Navigating to, Accessing and Using the Django Admin Interface

The Django Admin interface is a powerful tool for managing a web application’s data and models through a user-friendly web-based interface.

After having created Django models and adding sample information using management commands, the Django Admin interface can be used to manage these models easily.

1. Setting Up the Admin Interface

Before you can use the Django Admin interface, you need to ensure that your project is configured correctly:

Admin App: Ensure that django.contrib.admin is included in your INSTALLED_APPS setting in settings.py.

Snippet of settings.py file

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django.contrib.admin',
    ...
]

URLs: Ensure that the admin URLs are included in the project’s urls.py file.

Snippet of urls.py file

 from django.contrib import admin
 from django.urls import path, include

 urlpatterns = [
     path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
     path('myapp/', include('myapp.urls')),
 ]

Superuser: Create a superuser account to access the admin interface

Command to create a superuser

 python manage.py createsuperuser

Follow the prompts to create a username, email, and password.

2. Navigating to the Admin Interface

Run the development server: Ensure that the development server is running.

python manage.py runserver

Access the Admin Interface: Open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/. You will be presented with the Django admin login page.

3. Logging into the Admin Interface

Login: Use the superuser credentials you created earlier to log in. Enter your username and password, then click the Log in button.

4. Using the Admin Interface

Once logged in, you will be directed to the Django Admin dashboard, which provides an overview of all registered models and available actions.

Admin Dashboard Overview

Site Administration: This section lists all the models registered in the admin site. For example, if you registered the ProfileType model, it will appear here.

See the Registering Django models section for more information on registering models.

Groups and Users: By default, Django includes models for managing users and groups.

Managing Actions

Bulk Actions: Perform actions on multiple profiles simultaneously, such as deleting multiple profiles. Custom Actions: Define custom actions for specific tasks.