Sidebar menu

The menu is defined as a list of dicts in ADMINLTE["menu"] and rebuilt per request so the filter pipeline can read request.user (permissions) and request.path (active state).

ADMINLTE = {
    "menu": [
        {"text": "Dashboard", "url": "/", "icon": "bi bi-speedometer"},
        {"header": "CONTENT"},
        {"text": "Blog", "icon": "bi bi-file-post", "submenu": [
            {"text": "Posts", "route": "blog:index", "icon": "bi bi-circle"},
            {"text": "New post", "route": "blog:create", "icon": "bi bi-circle",
             "can": "blog.add_post"},
        ]},
    ],
}

Item schema

Key	Meaning
header	Render a section header (the item is just {"header": "TEXT"}).
text	Link label.
url	Raw URL (e.g. /, posts/, https://…).
route	Named route reversed with reverse() (alternative to url). Accepts "name" or ["name", [args]] / ["name", {kwargs}].
icon	Icon classes, e.g. "bi bi-speedometer".
icon_color	Bootstrap text color for the icon ("danger", …).
label / label_color	Badge text + color.
active	URL pattern(s) (with * wildcards) that mark the item active; defaults to the item's own url.
target	Anchor target (e.g. "_blank").
can	Permission string, list, or callable(request) — item is hidden if denied.
can_params	Object passed to user.has_perm.
submenu	Nested list of items (treeview).
topnav / topnav_right	Place the item in the top navbar instead of the sidebar.

Filter pipeline

ADMINLTE["filters"] is an ordered list of dotted paths, each a class with a transform(item) -> item | None method (returning None drops the item). The defaults:

Filter	Does
GateFilter	Drops items the current user may not see (can).
HrefFilter	Resolves route / url to a final href.
ActiveFilter	Marks the item (and parents) active for the current URL.
SearchFilter	Normalises navbar-search items.

Add your own by appending its dotted path to filters.

Topbar dropdowns

Messages / Notifications dropdowns and the user card are data-driven and optional — omit a key to hide it.

ADMINLTE = {
    "navbar_messages": {
        "count": 3,
        "items": [
            {"image": "adminlte/img/user1-128x128.jpg", "name": "Brad Diesel",
             "text": "Call me whenever you can…", "time": "4 Hours Ago",
             "star": "danger", "url": "#"},
        ],
    },
    "navbar_notifications": {
        "count": 15,
        "items": [{"icon": "bi bi-envelope", "text": "4 new messages",
                   "time": "3 mins", "url": "#"}],
    },
    "usermenu": {
        "image": "adminlte/img/user2-160x160.jpg",
        "name": "Alexander Pierce", "description": "Web Developer",
        "since": "Member since Nov. 2023",
        "stats": [{"label": "Followers", "url": "#"}, {"label": "Sales", "url": "#"}],
    },
}

When usermenu is omitted the topbar shows a minimal menu driven by the authenticated Django user (with a CSRF-protected sign-out).