See ModelAdmin.queryset and ModelAdmin.formfield_for_foreignkey. From the docs:
The queryset method on a ModelAdmin returns a QuerySet of all model instances that can be edited by the admin site. One use case for overriding this method is to show objects owned by the logged-in user:
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
def queryset(self, request):
qs = super(MyModelAdmin, self).queryset(request)
if request.user.is_superuser:
return qs
return qs.filter(author=request.user)
The formfield_for_foreignkey method on a ModelAdmin allows you to override the default formfield for a foreign keys field. For example, to return a subset of objects for this foreign key field based on the user:
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
def formfield_for_foreignkey(self, db_field, request, **kwargs):
if db_field.name == "car":
kwargs["queryset"] = Car.objects.filter(owner=request.user)
return super(MyModelAdmin, self).formfield_for_foreignkey(db_field, request, **kwargs)
This uses the HttpRequest instance to filter the Car foreign key field to only display the cars owned by the User instance.
[update]
Sorry, I failed to read the "filter" part. In Django >= 1.4 you can pass a subclass of django.contrib.admin.SimpleListFilter
in the list_filter argument list, which you can use in order to override the lookups and queryset methods.
from datetime import date
from django.contrib import admin
from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
class DecadeBornListFilter(admin.SimpleListFilter):
# Human-readable title which will be displayed in the
# right admin sidebar just above the filter options.
title = _('decade born')
# Parameter for the filter that will be used in the URL query.
parameter_name = 'decade'
def lookups(self, request, model_admin):
"""
Returns a list of tuples. The first element in each
tuple is the coded value for the option that will
appear in the URL query. The second element is the
human-readable name for the option that will appear
in the right sidebar.
"""
return (
('80s', _('in the eighties')),
('90s', _('in the nineties')),
)
def queryset(self, request, queryset):
"""
Returns the filtered queryset based on the value
provided in the query string and retrievable via
`self.value()`.
"""
# Compare the requested value (either '80s' or '90s')
# to decide how to filter the queryset.
if self.value() == '80s':
return queryset.filter(birthday__gte=date(1980, 1, 1),
birthday__lte=date(1989, 12, 31))
if self.value() == '90s':
return queryset.filter(birthday__gte=date(1990, 1, 1),
birthday__lte=date(1999, 12, 31))
class PersonAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
list_filter = (DecadeBornListFilter,)