Hooks

On loading, Wagtail will search for any app with the file wagtail_hooks.py and execute the contents. This provides a way to register your own functions to execute at certain points in Wagtail’s execution, such as when a Page object is saved or when the main menu is constructed.

Registering functions with a Wagtail hook is done through the @hooks.register decorator:

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('name_of_hook')
def my_hook_function(arg1, arg2...)
    # your code here

Alternatively, hooks.register can be called as an ordinary function, passing in the name of the hook and a handler function defined elsewhere:

hooks.register('name_of_hook', my_hook_function)

The available hooks are listed below.

Admin modules

Hooks for building new areas of the admin interface (alongside pages, images, documents and so on).

construct_homepage_panels

Add or remove panels from the Wagtail admin homepage. The callable passed into this hook should take a request object and a list of panels, objects which have a render() method returning a string. The objects also have an order property, an integer used for ordering the panels. The default panels use integers between 100 and 300.

from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

class WelcomePanel(object):
    order = 50

    def render(self):
        return mark_safe("""
        <section class="panel summary nice-padding">
          <h3>No, but seriously -- welcome to the admin homepage.</h3>
        </section>
        """)

@hooks.register('construct_homepage_panels')
def add_another_welcome_panel(request, panels):
  return panels.append( WelcomePanel() )

construct_homepage_summary_items

New in version 1.0.

Add or remove items from the ‘site summary’ bar on the admin homepage (which shows the number of pages and other object that exist on the site). The callable passed into this hook should take a request object and a list of SummaryItem objects to be modified as required. These objects have a render() method, which returns an HTML string, and an order property, which is an integer that specifies the order in which the items will appear.

construct_main_menu

Called just before the Wagtail admin menu is output, to allow the list of menu items to be modified. The callable passed to this hook will receive a request object and a list of menu_items, and should modify menu_items in-place as required. Adding menu items should generally be done through the register_admin_menu_item hook instead - items added through construct_main_menu will be missing any associated JavaScript includes, and their is_shown check will not be applied.

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('construct_main_menu')
def hide_explorer_menu_item_from_frank(request, menu_items):
  if request.user.username == 'frank':
    menu_items[:] = [item for item in menu_items if item.name != 'explorer']

describe_collection_contents

Called when Wagtail needs to find out what objects exist in a collection, if any. Currently this happens on the confirmation before deleting a collection, to ensure that non-empty collections cannot be deleted. The callable passed to this hook will receive a collection object, and should return either None (to indicate no objects in this collection), or a dict containing the following keys:
count
A numeric count of items in this collection
count_text
A human-readable string describing the number of items in this collection, such as “3 documents”. (Sites with multi-language support should return a translatable string here, most likely using the django.utils.translation.ungettext function.)
url (optional)
A URL to an index page that lists the objects being described.

register_admin_menu_item

Add an item to the Wagtail admin menu. The callable passed to this hook must return an instance of wagtail.wagtailadmin.menu.MenuItem. New items can be constructed from the MenuItem class by passing in a label which will be the text in the menu item, and the URL of the admin page you want the menu item to link to (usually by calling reverse() on the admin view you’ve set up). Additionally, the following keyword arguments are accepted:

name:an internal name used to identify the menu item; defaults to the slugified form of the label.
classnames:additional classnames applied to the link, used to give it an icon
attrs:additional HTML attributes to apply to the link
order:an integer which determines the item’s position in the menu

MenuItem can be subclassed to customise the HTML output, specify JavaScript files required by the menu item, or conditionally show or hide the item for specific requests (for example, to apply permission checks); see the source code (wagtail/wagtailadmin/menu.py) for details.

from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks
from wagtail.wagtailadmin.menu import MenuItem

@hooks.register('register_admin_menu_item')
def register_frank_menu_item():
  return MenuItem('Frank', reverse('frank'), classnames='icon icon-folder-inverse', order=10000)

register_admin_urls

Register additional admin page URLs. The callable fed into this hook should return a list of Django URL patterns which define the structure of the pages and endpoints of your extension to the Wagtail admin. For more about vanilla Django URLconfs and views, see url dispatcher.

from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.conf.urls import url

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

def admin_view( request ):
  return HttpResponse( \
    "I have approximate knowledge of many things!", \
    content_type="text/plain")

@hooks.register('register_admin_urls')
def urlconf_time():
  return [
    url(r'^how_did_you_almost_know_my_name/$', admin_view, name='frank' ),
  ]

register_group_permission_panel

Add a new panel to the Groups form in the ‘settings’ area. The callable passed to this hook must return a ModelForm / ModelFormSet-like class, with a constructor that accepts a group object as its instance keyword argument, and which implements the methods save, is_valid, and as_admin_panel (which returns the HTML to be included on the group edit page).

register_settings_menu_item

As register_admin_menu_item, but registers menu items into the ‘Settings’ sub-menu rather than the top-level menu.

register_admin_search_area

Add an item to the Wagtail admin search “Other Searches”. Behaviour of this hook is similar to register_admin_menu_item. The callable passed to this hook must return an instance of wagtail.wagtailadmin.search.SearchArea. New items can be constructed from the SearchArea class by passing the following parameters:

label:text displayed in the “Other Searches” option box.
name:an internal name used to identify the search option; defaults to the slugified form of the label.
url:the URL of the target search page.
classnames:additional CSS classnames applied to the link, used to give it an icon.
attrs:additional HTML attributes to apply to the link.
order:an integer which determines the item’s position in the list of options.

