Adding custom bulk actions

This document describes how to add custom bulk actions to different listings.

Registering a custom bulk action

from wagtail.admin.views.bulk_action import BulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomDeleteBulkAction(BulkAction):
    display_name = _("Delete")
    aria_label = _("Delete selected objects")
    action_type = "delete"
    template_name = "/path/to/confirm_bulk_delete.html"
    models = [...]

    @classmethod
    def execute_action(cls, objects, **kwargs):
        for obj in objects:
            do_something(obj)
        return num_parent_objects, num_child_objects  # return the count of updated objects

The attributes are as follows:

  • display_name - The label that will be displayed on the button in the user interface

  • aria_label - The aria-label attribute that will be applied to the button in the user interface

  • action_type - A unique identifier for the action (required in the URL for bulk actions)

  • template_name - The path to the confirmation template

  • models - A list of models on which the bulk action can act

  • action_priority (optional) - A number that is used to determine the placement of the button in the list of buttons

  • classes (optional) - A set of CSS class names that will be used on the button in the user interface

An example of a confirmation template is as follows:

<!-- /path/to/confirm_bulk_delete.html -->

{% extends 'wagtailadmin/bulk_actions/confirmation/base.html' %}
{% load i18n wagtailadmin_tags %}

{% block titletag %}{% blocktranslate trimmed count counter=items|length %}Delete 1 item{% plural %}Delete {{ counter }} items{% endblocktranslate %}{% endblock %}

{% block header %}
    {% trans "Delete" as del_str %}
    {% include "wagtailadmin/shared/header.html" with title=del_str icon="doc-empty-inverse" %}
{% endblock header %}

{% block items_with_access %}
        {% if items %}
        <p>{% trans "Are you sure you want to delete these items?" %}</p>
        <ul>
            {% for item in items %}
            <li>
                <a href="" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">{{ item.item.title }}</a>
            </li>
            {% endfor %}
        </ul>
        {% endif %}
{% endblock items_with_access %}

{% block items_with_no_access %}

{% blocktranslate trimmed asvar no_access_msg count counter=items_with_no_access|length %}You don't have permission to delete this item{% plural %}You don't have permission to delete these items{% endblocktranslate %}
{% include './list_items_with_no_access.html' with items=items_with_no_access no_access_msg=no_access_msg %}

{% endblock items_with_no_access %}

{% block form_section %}
{% if items %}
    {% trans 'Yes, delete' as action_button_text %}
    {% trans "No, don't delete" as no_action_button_text %}
    {% include 'wagtailadmin/bulk_actions/confirmation/form.html' with action_button_class="serious" %}
{% else %}
    {% include 'wagtailadmin/bulk_actions/confirmation/go_back.html' %}
{% endif %}
{% endblock form_section %}
<!-- ./list_items_with_no_access.html -->
{% extends 'wagtailadmin/bulk_actions/confirmation/list_items_with_no_access.html' %}
{% load i18n %}

{% block per_item %}
    {% if item.can_edit %}
    <a href="{% url 'wagtailadmin_pages:edit' item.item.id %}" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">{{ item.item.title }}</a>
    {% else %}
    {{ item.item.title }}
    {% endif %}
{% endblock per_item %}

The execute_action classmethod is the only method that must be overridden for the bulk action to work properly. It takes a list of objects as the only required argument, and a bunch of keyword arguments that can be supplied by overriding the get_execution_context method. For example.

@classmethod
def execute_action(cls, objects, **kwargs):
    # the kwargs here is the output of the get_execution_context method
    user = kwargs.get('user', None)
    num_parent_objects, num_child_objects = 0, 0
    # you could run the action per object or run them in bulk using django's bulk update and delete methods
    for obj in objects:
        num_child_objects += obj.get_children().count()
        num_parent_objects += 1
        obj.delete(user=user)
        num_parent_objects += 1
    return num_parent_objects, num_child_objects

The get_execution_context method can be overridden to provide context to the execute_action

def get_execution_context(self):
    return { 'user': self.request.user }

The get_context_data method can be overridden to pass additional context to the confirmation template.

def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
    context = super().get_context_data(**kwargs)
    context['new_key'] = some_value
    return context

The check_perm method can be overridden to check if an object has some permission or not. Objects for which the check_perm returns False will be available in the context under the key 'items_with_no_access'.

def check_perm(self, obj):
    return obj.has_perm('some_perm')  # returns True or False

The success message shown on the admin can be customized by overriding the get_success_message method.

def get_success_message(self, num_parent_objects, num_child_objects):
    return _("{} objects, including {} child objects have been updated".format(num_parent_objects, num_child_objects))

Adding bulk actions to the page explorer

When creating a custom bulk action class for pages, subclass from wagtail.admin.views.pages.bulk_actions.page_bulk_action.PageBulkAction instead of wagtail.admin.views.bulk_action.BulkAction

Basic example

from wagtail.admin.views.pages.bulk_actions.page_bulk_action import PageBulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomPageBulkAction(PageBulkAction):
    ...

Adding bulk actions to the Images listing

When creating a custom bulk action class for images, subclass from wagtail.images.views.bulk_actions.image_bulk_action.ImageBulkAction instead of wagtail.admin.views.bulk_action.BulkAction

Basic example

from wagtail.images.views.bulk_actions.image_bulk_action import ImageBulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomImageBulkAction(ImageBulkAction):
    ...

Adding bulk actions to the documents listing

When creating a custom bulk action class for documents, subclass from wagtail.documents.views.bulk_actions.document_bulk_action.DocumentBulkAction instead of wagtail.admin.views.bulk_action.BulkAction

Basic example

from wagtail.documents.views.bulk_actions.document_bulk_action import DocumentBulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomDocumentBulkAction(DocumentBulkAction):
    ...

Adding bulk actions to the user listing

When creating a custom bulk action class for users, subclass from wagtail.users.views.bulk_actions.user_bulk_action.UserBulkAction instead of wagtail.admin.views.bulk_action.BulkAction

Basic example

from wagtail.users.views.bulk_actions.user_bulk_action import UserBulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomUserBulkAction(UserBulkAction):
    ...

Adding bulk actions to the snippets listing

When creating a custom bulk action class for snippets, subclass from wagtail.snippets.bulk_actions.snippet_bulk_action.SnippetBulkAction instead of wagtail.admin.views.bulk_action.BulkAction

Basic example

from wagtail.snippets.bulk_actions.snippet_bulk_action import SnippetBulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomSnippetBulkAction(SnippetBulkAction):
    # ...

If you want to apply an action only to certain snippets, override the models list in the action class

from wagtail.snippets.bulk_actions.snippet_bulk_action import SnippetBulkAction
from wagtail import hooks


@hooks.register('register_bulk_action')
class CustomSnippetBulkAction(SnippetBulkAction):
    models = [SnippetA, SnippetB]
    # ...