Installation

Requirements

  • A virtual environment with Python 3.13 or 3.14.

  • A project with Django 6.0 or 6.1 admin enabled.

  • django.contrib.staticfiles and its usual static-file configuration.

Install the package

Until the release is available, install the wheel supplied by the maintainer (adjust the path):

python -m pip install /path/django_newadmin-0.1.0a1-py3-none-any.whl

After publication on PyPI, use:

python -m pip install 'django-newadmin==0.1.0a1'

Pinning the version selects this alpha explicitly. The package resolves Django within its supported range. If Django is already installed, review pip’s upgrade plan before changing a production environment.

Enable it in an existing project

In settings.py, place newadmin before django.contrib.admin:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'newadmin',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    # Your applications...
]

Keep the request, auth, and messages context processors, the usual admin middleware, and APP_DIRS=True (or the equivalent application loader). A project created with startproject already includes this setup.

Do not change your ModelAdmin registrations or add theme middleware. The theme has no migrations of its own. For a new project, apply Django’s migrations and create an administrator:

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py check
python manage.py runserver

Mount the admin in urls.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path

urlpatterns = [path('admin/', admin.site.urls)]

Open /admin/. The theme styles login, dashboard, changelists, forms, widgets, and auxiliary pages. NEWADMIN is optional:

NEWADMIN = {'SITE_HEADER': 'My site', 'DEFAULT_MODE': 'auto'}

Continue with configuration and dashboards.

Static files in production

Configure STATIC_URL, STATIC_ROOT, and static-file serving as you would for Django. Here is an example using manifest storage:

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'staticfiles'
STORAGES = {
    'default': {'BACKEND': 'django.core.files.storage.FileSystemStorage'},
    'staticfiles': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.ManifestStaticFilesStorage',
    },
}

python manage.py collectstatic --noinput

Serve that directory with your static-file server; runserver is not a production server. Do not replace the default storage if your project already uses it for uploaded files. Keep your current static-files backend if it is compatible with Django.

The wheel contains CSS, JavaScript, icons, and ECharts. Run collectstatic after each update. LOGO and CUSTOM_CSS paths are resolved through staticfiles. With a CDN on another origin, check external SVG loading and your deployment’s CORS policy; the initial test matrix covers same-origin resources.

Disable or update

To disable the theme, remove newadmin from INSTALLED_APPS and remove consumer overrides that depend on its templates. Django admin returns to its default style. To update, install the desired version, review the changelog, rerun collectstatic, and test your overrides, forms, and dashboards in staging.

Local repository demo

From a project checkout:

python -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -e '.[dev,docs]'
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py migrate
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py seed_demo
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py createsuperuser
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py runserver

The demo uses SQLite for local development. Theme users do not need to install or copy demo.