Stop Wasting Time in Django Admin! Here’s the Secret to Bulk Updates You Never Knew You Needed!

Ajinkya Rathod
3 min readNov 13, 2024

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Are you tired of making repetitive changes in your Django Admin panel? 🤔Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to update the same field across multiple records in Django Admin? 😩

Going into each record individually to make the change can be a real pain, right? What if there was a way to select multiple records and perform a custom action on all of them at once? Well, guess what? There is! Let’s revolutionize your Django Admin workflow with a simple trick! 🌟

python-django bulk updates

In this blog, I’ll walk you through the steps to create custom admin actions in Django Admin, complete with a live demo GIF to show you the magic in action. Let’s dive in! 🏄‍♂️

Why Use Custom Admin Actions?

Django Admin is fantastic for managing your data, but sometimes the built-in tools just don’t cut it. That’s where custom admin actions come in! These handy tools let you:

  • Perform bulk updates with a single click.
  • Save precious hours when managing large datasets.
  • Make your admin panel look and feel like a premium custom dashboard.

Example Use Case: Mark Users as Active or Inactive 🟢🔴

Imagine you’re managing a list of users. Instead of editing each user manually, why not add a bulk action to toggle their is_active status? Let’s see how you can implement this in just a few lines of code.

Step 1: Define the Actions in Your ModelAdmin

Step 2: Watch the Magic Happen ✨

Here’s a live preview of what this looks like in action:

django-admin custom action

💡 Pro Tip: Enhance User Experience

  • Use meaningful success messages like “10 users have been successfully updated!” to keep your admin users informed.
  • Combine these actions with filters to fine-tune bulk updates.

Ready to Level Up Your Django Admin? 🚀

Adding custom actions like these can save you tons of time and make your admin panel a joy to use. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and implement this in your project today!

If you liked this post, share it with your fellow Django devs, and let me know what amazing admin hacks you’ve built in the comments below! 🧑‍💻👇

Happy coding! 🎉

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