How to group the choices in a Django Select widget?

Question

Is it possible to created named choice groups in a Django select (dropdown) widget, when that widget is on a form that is auto-generated from a data Model?

Answer 1

You don't need custom iterators. You're gonna need to support that code. Just pass the right choices:

from django import forms
from django.db.models import Prefetch

class ProductForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Product
        fields = [...]

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(ProductForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        cats = Category.objects \
            .filter(category__isnull=True) \
            .order_by('order') \
            .prefetch_related(Prefetch('subcategories',
                queryset=Category.objects.order_by('order')))
        self.fields['subcategory'].choices = \
            [("", self.fields['subcategory'].empty_label)] \
            + [(c.name, [
                (self.fields['subcategory'].prepare_value(sc),
                    self.fields['subcategory'].label_from_instance(sc))
                for sc in c.subcategories.all()
            ]) for c in cats]

Here,

class Category(models.Model):
    category = models.ForeignKey('self', null=True, on_delete=models.CASCADE,
        related_name='subcategories', related_query_name='subcategory')

class Product(models.Model):
    subcategory = models.ForeignKey(Category, on_delete=models.CASCADE,
        related_name='products', related_query_name='product')

This same technique can be used to customize a Django admin form. Although, Meta class is not needed in this case.