django admin action without selecting objects

The accepted answer didn't work for me in django 1.6, so I ended up with this:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.contrib.admin.helpers import ACTION_CHECKBOX_NAME

class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):

    ....

    def changelist_view(self, request, extra_context=None):
        if 'action' in request.POST and request.POST['action'] == 'your_action_here':
            if not request.POST.getlist(ACTION_CHECKBOX_NAME):
                post = request.POST.copy()
                for u in MyModel.objects.all():
                    post.update({ACTION_CHECKBOX_NAME: str(u.id)})
                request._set_post(post)
        return super(MyModelAdmin, self).changelist_view(request, extra_context)

When my_action is called and nothing is selected, select all MyModel instances in db.

I wanted this but ultimately decided against using it. Posting here for future reference.

---

Add an extra property (like acts_on_all) to the action:

def my_action(modeladmin, request, queryset):
    pass
my_action.short_description = "Act on all %(verbose_name_plural)s"
my_action.acts_on_all = True

 

In your ModelAdmin, override changelist_view to check for your property.

If the request method was POST, and there was an action specified, and the action callable has your property set to True, modify the list representing selected objects.

def changelist_view(self, request, extra_context=None):
    try:
        action = self.get_actions(request)[request.POST['action']][0]
        action_acts_on_all = action.acts_on_all
    except (KeyError, AttributeError):
        action_acts_on_all = False

    if action_acts_on_all:
        post = request.POST.copy()
        post.setlist(admin.helpers.ACTION_CHECKBOX_NAME,
                     self.model.objects.values_list('id', flat=True))
        request.POST = post

    return admin.ModelAdmin.changelist_view(self, request, extra_context)