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Database / 5 MIN READ

Manage your notes in the Django admin

Add an editor for your model with useful columns, search, and date filters.

Learn Django Notes · Published November 13, 2026 · Django 5.2 LTS

01 Prepare the Note model

Complete the ORM tutorial first and apply its migration. Django's admin is already enabled in a default project. Registering a model gives staff an interface for managing its records.

02 Register the model

Put this in core/admin.py. list_display controls the table columns; search_fields adds a search box; list_filter adds a sidebar filter.

Code example
from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Note


@admin.register(Note)
class NoteAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ("title", "created_at")
    search_fields = ("title", "body")
    list_filter = ("created_at",)
    readonly_fields = ("created_at",)

03 Create an administrator

Use an individual account and a strong password. The command asks for credentials interactively. Start the development server after creating the account.

Code example
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runserver

04 Add and find a note

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/, sign in, and choose Notes. Create two records, search for a word from one title, and try the date filter. The admin is an internal editing tool; use your own views for a public-facing reading experience.

Keep exploring

Read the official Django documentation for details and more examples.