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Roadmap — toward a 1:1, fully Django-native AdminLTE 4

This document tracks the work to take django-adminlte4 from an excellent static design port to a proper Django template — one that reuses everything Django offers (admin, forms, auth, messages, pagination, tables) rather than only reproducing AdminLTE's HTML.

Where it stands today

Strong foundation

  • Faithful AdminLTE 4 layout (Bootstrap 5.3, vanilla JS, Vite pipeline).
  • Config-driven sidebar menu with a per-request filter pipeline (ActiveFilter / HrefFilter / GateFilter) — the standout Django feature.
  • ~33 django-components (Widget / Form / Tool families), well tested (~160 tests across components, menu, context processor, commands).
  • Themed auth pages + working LoginView / LogoutView / register.
  • 50 showcase templates reproducing the official demo.

Reality check

  • Page coverage is already ~1:1: AdminLTE's source has 74 .astro files but 26 are its documentation site; of the ~48 real demo pages the port reproduces all of them.
  • But ~49/50 demo pages are static markup with no Django data, and the project is not yet wired into Django's own subsystems. That integration layer is the gap below.

Gap A — interactive design fidelity

Feature Official demo Port status Action
Calendar FullCalendar 6.1 Static badges, no plugin Wire FullCalendar (the one missing third-party lib)
Kanban SortableJS lanes Static cards, drag-drop not initialised Wire SortableJS for kanban lanes
Date pickers / input masks referenced HTML5 inputs only Add optional picker/mask init
Chat / File manager static even upstream static (parity) leave as UI, or back with real views in CRUD demo

ApexCharts, jsVectorMap, Tabulator, Quill, SortableJS, OverlayScrollbars are already wired.

Gap B — Django-native ("everything Django offers")

Ranked by value. Every item is additive — it reuses the existing menu builder, filter pipeline, components, and auth shells.

# Capability Today Approach
1 Django admin theming none — stock /admin/ templates/admin/base_site.html reusing master.html; adapt admin.site.get_app_list() into menu-builder dicts so the admin sidebar reuses GateFilter/ActiveFilter
2 Pre-built assets / Node optional requires npm + Vite vendor compiled CSS/JS in the wheel; pip install + collectstatic with zero Node; Vite becomes an opt-in [vite] extra
3 Whole-form rendering per-field components only adminlte crispy-forms template pack (extends crispy-bootstrap5); optional [crispy] extra
4 Built-in auth flow password reset incomplete ship full registration/ set on auth-master.html
5 Messages framework middleware on, never rendered partials/messages.html + recommended MESSAGE_TAGS; optional toast mode via adminlte_toast
6 Pagination none reusable partials/pagination.html from page_obj (shared by tables2 + admin)
7 Tables & filters static / Tabulator only django-tables2 adminlte.html template + django-filter styling; optional [tables] extra
8 Real CRUD demo zero models/migrations one small app (ModelForm + ListView/CreateView) proving tables2 + crispy + messages + pagination end-to-end
9 allauth theme none override allauth layouts/* + elements/* (~10 files); optional [allauth] extra
10 i18n / breadcrumbs {% trans %} present, no .po; manual crumbs ship locale/; auto-derive admin breadcrumbs

Packaging principle

Keep the base install lean; gate every integration behind pyproject.toml extras (crispy, tables, allauth, vite). Ship pre-compiled assets so the install-and-go majority never needs Node; keep the Vite stubs (adminlte_install) for customisers.

Phased plan

  • Phase 1 — make it a Django product ✅
    • Ship pre-built package assets (CSS/JS in static/adminlte/dist/), Node optional via ADMINLTE["assets_mode"]="static"
    • Theme django.contrib.admin reusing the menu builder (base.html chrome + base_site + login; sidebar auto-built from the admin app list)
    • Follow-up: Bootstrap-native admin change_list / change_form content (native admin content currently renders inside the AdminLTE shell)
  • Phase 2 — native forms & flows (in progress)
    • messages partial (Django messages → AdminLTE alerts, level→class+icon) wired into the layout
    • reusable pagination partial from page_obj (preserves query string)
    • full registration/ auth templates (login, logout, password change + reset flow) on the auth shell
    • crispy-forms support via the [crispy] extra — {% crispy form %} whole-form rendering, demoed on the CRUD form (AdminLTE 4 = Bootstrap 5, so the crispy-bootstrap5 pack renders natively; no redundant custom pack)
  • Phase 3 — native data UI ✅
    • django-tables2 adminlte.html theme (card wrapper + footer pagination) + [tables] extra
    • django-filter styled inline filter form (Bootstrap widgets)
    • real CRUD demo app (crud): Contact model, tables2 list + filter, ModelForm create/update, delete confirm, LoginRequiredMixin + success messages; registered in the themed admin too
  • Phase 4 — fidelity & polish ✅
    • FullCalendar bundled via Vite (self-hosted); Kanban drag-drop confirmed working
    • Demo fully self-hosted — removed all CDN <script> tags (charts/maps/tables/calendar/kanban now load from the bundle); dashboards' inline init wrapped in DOMContentLoaded
    • django-allauth theme — [allauth] extra; AdminLTE-themed layouts (base/entrance/manage) + elements (fields/field/form/button/alert/h1/h2/p/hr/panel)
    • i18n — package message catalog + fully-translated Spanish (es) locale, compiled and shipped
    • auto-breadcrumbs — {% adminlte_breadcrumb %} from request.path, default in page.html