Setting the URL can be achieved using reverse() on the target search page. The GET parameter ‘q’ will be appended to the given URL.

A template tag, search_other is provided by the wagtailadmin_tags template module. This tag takes a single, optional parameter, current, which allows you to specify the name of the search option currently active. If the parameter is not given, the hook defaults to a reverse lookup of the page’s URL for comparison against the url parameter.

SearchArea can be subclassed to customise the HTML output, specify JavaScript files required by the option, or conditionally show or hide the item for specific requests (for example, to apply permission checks); see the source code (wagtail/wagtailadmin/search.py) for details.

from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks
from wagtail.wagtailadmin.search import SearchArea

@hooks.register('register_admin_search_area')
def register_frank_search_area():
    return SearchArea('Frank', reverse('frank'), classnames='icon icon-folder-inverse', order=10000)

register_permissions

Return a queryset of Permission objects to be shown in the Groups administration area.

filter_form_submissions_for_user

Allows access to form submissions to be customised on a per-user, per-form basis.

This hook takes two parameters:
  • The user attempting to access form submissions
  • A QuerySet of form pages

The hook must return a QuerySet containing a subset of these form pages which the user is allowed to access the submissions for.

For example, to prevent non-superusers from accessing form submissions:

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks


@hooks.register('filter_form_submissions_for_user')
def construct_forms_for_user(user, queryset):
    if not user.is_superuser:
        queryset = queryset.none()

    return queryset

Editor interface

Hooks for customising the editing interface for pages and snippets.

construct_whitelister_element_rules

Customise the rules that define which HTML elements are allowed in rich text areas. By default only a limited set of HTML elements and attributes are whitelisted - all others are stripped out. The callables passed into this hook must return a dict, which maps element names to handler functions that will perform some kind of manipulation of the element. These handler functions receive the element as a BeautifulSoup Tag object.

The wagtail.wagtailcore.whitelist module provides a few helper functions to assist in defining these handlers: allow_without_attributes, a handler which preserves the element but strips out all of its attributes, and attribute_rule which accepts a dict specifying how to handle each attribute, and returns a handler function. This dict will map attribute names to either True (indicating that the attribute should be kept), False (indicating that it should be dropped), or a callable (which takes the initial attribute value and returns either a final value for the attribute, or None to drop the attribute).

For example, the following hook function will add the <blockquote> element to the whitelist, and allow the target attribute on <a> elements:

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks
from wagtail.wagtailcore.whitelist import attribute_rule, check_url, allow_without_attributes

@hooks.register('construct_whitelister_element_rules')
def whitelister_element_rules():
    return {
        'blockquote': allow_without_attributes,
        'a': attribute_rule({'href': check_url, 'target': True}),
    }

insert_editor_css

Add additional CSS files or snippets to the page editor.

from django.contrib.staticfiles.templatetags.staticfiles import static
from django.utils.html import format_html

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('insert_editor_css')
def editor_css():
    return format_html(
        '<link rel="stylesheet" href="{}">',
        static('demo/css/vendor/font-awesome/css/font-awesome.min.css')
    )

insert_global_admin_css

Add additional CSS files or snippets to all admin pages.

from django.utils.html import format_html
from django.contrib.staticfiles.templatetags.staticfiles import static

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('insert_global_admin_css')
def global_admin_css():
    return format_html('<link rel="stylesheet" href="{}">', static('my/wagtail/theme.css'))

insert_editor_js

Add additional JavaScript files or code snippets to the page editor.

from django.utils.html import format_html, format_html_join
from django.conf import settings

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('insert_editor_js')
def editor_js():
    js_files = [
        'demo/js/hallo-plugins/hallo-demo-plugin.js',
    ]
    js_includes = format_html_join('\n', '<script src="{0}{1}"></script>',
        ((settings.STATIC_URL, filename) for filename in js_files)
    )
    return js_includes + format_html(
        """
        <script>
            registerHalloPlugin('demoeditor');
        </script>
        """
    )

insert_global_admin_js

Add additional JavaScript files or code snippets to all admin pages.

from django.utils.html import format_html

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('insert_global_admin_js')
def global_admin_js():
    return format_html(
        '<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/three.js/r74/three.js"></script>',
    )

Editor workflow

Hooks for customising the way users are directed through the process of creating page content.

after_create_page

Do something with a Page object after it has been saved to the database (as a published page or a revision). The callable passed to this hook should take a request object and a page object. The function does not have to return anything, but if an object with a status_code property is returned, Wagtail will use it as a response object. By default, Wagtail will instead redirect to the Explorer page for the new page’s parent.

from django.http import HttpResponse

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('after_create_page')
def do_after_page_create(request, page):
    return HttpResponse("Congrats on making content!", content_type="text/plain")

before_create_page

Called at the beginning of the “create page” view passing in the request, the parent page and page model class.

