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Saved Filter Favourites

Saved filter favourites are an optional add-on for teams that want named, reusable filter states per user.

This feature is intentionally shipped as a contrib app so projects that do not need it do not have to carry its model, migration, or UI surface.

Use this guide when you want to:

  • install the favourites contrib app
  • enable it on selected list views
  • understand what the saved state includes
  • understand how it behaves when the app is not installed

What it saves

PowerCRUD can persist named list states per authenticated user, including:

  • active filter values
  • optional filter visibility
  • current sort
  • current page size

The saved payload intentionally does not persist the current page number.

Installation

Add the contrib app to INSTALLED_APPS:

# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    "powercrud.contrib.favourites",
]

Then run migrations:

python manage.py migrate

Mount the shared PowerCRUD URLs with the powercrud namespace:

# urls.py
from django.urls import include, path


urlpatterns = [
    # ...
    path("powercrud/", include("powercrud.urls", namespace="powercrud")),
]

The URL prefix can be different, but the namespace must stay powercrud.

These setup steps are optional. If you never install the contrib app, the rest of PowerCRUD filtering still works normally.

Enable it on a list view

class ProjectCRUDView(PowerCRUDMixin, CRUDView):
    # ...
    filter_favourites_enabled = True

That turns on the favourites toolbar for that list view, provided the contrib app is installed and the shared PowerCRUD URLs are mounted.

Scoping

Saved favourites are scoped per:

  • authenticated user
  • list view identity

The view identity is derived automatically from "<module>.<ClassName>".

Behavior notes

  • Anonymous users still see the toolbar when the view enables favourites, but the save, update, and delete controls remain unavailable and the UI prompts them to sign in.
  • Applying a saved favourite restores optional filter visibility as well as the saved filter values.
  • The current UI is intentionally compact:
    • selecting a saved favourite auto-applies it
    • the toolbar stays hidden until the filter panel is open
    • long selected favourite names are truncated in the trigger and exposed through a tooltip

Availability guard

If a developer sets filter_favourites_enabled = True on a view but either:

  • does not install powercrud.contrib.favourites
  • or does not mount the shared powercrud URLs

PowerCRUD silently disables the feature at runtime.

That means:

  • no toolbar renders
  • no favourites URLs are included
  • no broken None endpoint values appear in the rendered HTML
  • Django emits a system check warning when the contrib app is installed but the shared powercrud URLs are missing

PowerCRUD detects this from both:

  • apps.is_installed("powercrud.contrib.favourites")
  • successful reversing of the required powercrud:favourites-* routes

Sample app

The sample BookCRUDView demonstrates the feature end-to-end and is the best reference implementation in the demo project.

For the broader filtering story that favourites build on top of, see Filtering.