How to add autocomplete for foreign key using autocomplete_fields - django

Question

I have following model
from django.db import models
class Ipaddress(models.Model):
ipaddress=models.CharField(max_length=20)
slug = models.SlugField(unique=True)
machinename=models.CharField(max_length=500)
user=models.CharField(max_length=200)
department= models.ForeignKey('Department',on_delete=models.CASCADE,default='Empty')
location= models.ForeignKey('Location', on_delete=models.CASCADE)
updated = models.DateField("Date Updated",null=True)
note =models.TextField()
def __str__(self):
return self.ipaddress[:50]
In the admin page:
from django.contrib import admin
from pages.models import Post, Device, DeviceType, DeviceModel, Ipaddress, DeviceGroup, Location,Department,Comment
from django_admin_listfilter_dropdown.filters import DropdownFilter, RelatedDropdownFilter
class IpaddressAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
prepopulated_fields = {'slug': ('ipaddress',)}
search_fields = ['ipaddress', ]
list_display = ('ipaddress', 'machinename', 'user', 'department','location','updated',)
list_filter = (
('user', DropdownFilter),
('department', RelatedDropdownFilter),
('location', RelatedDropdownFilter),
)
When I try to add a device it shows following page:
The location of the list could be a few thousand racks. So, i need to type the rack instead of scrolling 1000 of records. Any idea how i can do that.

Answer 1

Until someone shares a complex solution i suggest you add your ForeignKey Location to your search_fields instead like:
search_fields = ['foreign_key__related_fieldname']
So if your "location names" are defined with the field 'title' in your Location model you could do:
from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Ipaddress
class IpaddressAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
search_fields = ['ipaddress', 'location__title']
admin.site.register(Ipaddress, IpaddressAdmin)
Note: stripped it down to the essential in this example that assumes this is in app/admin.py and that the Ipadress model is in app/models.py
This is really convenient since django admin breaks down multiple search words (seperated by spaces) so you can search for "ip location" like:
127.0.0.1 Sweden
And it would search both your 'ipadress' field and your ForeignKey 'Location'.
Pros:
Fast! No need to reload the view twice if you need to search after applying filter!
Simple
Cons:
Possibly slower querying if one adds many foreign keys for search_fields or has a huge amount of objects in the foreign key model.
Django 2.1 docs: ModelAdmin.search_fields