The function does not have to return anything, but if an object with a status_code property is returned, Wagtail will use it as a response object and skip the rest of the view.

Unlike, after_create_page, this is run both for both GET and POST requests.

This can be used to completely override the editor on a per-view basis:

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

from .models import AwesomePage
from .admin_views import edit_awesome_page

@hooks.register('before_create_page')
def before_create_page(request, parent_page, page_class):
    # Use a custom create view for the AwesomePage model
    if page_class == AwesomePage:
        return create_awesome_page(request, parent_page)

after_delete_page

Do something after a Page object is deleted. Uses the same behavior as after_create_page.

before_delete_page

Called at the beginning of the “delete page” view passing in the request and the page object.

Uses the same behavior as before_create_page.

after_edit_page

Do something with a Page object after it has been updated. Uses the same behavior as after_create_page.

before_edit_page

Called at the beginning of the “edit page” view passing in the request and the page object.

Uses the same behavior as before_create_page.

construct_wagtail_userbar

Changed in version 1.0: The hook was renamed from construct_wagtail_edit_bird

Add or remove items from the wagtail userbar. Add, edit, and moderation tools are provided by default. The callable passed into the hook must take the request object and a list of menu objects, items. The menu item objects must have a render method which can take a request object and return the HTML string representing the menu item. See the userbar templates and menu item classes for more information.

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

class UserbarPuppyLinkItem(object):
    def render(self, request):
        return '<li><a href="http://cuteoverload.com/tag/puppehs/" ' \
            + 'target="_parent" class="action icon icon-wagtail">Puppies!</a></li>'

@hooks.register('construct_wagtail_userbar')
def add_puppy_link_item(request, items):
    return items.append( UserbarPuppyLinkItem() )

Page explorer

construct_explorer_page_queryset

Called when rendering the page explorer view, to allow the page listing queryset to be customised. The callable passed into the hook will receive the parent page object, the current page queryset, and the request object, and must return a Page queryset (either the original one, or a new one).

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('construct_explorer_page_queryset')
def show_my_profile_only(parent_page, pages, request):
    # If we're in the 'user-profiles' section, only show the user's own profile
    if parent_page.slug == 'user-profiles':
        pages = pages.filter(owner=request.user)

    return pages

register_page_listing_buttons

Add buttons to the actions list for a page in the page explorer. This is useful when adding custom actions to the listing, such as translations or a complex workflow.

This example will add a simple button to the listing:

from wagtail.wagtailadmin import widgets as wagtailadmin_widgets

@hooks.register('register_page_listing_buttons')
def page_listing_buttons(page, page_perms, is_parent=False):
    yield wagtailadmin_widgets.PageListingButton(
        'A page listing button',
        '/goes/to/a/url/',
        priority=10
    )

The priority argument controls the order the buttons are displayed in. Buttons are ordered from low to high priority, so a button with priority=10 will be displayed before a button with priority=20.

Buttons with dropdown lists

The admin widgets also provide ButtonWithDropdownFromHook, which allows you to define a custom hook for generating a dropdown menu that gets attached to your button.

Creating a button with a dropdown menu involves two steps. Firstly, you add your button to the register_page_listing_buttons hook, just like the example above. Secondly, you register a new hook that yields the contents of the dropdown menu.

This example shows how Wagtail’s default admin dropdown is implemented. You can also see how to register buttons conditionally, in this case by evaluating the page_perms:

@hooks.register('register_page_listing_buttons')
def page_custom_listing_buttons(page, page_perms, is_parent=False):
    yield wagtailadmin_widgets.ButtonWithDropdownFromHook(
        'More actions',
        hook_name='my_button_dropdown_hook',
        page=page,
        page_perms=page_perms,
        is_parent=is_parent,
        priority=50
    )

@hooks.register('my_button_dropdown_hook')
def page_custom_listing_more_buttons(page, page_perms, is_parent=False):
    if page_perms.can_move():
        yield Button('Move', reverse('wagtailadmin_pages:move', args=[page.id]), priority=10)
    if page_perms.can_delete():
        yield Button('Delete', reverse('wagtailadmin_pages:delete', args=[page.id]), priority=30)
    if page_perms.can_unpublish():
        yield Button('Unpublish', reverse('wagtailadmin_pages:unpublish', args=[page.id]), priority=40)

The template for the dropdown button can be customised by overriding wagtailadmin/pages/listing/_button_with_dropdown.html. The JavaScript that runs the dropdowns makes use of custom data attributes, so you should leave data-dropdown and data-dropdown-toggle in the markup if you customise it.

Page serving

before_serve_page

Called when Wagtail is about to serve a page. The callable passed into the hook will receive the page object, the request object, and the args and kwargs that will be passed to the page’s serve() method. If the callable returns an HttpResponse, that response will be returned immediately to the user, and Wagtail will not proceed to call serve() on the page.

from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks

@hooks.register('before_serve_page')
def block_googlebot(page, request, serve_args, serve_kwargs):
    if request.META.get('HTTP_USER_AGENT') == 'GoogleBot':
        return HttpResponse("<h1>bad googlebot no cookie</h1>")