Allow admins to manage media files in Django admin #220

paigewilliams · 2025-11-24T21:56:24Z

asana task

Description

Adds the following features to the Admin portal:

FileBrowser section
Within FileBrowser section, users can view all files and folders in the media directory
Users can click on a media file to get metadata about the file and if the media file is associated with a media record
Users can filter by date, file type, and if they have an associated media record or not
Users can delete individual files that are not associated with any media records
Users can delete all media files not associated with any media record. This has a confirm page for the action.
Success or error message appears after deleting all media files without a media record
Uses the actual image in thumbnail, not using the versions from django-filebrowser-no-grappelli. I found that because we are storing media in the root of the directory, not in a sub-directory like the library recommends, a versions directory was being created whenever the user viewed the versions directory. This would create an endless loop of versions directories. I decided that it was not worth having the versions so I ended up using the original file in thumbnail.

Screenshots

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR adds a FileBrowser section to the Django admin portal, enabling administrators to manage media files. The implementation uses django-filebrowser-no-grappelli and extends it with custom functionality to track and delete orphaned media files (files not associated with any Media record). The PR also updates the database export functionality to exclude filebrowser data.

Adds FileBrowser integration with custom filtering and deletion capabilities
Extends FileObject with methods to check and retrieve related Media records
Updates database export to exclude filebrowser app data

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 12 out of 12 changed files in this pull request and generated 13 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
TEKDB/requirements.txt	Adds django-filebrowser-no-grappelli dependency
TEKDB/TEKDB/views.py	Updates ExportDatabase to exclude apps via EXPORT_DUMP_EXCLUDE setting
TEKDB/TEKDB/urls.py	Registers filebrowser URLs under admin/filebrowser/
TEKDB/TEKDB/tests/test_custom_filebrowser.py	Adds comprehensive test coverage for custom filebrowser functionality
TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/index.html	Main filebrowser listing template with custom "Clear Unused Media Files" action
TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/filter.html	Filter sidebar with custom "By Media Record" filter
TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/filelisting.html	File listing rows using original images instead of generated thumbnails
TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/detail.html	File detail view showing related Media records
TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/delete_no_media_record_confirm.html	Confirmation page for bulk deletion of orphaned files
TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py	Custom FileBrowserSite implementation with filtering and deletion logic
TEKDB/TEKDB/settings.py	Configures filebrowser settings and EXPORT_DUMP_EXCLUDE
TEKDB/TEKDB/apps.py	Dynamically adds Media record tracking methods to FileObject

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py:177

'except' clause does nothing but pass and there is no explanatory comment.

                except Exception:

TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py:179

'except' clause does nothing but pass and there is no explanatory comment.

        except Exception:

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TEKDB/requirements.txt

TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/detail.html

TEKDB/TEKDB/templates/filebrowser/delete_no_media_record_confirm.html

TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py

TEKDB/TEKDB/tests/test_custom_filebrowser.py

paigewilliams · 2025-11-24T22:30:57Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/apps.py

    name = "TEKDB"
    verbose_name = "Records"
+
+    def ready(self):


is this the right place for adding methods to FileObject?

Hopefully @rhodges will know better than me.

I have not seen anything like this before, but the more I dig into your code (and the FileBrowser source) this makes a lot of sense.

Ideally we'd want to just override FileObject to include these, but since we don't explicitly define any FileObjects, we'd need to override whichever parent or ancestor that we do touch, and by the end we may have a very difficult to maintain 'stack of crap' (my speciality) just to override one deeply embedded class. There is likely a lower-common-denominator where we could override the view that renders the template detail.html to insert the logic and context we need there, but in the end, if this works, I think it's just as elegant (though maybe harder to track & debug).

Knowing about this approach to modifying 3rd Party libraries is something I wish I'd known about long ago. If there are negative consequences, I don't know them.

sounds like this is sticking around! 💩 thanks for the feedback!

paigewilliams · 2025-11-24T22:32:14Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/settings.py

+
+FILEBROWSER_LIST_PER_PAGE = 20
+
+FILEBROWSER_EXTENSIONS = {


Are these the right extensions we want to allow? I copied this over from the library: https://django-filebrowser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/settings.html#extensions

🤔 I don't have a complete understanding of file extensions being uploaded to TEKDBs'. This feels pretty comprehensive, but is it possible to get by without choosing? If Django FileBrowser will work without FILEBROWSER_EXTENSIONS, maybe leave it out.

