Question

I successfully extended some admin model and form, but I’m not sure how to keep my file tree clean.

If I put forms.py at the same level as admin.py, everything work perfectly:

---

forms.py

class MyUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):
    #...

class MyUserChangeForm(UserChangeForm):
    #...

admin.py

from myapp.forms import MyUserCreationForm, MyUserChangeForm

File tree

mypackage/
    admin.py
    forms.py

---

Now, in order to have my admin-related forms separated from the other forms and make the code cleaner, I added a folder admin to put my admin-related forms. In that case URLs seem to be messed up. When going to /myapp/admin/ I get the default admin page, not the one I customized in my admin.py.

admin/forms.py

class MyUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):
    #...

class MyUserChangeForm(UserChangeForm):
    #...

admin.py

from myapp.admin.forms import MyUserCreationForm, MyUserChangeForm

File tree

mypackage/
    admin.py
    admin/
        forms.py

---

I guess the system is confused because admin is both a file and a folder. What’s the standard way to keep custom admin-related files in Django?

EDIT: in the case shown above, there is a conflict between admin.py and the folder admin. I tried to put admin.py and forms.py in a folder, but it still does not work:

admin/forms.py

class MyUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):
    #...

class MyUserChangeForm(UserChangeForm):
    #...

admin/admin.py

from myapp.admin.forms import MyUserCreationForm, MyUserChangeForm

class MyUserAdmin(UserAdmin):

    form = MyUserChangeForm
    add_form = MyUserCreationForm

    list_filter = ()

    fieldsets = (
        (None, {'fields': ('username', 'number', 'password')}),
        (_('Personal info'), {'fields': ('first_name', 'last_name')}),
        (_('Permissions'), {'fields': ('is_active', 'is_staff',)}),
    )


    add_fieldsets = (
        (None, {
            'classes': ('wide',),
            'fields': ('username', 'number', 'password1', 'password2')}
        ),
    )


admin.site.register(MyUser, MyUserAdmin)

File tree

mypackage/        
    admin/
        forms.py
        admin.py

urls.py

from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url

from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Uncomment the next line to enable the admin:
    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
)

Answer 1

Firstly, you need to create an __init__.py file in your admin directory in order for it to be treated as a package.

mypackage/
    admin/
        __init__.py 
        forms.py

The __init__.py file is often empty. See the Python docs on packages for more information.

Secondly, you cannot have a directory called admin and a file admin.py. When you run import myapp.admin, python will ignore the admin.py file, and load admin/__init__.py instead.

One possible solution is for you to move admin.py to admin/__init__.py. Then the following imports should work properly.

# in e.g. your urls.py
import myapp.admin # imports admin/__init__.py

# in e.g your admin/__init__.py:
from myapp.admin.forms import MyUserCreationForm, MyUserChangeForm # imports admin/forms.py