Configuration

Property Paths

Properties are referenced by field name. Use __ to traverse relationships:

"properties": [
    "title",                    # simple field
    "author__name",             # FK traversal
    "author__country__code",    # multi-hop FK
    "tags",                     # M2M (renders all related objects)
    "get_absolute_url",         # method or property
]

The x() Helper

For more control over individual properties, use the x() shorthand to build a PropertyConfig:

from django_object_detail import x

"properties": [
    "title",
    x("author__name", title="Writer"),
    x("published_date", detail="When the book was first published"),
    x("rating", type="integer"),
    x("notes", template="myapp/custom_notes.html"),
]

Parameter	Description
path	Field name or __-separated path (required)
title	Override the auto-derived label
detail	Help text shown below the value
type	Override the auto-detected type (e.g. "date", "boolean")
template	Path to a custom template for rendering the value
link	LinkConfig or URL name string (see Links)
badge	BadgeConfig or color string (see Badges)

Groups

Each entry in property_display is a group with a title and a list of properties:

property_display = [
    {
        "title": "Basic Info",
        "description": "Core book metadata",
        "icon": "bi bi-book",
        "properties": [
            "title",
            "author__name",
            x("isbn", detail="International Standard Book Number"),
        ],
    },
]

Parameter	Description
title	Group heading (required)
description	Subtitle or help text
icon	CSS class for an icon (e.g. Bootstrap Icons)
properties	List of strings, dicts, or PropertyConfig objects

Properties can be mixed freely — plain strings, dicts with PropertyConfig fields, or x() / PropertyConfig instances.

View-Callable Fallback

If a path cannot be resolved on the model instance (the first segment is not an attribute or method on the instance), the resolver will try to call view.<path>(instance) instead.

This lets you compute display values using view-level context (e.g. self.request, view kwargs, or logic that doesn't belong on the model):

class BookDetailView(ObjectDetailMixin, DetailView):
    model = Book
    property_display = [
        {
            "title": "View-Computed",
            "properties": [
                x("view_computed_summary", title="Summary"),
            ],
        },
    ]

    def view_computed_summary(self, instance):
        return f"{instance.title} by {instance.author_list()} ({instance.pages} pages)"

Rules:

• The view method must be callable — non-callable attributes on the view are ignored (value becomes None)
• If the path is found on the model (even as None), the view fallback never runs — model always takes priority
• This works automatically when using ObjectDetailMixin, or when using the {% render_object_detail %} template tag from within a Django CBV template (Django adds view to context via ContextMixin)