======================================== The Django admin documentation generator ======================================== .. module:: django.contrib.admindocs :synopsis: Django's admin documentation generator. .. currentmodule:: django.contrib.admindocs Django's :mod:`~django.contrib.admindocs` app pulls documentation from the docstrings of models, views, template tags, and template filters for any app in :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` and makes that documentation available from the :mod:`Django admin `. Overview ======== To activate the :mod:`~django.contrib.admindocs`, you will need to do the following: * Add :mod:`django.contrib.admindocs` to your :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`. * Add ``path('admin/doc/', include('django.contrib.admindocs.urls'))`` to your ``urlpatterns``. Make sure it's included *before* the ``'admin/'`` entry, so that requests to ``/admin/doc/`` don't get handled by the latter entry. * Install the :pypi:`docutils` 0.19+ package. * **Optional:** Using the admindocs bookmarklets requires ``django.contrib.admindocs.middleware.XViewMiddleware`` to be installed. Once those steps are complete, you can start browsing the documentation by going to your admin interface and clicking the "Documentation" link in the upper right of the page. Documentation helpers ===================== The following special markup can be used in your docstrings to easily create hyperlinks to other components: ================= ======================= Django Component reStructuredText roles ================= ======================= Models ``:model:`app_label.ModelName``` Views ``:view:`app_label.view_name``` Template tags ``:tag:`tagname``` Template filters ``:filter:`filtername``` Templates ``:template:`path/to/template.html``` ================= ======================= Model reference =============== The **models** section of the ``admindocs`` page describes each model in the system along with all the fields, properties, and methods available on it. Relationships to other models appear as hyperlinks. Descriptions are pulled from ``help_text`` attributes on fields or from docstrings on model methods. A model with useful documentation might look like this:: class BlogEntry(models.Model): """ Stores a single blog entry, related to :model:`blog.Blog` and :model:`auth.User`. """ slug = models.SlugField(help_text="A short label, generally used in URLs.") author = models.ForeignKey( User, models.SET_NULL, blank=True, null=True, ) blog = models.ForeignKey(Blog, models.CASCADE) ... def publish(self): """Makes the blog entry live on the site.""" ... View reference ============== Each URL in your site has a separate entry in the ``admindocs`` page, and clicking on a given URL will show you the corresponding view. Helpful things you can document in your view function docstrings include: * A short description of what the view does. * The **context**, or a list of variables available in the view's template. * The name of the template or templates that are used for that view. For example:: from django.shortcuts import render from myapp.models import MyModel def my_view(request, slug): """ Display an individual :model:`myapp.MyModel`. **Context** ``mymodel`` An instance of :model:`myapp.MyModel`. **Template:** :template:`myapp/my_template.html` """ context = {"mymodel": MyModel.objects.get(slug=slug)} return render(request, "myapp/my_template.html", context) Template tags and filters reference =================================== The **tags** and **filters** ``admindocs`` sections describe all the tags and filters that come with Django (in fact, the :ref:`built-in tag reference ` and :ref:`built-in filter reference ` documentation come directly from those pages). Any tags or filters that you create or are added by a third-party app will show up in these sections as well. Template reference ================== While ``admindocs`` does not include a place to document templates by themselves, if you use the ``:template:`path/to/template.html``` syntax in a docstring the resulting page will verify the path of that template with Django's :ref:`template loaders `. This can be a handy way to check if the specified template exists and to show where on the filesystem that template is stored. .. _admindocs-bookmarklets: Included Bookmarklets ===================== One bookmarklet is available from the ``admindocs`` page: Documentation for this page Jumps you from any page to the documentation for the view that generates that page. Using this bookmarklet requires that ``XViewMiddleware`` is installed and that you are logged into the :mod:`Django admin ` as a :class:`~django.contrib.auth.models.User` with :attr:`~django.contrib.auth.models.User.is_staff` set to ``True``.