overriding-vs-extending-templates) inside the Mezzanine docs.

For deeper insides look at Stephens Blog "Circular Template Inheritance for Django" (http:/blog.jupo.org/2012/05/17/circular-template-inheritance-for-django).

And in Google Groups the discussion (https:/groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mezzanine-users/sUydcf_IZkQ) which started the development of this feature.

Note:

I don't have the reputation to add more than 2 links. But I think the links provide interesting background information. So I just left out a slash after "http(s):". Maybe someone with better reputation can repair the links and remove this note.

Answer 3

This site had a simple solution that worked with my Django 1.7 configuration.

FIRST: Make a symlink named admin_src in your project's template/ directory to your installed Django templates. For me on Dreamhost using a virtualenv, my "source" Django admin templates were in:

~/virtualenvs/mydomain/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin

SECOND: Create an admin directory in templates/

So my project's template/ directory now looked like this:

/templates/
   admin
   admin_src -> [to django source]
   base.html
   index.html
   sitemap.xml
   etc...

THIRD: In your new template/admin/ directory create a base.html file with this content:

{% extends "admin_src/base.html" %}

{% block extrahead %}
<link rel='shortcut icon' href='{{ STATIC_URL }}img/favicon-admin.ico' />
{% endblock %}

FOURTH: Add your admin favicon-admin.ico into your static root img folder.

Done. Easy.

Answer 4

for app index add this line to somewhere common py file like url.py

admin.site.index_template = 'admin/custom_index.html'

for app module index : add this line to admin.py

admin.AdminSite.app_index_template = "servers/servers-home.html"

for change list : add this line to admin class:

change_list_template = "servers/servers_changelist.html"

for app module form template : add this line to your admin class

change_form_template = "servers/server_changeform.html"

etc. and find other in same admin's module classes

Answer 5

I agree with Chris Pratt. But I think it's better to create the symlink to original Django folder where the admin templates place in:

ln -s /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin/ templates/django_admin

and as you can see it depends on python version and the folder where the Django installed. So in future or on a production server you might need to change the path.