[Django] #35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the __

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Type: Uncategorized
Status: new | Component: contrib.admin
Version: 5.0 | Severity: Normal
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
In Django 5.1 ticket #10743 was implemented: `ModelAdmin.list_display now
supports using __ lookups to list fields from related models.` This is
great!

However, the default label in the admin list is the full thing, which can
get very long and wordy. For example in my `UserAdmin` config I can add
`account_settings__pace_account_id` to the `list_display` (the `User`
model has a one-to-one relationship with an `AccountSettings` model). The
label in the Django Admin then becomes "ACCOUNT SETTINGS PACE ACCOUNT ID"
which is extremely long. I would've expected it to be simply "PACE ACCOUNT
ID".

So the result is that I am never using the new double underscore lookup
feature for `list_display`, and instead I am still creating small getter
functions like this:

{{{
def pace_account_id(self, obj):
return obj.account_settings.pace_account_id
}}}

Is there any chance that the way the label for double-underscore-
containing `list_display` values is generated could be changed, so that
only the bit after the double underscore is shown?
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765>
Django <https://code.djangoproject.com/>
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[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix

Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Changes (by Sarah Boyce):

* cc: Natalia Bidart, Tom Carrick (added)
* resolution: => wontfix
* status: new => closed

Comment:

Here is a tweak to a current test to show the headers:
{{{#!diff
--- a/tests/admin_changelist/tests.py
+++ b/tests/admin_changelist/tests.py
@@ -1705,6 +1705,9 @@ class ChangeListTests(TestCase):
response = m.changelist_view(request)
self.assertContains(response, parent.name)
self.assertContains(response, child.name)
+ self.assertContains(response, '<a href="?o=1">Name</a>')
+ self.assertContains(response, '<a href="?o=2">Parent name</a>')
+ self.assertContains(response, '<a href="?o=3">Parent parent
name</a>')

def test_list_display_related_field_null(self):
}}}

Adding the relationship reduces the chance of duplicate header names. This
proposal would mean the above example would have three headers called
`Name`
I would maybe have a preference of having the labels like `Name (Parent)`
and `Name (Parent - Parent)` and so from your example `PACE ACCOUNT ID
(ACCOUNT SETTINGS)`

I have cc-ed some folks involved in the feature and it might be worth
moving the discussion to the
[https://forum.djangoproject.com/c/internals/5 Django Forum].
It's not a clear to me that we should drop the relationship by default,
just because it is long. So for now I will "wontfix" the ticket but it can
be reopened after a discussion
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:1>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Kevin Renskers):

Not sure if duplicate names are an actual problem in real world projects.
And maybe you could only add the parent name in case there are duplicates?
The length of showing the whole thing is definitely a real world problem
though. In my Django projects I'm literally not able to use this double
underscore feature because the labels just get way way too long, and I've
never run into duplicate labels. Not saying it won't happen for anyone,
but to me this feature seems to only work in the 20% rather than the 80%.
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:2>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Tom Carrick):

> Not sure if duplicate names are an actual problem in real world
projects.

They certainly are. I can imagine having an article name with a category
name quite easily, for example. I would actually like the header here to
"category" and not "name" - so the opposite of your proposed fix.

As the fix is quite simple - as you mention, and it can cause some
ambiguity and be the opposite of what you want, I don't think this is the
fix.

I'm not saying there isn't a fix, I do agree that this can lead to quite
long table headers and cause problems, but I don't think it's this. And it
might just be to let projects handle it themselves.

But if we want to have this discussion, I agree, a forum post is the
place.
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:3>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Kevin Renskers):

Is there an easy way to hook into Django's code that generates the labels,
so I can override this behavior for my own projects?
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:4>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Tom Carrick):

Yes. In fact before this feature it was the only good way to do it. The
downside is you will need to define your own ordering and so:


{{{
@admin.display(description="Category", ordering="category__name")
def category_name(obj):
return obj.category.name
}}}
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:5>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Kevin Renskers):

No sorry, I meant the way labels for the double underscore values are
automatically generated by Django itself. So that I can use the double
underscore list_display values throughout my project, and just override
(in a single place) the way these labels are generated.
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:6>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Tom Carrick):

This is getting more into a usage question. but from what I recall from a
quick skim of the code, there's no obvious point to override this as the
code needed to be spread around a bit. I would advise looking at the PR at
this point: https://github.com/django/django/pull/17357/files#diff-
b674f0aa1b54dddf7406424ce5f6fc103526a35b4238d6e35cf2ab715c09455bR93

Regardless, I don't think there's anything Django should do here.
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:7>

[Django]

#35765: Change label of list_display with __ lookup to only show the bit after the
__
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Kevin Renskers | Owner: (none)
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: contrib.admin | Version: 5.0
Severity: Normal | Resolution: wontfix
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
--------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Kevin Renskers):

Just in case anyone else runs into the same problem of long labels and
wants to change it, I found a solution:
https://www.loopwerk.io/articles/2024/changing-django51-lookup-labels/.
--
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35765#comment:8>