Install

Install:

pip install django-ajax-selects

Add the app:

# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'ajax_select',  # <-   add the app
    ...
)

Include the urls in your project:

# urls.py
from django.conf.urls import url, include
from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.contrib import admin
from django.conf import settings
from ajax_select import urls as ajax_select_urls

admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = [

    # place it at whatever base url you like
    url(r'^ajax_select/', include(ajax_select_urls)),

    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
] + static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)

Write a LookupChannel to specify the models, search queries, formatting etc. and register it with a channel name:

# app_name/lookup.py
from ajax_select import register, LookupChannel
from .models import Tag

@register('tags')
class TagsLookup(LookupChannel):

    model = Tag

    def get_query(self, q, request):
        return self.model.objects.filter(name=q)

    def format_item_display(self, item):
        return u"<span class='tag'>%s</span>" % item.name

If you are using Django >= 1.7 then it will automatically loaded on startup. For previous Djangos you can import them manually to your urls or views.

Add ajax lookup fields in your admin.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from ajax_select.admin import AjaxSelectAdmin
from ajax_select import make_ajax_form
from .models import Document

@admin.register(Document)
class DocumentAdmin(AjaxSelectAdmin):

    form = make_ajax_form(Document, {
        # fieldname: channel_name
        'tags': 'tags'
    })

Or add the fields to a ModelForm:

# forms.py
from ajax_select.fields import AutoCompleteSelectField, AutoCompleteSelectMultipleField

class DocumentForm(ModelForm):

    class Meta:
        model = Document

    category = AutoCompleteSelectField('categories', required=False, help_text=None)
    tags = AutoCompleteSelectMultipleField('tags', required=False, help_text=None)

# admin.py
from django.contrib import admin
from .forms import DocumentForm
from .models import Document

@admin.register(Document)
class DocumentAdmin(AjaxSelectAdmin):
    form = DocumentForm