How to setup search in django-admin changelists in models related through ForeignKeys?

Using Django Using the ORM
1

Hello,

I have created the following four model classes:

class InfrastructureModel(models.Model):
    ENTRY_ACTIVE_YES_NO_CHOICES = (
        (True, 'Yes'),
        (False, 'No'))

    entryActiveYesNo = models.BooleanField(r"Is this database entry still active? (YES/NO)",
                                      null=False,
                                      blank=False,
                                      unique=False,
                                      choices=ENTRY_ACTIVE_YES_NO_CHOICES,
                                      help_text=r"Is this database entry still active? If it's been changed/modified to something else, mark this as False.")

class AirportAdministrativeData(InfrastructureModel):
    officialAirportName=models.CharField(r"Airport's Official Name",
                                         max_length=100,
                                         null=False, 
                                         blank=False, 
                                         unique=True,
                                         help_text=r"Offical name of the Airport")
    def __str__(self):
        return self.officialAirportName

class AirportAlternateName(InfrastructureModel):
    parentAirport=models.ForeignKey(AirportAdministrativeData,on_delete=models.RESTRICT,limit_choices_to={'entryActiveYesNo': True},verbose_name="Parent Airport",related_name='AirportOfficialName')
    alternateAirportName=models.CharField(r"Airport's Alternate Name",
                                          max_length=100, 
                                          null=False, 
                                          blank=False,
                                          unique=True,
                                          help_text=r"Alternate name of the Airport, if any.")

class AirportLocation(InfrastructureModel):
    parentAirport=models.ForeignKey(AirportAdministrativeData,on_delete=models.RESTRICT,limit_choices_to={'entryActiveYesNo': True},verbose_name="Parent Airport")
    latitude=models.DecimalField(max_digits=9, decimal_places=6)
    longitude=models.DecimalField(max_digits=9, decimal_places=6)
    airportAddress=models.CharField(r"Airport's Address",
                                          max_length=200, 
                                          null=False, 
                                          blank=False,
                                          unique=True,
                                          help_text=r"Airport's Address")
    airportState=models.ForeignKey(State,on_delete=models.RESTRICT,limit_choices_to={'entryActiveYesNo': True},verbose_name="State")

And their corresponding Admin classes are as follows:

class AirportAdministrativeDataAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ['officialAirportName', 'entryActiveYesNo']
    list_display = ('officialAirportName', 'entryActiveYesNo')
    search_fields = ['officialAirportName']
    search_help_text="Seach here for offical/alternate name of any airport in the Database."
class AirportAlternateNameAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ['parentAirport', 'alternateAirportName', 'entryActiveYesNo']
    list_display = ('parentAirport', 'alternateAirportName', 'entryActiveYesNo')
    search_fields = ['alternateAirportName']
    search_help_text="Seach here for offical/alternate name of any airport in the Database."
class AirportLocationAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ['parentAirport', 'latitude', 'longitude', 'airportAddress', 'airportState', 'entryActiveYesNo']
    list_display = ('parentAirport', 'latitude', 'longitude', 'airportAddress', 'airportState', 'entryActiveYesNo')
    #search_fields = ['parentAirport']
    search_help_text="Seach here for offical/alternate name of any airport in the Database."

And their corresponding admin site registrations are as follows:

admin.site.register(AirportAdministrativeData,AirportAdministrativeDataAdmin)
admin.site.register(AirportAlternateName, AirportAlternateNameAdmin)
admin.site.register(AirportLocation, AirportLocationAdmin)

I want to be able to search in the change lists of these respective models using either of the following fields:

  1. AirportAdministrativeData model’s officialAirportName field, or,
  2. AirportAlternateName model’s alternateAirportName field.
    and return the corresponding search entry.

I have read several articles such as ForeignKey.related_name and this stackoverflow q&a. But my novice self is still struggling in being able to implement this feature. Help please. :sweat_smile:

2

The docs for the search facility, along with a couple of examples are here: The Django admin site | Django documentation | Django

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