View returns URL with column data if model has get_absolute_url attribute

[Emad Mokhtar]

If the model used for the view has get_absolute_url() method, the view will send all model's column as <a> tags.

Suggestion:

1. To have an option to render the columns with the link. (Easy)
2. To have an option to map column with the link. (Advance)

[Emad Mokhtar]

Case

Model

class Dummy(models.Model):
    first_name = CharField()
    last_name = CharField()

   def get_absolute_url(self):
       reutrn 'blah/blah'

View

class DummyView(BaseDatatableView):
    columns = ['first_name', 'last_name']

JSON response

{
 "draw": 1,
 "recordsTotal": 1,
 "recordsFiltered": 1,
 "data":[["<a href=\"/blah/blah\">first_name</a>" , "<a href=\"/blah/blah\">last_name</a>"]],
  "result": "ok"
}

I want to control which field rendered as anchor tag and which is just plain text.

I have some ideas, I will create a PR this weekend.

[Maciej Wisniowski]

Isn't it enough to override render_column method, eg.:

def render_column(self, row, column):
    if column == 'first_name':
        return '<a href="{}">{}</a>'.format(row.get_absolute_url(), row.first_name)
    return super().render_column(row, column)

[Emad Mokhtar]

I think I didn't explain my idea well.

Because of this code

    def render_column(self, row, column):
        """ Renders a column on a row. column can be given in a module notation eg. document.invoice.type
        """
       ...
        if value and hasattr(obj, 'get_absolute_url'):
            return '<a href="%s">%s</a>' % (obj.get_absolute_url(), value)
        return value

If the model object has get_absolute_url() method, the model attributes will be rendered as HTML anchor tag. With this code part, I can't control which column should be rendered as an anchor tag.

[Tom Corwin]

I second this. With a large model and get_absolute_url in the model, all columns show as anchor tags. So I ended up having to override the render_column for ALL columns to remove it. Would be nice to have a flag to turn it off, then we can add it to a specific column if we want it as your example above. or use a column list of columns we WANT to be anchored.

[Maciej Wisniowski]

In the 1.19.1 render_column has been split into two methods so that it should be now easy to only add <a> tag to some columns

[Tom Corwin]

Awesome, thanks!

By changing my subclass render_column to return super()._render_column it allowed me to remove my workaround.