Django Admin- disable Editing and remove “Save” buttons for a specific model

Question

I have a Django Model which I wish to be only readonly. No adds and edits allowed.

I have marked all fields readonly and overridden has_add_permission in ModelAdmin

Answer 1

Updated answer using Django 1.8 (Python 3 syntax).

There are three things to do:
1) extend the admin change form template, adding an if to conditionally suppress the submit buttons
2) override admin.ModelAdmin.change_view() and set a context var for the template if to read
3) prohibit unwanted POST requests (from DOM hacking, curl/Postman)

---

MyProject/my_app/templates/admin/my_app/change_form.html

{% extends "admin/change_form.html" %}
{% load admin_modify %}
{% block submit_buttons_top %}{% if my_editable %}{% submit_row %}{% endif %}{% endblock %}
{% block submit_buttons_bottom %}{% if my_editable %}{% submit_row %}{% endif %}{% endblock %}

---

MyProject/my_app/admin.py (MyModelAdmin)

def change_view(self, request, object_id, form_url='', extra_context=None):
  obj = MyModel.objects.get(pk=object_id)
  editable = obj.get_status() == 'Active'

  if not editable and request.method == 'POST':
    return HttpResponseForbidden("Cannot change an inactive MyModel")

  more_context = {
    # set a context var telling our customized template to suppress the Save button group
    'my_editable': editable,
  }
  more_context.update(extra_context or {})
  return super().change_view(request, object_id, form_url, more_context)