I agree with @pollardld that not defining this for ourselves may be for the best, but that depends on the default behavior.

Looks like this is the default: https://django-filebrowser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/settings.html#extensions

The worry is that we cannot anticipate all of the file types we may see. It looks like this limits what people can upload (I'm not sure that's relevant) which I don't like (it'd be great if they could upload other data types, including GIS or metadata [JSON, XML, GeoJSON, SHP, ZIP, etc...]) and I'm hoping this doesn't constrain what files they can manipulate in the view (see above, or any upload 'parts').

Does this impact our use case?

upon second thought, I think that this can be removed entirely since we are not allowing users to upload media through the filebrowser interface. I'll remove!

paigewilliams · 2025-11-24T22:40:20Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py

@@ -0,0 +1,269 @@
+import os


is TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py the correct location for this file? I wasn't totally sure.

I'm not sure either, and have no objections.

This works for now.

In the future, I recommend borrowing the convention used by the library you're overriding. Since this mostly functions to override components and logic from filebrowser.sites, you could call this something like TEKDB/TEKDB/filebrowser/sites.py or filebrowser_sites.py. This is anticipating the potential that we may need to MASSIVELY override multiple components of another tool that are broken up between named files that we cannot anticipate (beyond 'views', 'models', 'admin' or other Django defaults).

paigewilliams · 2025-11-24T22:41:39Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/views.py

            with open(dumpfile_location, "w") as of:
-                management.call_command("dumpdata", "--indent=2", stdout=of)
+                excludes = getattr(settings, "EXPORT_DUMP_EXCLUDE", [])
+                management.call_command(


I believe that because we have filebrowser in INSTALLED_APPS we need to exclude it from dumpdata. Without it in the excludes list, dumpdata tries to dump it, which throws an error.

Does FileBrowser have any tables in the DB that would be exported? Why would they fail? Why wouldn't we want them captured in the fixture if they are playing a role?

I had a hard time understanding the root of the problem but here is my understanding after reading the code and chatting to copilot:

We include filebrowser in our INSTALLED_APPS the dumpdata command looks for all models in our registry, and Filebrowser is one of them. However, Filebrowser is defined in the library as

class FileBrowser(models.Model): class Meta: managed = False verbose_name = _("FileBrowser") verbose_name_plural = _("FileBrowser")

and managed = False means that django will not create any tables or migrations for this model (which seems correct). So when we use dumpdata without the exclude list it is looking for a FileBrowser table that does not exist. I think keeping the exclude list is the way to go since we aren't actually excluding anything. I double checked, but we do need to keep filebrowser in the INSTALLED_APPS, so attacking the problem from that side is not viable.

pollardld

This is great work! Adding a Comment, as opposed to Approve, bc I mentioned Ryan in a comment. I feel like he may think the comment is resolved if I Approve.

pollardld · 2025-12-02T00:51:20Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/apps.py

    name = "TEKDB"
    verbose_name = "Records"
+
+    def ready(self):


Hopefully @rhodges will know better than me.

rhodges

Interesting stuff! I have a million questions, but no real red flags.

rhodges · 2025-12-05T20:10:17Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/settings.py

+
+FILEBROWSER_LIST_PER_PAGE = 20
+
+FILEBROWSER_EXTENSIONS = {


I agree with @pollardld that not defining this for ourselves may be for the best, but that depends on the default behavior.

Looks like this is the default: https://django-filebrowser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/settings.html#extensions

The worry is that we cannot anticipate all of the file types we may see. It looks like this limits what people can upload (I'm not sure that's relevant) which I don't like (it'd be great if they could upload other data types, including GIS or metadata [JSON, XML, GeoJSON, SHP, ZIP, etc...]) and I'm hoping this doesn't constrain what files they can manipulate in the view (see above, or any upload 'parts').

Does this impact our use case?

rhodges · 2025-12-05T20:15:48Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/tekdb_filebrowser.py

@@ -0,0 +1,269 @@
+import os


This works for now.

