Re: How to avoid select lists on formsets and ManyToMany?

Django admin does something like this with raw_id_fields[1]. I think it works by just swapping out the form widget. But you could take a look at the admin code to see for sure.

[1] https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/contrib/admin/#django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.raw_id_fields

On April 1, 2021 10:23:03 PM CDT, Clive Bruton <clive@indx.co.uk> wrote:

I have a ManyToMany model set, that on the edit uses a formset to add/ 
edit rows. I have this working, but the unfortunate part of it is  
that the select that results from the ManyToMany relationship  
populates with 16,000 records.

What I would like to do is, once the records are added, just have the  
delete checkbox and show the 'description' field (uneditable) next to  
it), and, rather than add records through a huge select list, add the  
records by id.

To sketch it out, this is how it is:


     <'Profile.directory-optin' checkbox>

     <'Profile.directory-desc'>

     <'Class.description' huge select>

     <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <'Class.description' huge select>

     <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <'Class.description' huge select>

     <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <!--add new item-->

     <'Class.description' huge select>

     <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <save button>



And I'd rather it was something like:


     <'Profile.directory-optin' checkbox>

     <'Profile.directory-desc'>

     <text of 'Class.description' field> <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <text of 'Class.description' field> <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <text of 'Class.description' field> <delete checkbox>

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <!--add new item-->

     <new 'Class.id' text input field>

     <!--does not need a 'delete' checkbox-->

     <!--hidden formset elements-->

     <save button>


The database tables look something like:


Profile              Join table       Class
=======              ==========       =====

id                   id               id
directory-optin      profile-id       description
directory-desc       class-id



Hope someone can help me out!


-- Clive