Enhancing models for the admin

The admin app is clever enough to figure out a lot of things from your model automatically. However, sometimes the inferred information can be improved. This usually involves adding an attribute or a method to the model itself (rather than at the ModelAdmin class).

Let's first take a look at an example that enhances the model for better presentation, including the admin interface:

# models.py
class SuperHero(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    added_on = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return "{0} - {1:%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S}".format(self.name,
                                                    self.added_on)

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return reverse('superhero.views.details', args=[self.id])

    class Meta:
        ordering = ["-added_on"]
        verbose_name = "superhero"
        verbose_name_plural = "superheroes"

Let's...