In the future, I recommend borrowing the convention used by the library you're overriding. Since this mostly functions to override components and logic from filebrowser.sites, you could call this something like TEKDB/TEKDB/filebrowser/sites.py or filebrowser_sites.py. This is anticipating the potential that we may need to MASSIVELY override multiple components of another tool that are broken up between named files that we cannot anticipate (beyond 'views', 'models', 'admin' or other Django defaults).

rhodges · 2025-12-05T22:10:27Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/views.py

            with open(dumpfile_location, "w") as of:
-                management.call_command("dumpdata", "--indent=2", stdout=of)
+                excludes = getattr(settings, "EXPORT_DUMP_EXCLUDE", [])
+                management.call_command(


Does FileBrowser have any tables in the DB that would be exported? Why would they fail? Why wouldn't we want them captured in the fixture if they are playing a role?

rhodges · 2025-12-05T22:14:08Z

TEKDB/TEKDB/views.py

+                management.call_command(
+                    "dumpdata",
+                    exclude=excludes,
+                    indent=2,


Some commands "--indent=2" and indent=2 mean the same thing (depending on how robust the script being called is with handling arguments and flags as if they were the same thing, and frankly I don't understand the difference). Others don't. In your tests, is the 2-character indentation maintained in the dumped fixture file with this change?

Yep, confirmed that that the 2-character indentation is maintained.

rhodges · 2025-12-05T22:15:00Z

TEKDB/requirements.txt

 django-tinymce
 pillow
 psycopg2-binary
+django-filebrowser-no-grappelli>=4.0.0,<5.0.0


Does this result in the need to run a migration when upgrading ITKDB to this new version (and including FileBrowser)?

I don't think so because FileBrowser is not creating any DB tables

paigewilliams added 19 commits November 17, 2025 16:59

wip: install filebrowser

9a9ff54

customize filebrowser browse method

954e198

override filebrowser/detail.html

e1c2364

display related media records on media details page

79e4ad6

override filebrowser/index.html

0eec276

try filebrowser settings

e858496

add admin_thumbnail to filebrowser versions

3d380de

ruff format and check

3a24547

add filter for has media record or not

7ef5cbb

add view and template for confirming no media record delete

73ff5e6

delete media files in bulk

750bede

remove print statements

f75b0d5

remove image versions

fab7cbf

Merge branch 'main' into filebrowser

82dd59b

exclude filebrowser from datadump command

13dff22

remove unused js

e80af4f

add tests for custom_filebrowser

ee5baa3

code cleanup

333e809

clean up logic in TekdbFileBrowserSite.browse

13a91e9

paigewilliams requested review from Copilot, pollardld and rhodges November 24, 2025 21:56

paigewilliams self-assigned this Nov 24, 2025

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of paigewilliams November 24, 2025 21:56 View session

Copilot finished reviewing on behalf of paigewilliams November 24, 2025 22:01

Copilot AI reviewed Nov 24, 2025

View reviewed changes

paigewilliams added 4 commits November 24, 2025 14:07

update tests; fix typos

e6364ee

use specific exceptions

71e5d7a

pin django-filebrowser-no-grappelli version

f81afbe

add comments for template in filebrowser library

decf92e

paigewilliams commented Nov 24, 2025

View reviewed changes

set FILEBROWSER_VERSIONS to empty dict

2b0a270

paigewilliams commented Nov 24, 2025

View reviewed changes

pollardld reviewed Dec 2, 2025

View reviewed changes

TEKDB/TEKDB/apps.py

name = "TEKDB"

verbose_name = "Records"

def ready(self):

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Hopefully @rhodges will know better than me.

rhodges approved these changes Dec 5, 2025

View reviewed changes

paigewilliams added 2 commits December 5, 2025 14:51

Merge branch 'main' into filebrowser

19e1fb4

remove FILEBROWSER_EXTENSIONS from settings

e5001f0

paigewilliams merged commit 5a1855f into main Dec 6, 2025
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		FILEBROWSER_LIST_PER_PAGE = 20

		FILEBROWSER_EXTENSIONS = {


		FILEBROWSER_LIST_PER_PAGE = 20

		FILEBROWSER_EXTENSIONS = {

Allow admins to manage media files in Django admin #220

Allow admins to manage media files in Django admin #220

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paigewilliams commented Nov 24, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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paigewilliams commented Nov 24, 2025 •

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