Summary

Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework.

Review Request #14721 — Created Dec. 2, 2025 and submitted Jan. 5, 2026, 8:18 p.m.

Information

Owner

chipx86

Repository

Review Board

Branch

release-7.1.x

Bugs

Depends On

Reviewers

Groups

reviewboard

People

Description

This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an
action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child.
Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with
existing support for the template hook points.

The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer
takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child
action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then
provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to
direct querying if not in the cache).

With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI
sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.

Testing Done

Tested all the links in the admin UI.

Tested fallback Manage item logic when the cache results come up empty.

Commits

Summary	ID
Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	62600e33436f83cf6d95a0e6fb95ce44f4a28a0c

Summary

Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework.

The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.

62600e33436f83cf6d95a0e6fb95ce44f4a28a0c

Files

Issues

Description	From	Last Updated
Can we add tests for some of the new behavior? get_default_admin_actions() get_default_admin_attachment_points() Item counts/urls.	david	Dec. 4, 2025, 3:43 a.m.
Shouldn't this inherit from BaseAdminSidebarGroupAction	david	Dec. 3, 2025, 3:15 p.m.
Shouldn't this inherit from BaseAdminSidebarGroupAction	david	Dec. 3, 2025, 3:15 p.m.
This is no longer setting an expiration on the cache, which means it's not 5 minutes, it's 1 month.	david	Dec. 10, 2025, 8 p.m.
This ends up creating the queryset object when the class is defined, which seems like it might create confusing bugs …	david	Dec. 3, 2025, 3:13 p.m.
It looks like this method is unused now. Can it go away?	david	Dec. 10, 2025, 12:18 a.m.
This should be typed to return Iterator[ActionAttachmentPoint]	david	Dec. 3, 2025, 3:14 p.m.
Typo: actinos -> actions	david	Dec. 10, 2025, 12:18 a.m.
This is making an assumption that sidebar_hook_point is non-None, and it seems like that's the case for the existing groups …	david	Dec. 10, 2025, 12:19 a.m.
Shouldn't we type all of the class variables in this class and in BaseAdminSidebarManageItemAction with ClassVar?	maubin	Dec. 11, 2025, 4:30 p.m.
This and the rest of the private methods below need a version added.	maubin	Dec. 11, 2025, 4:31 p.m.
This is missing from the Args docs.	maubin	Dec. 11, 2025, 4:31 p.m.
This is missing from the Args docs.	maubin	Dec. 11, 2025, 4:32 p.m.

flake8 passed.

JSHint passed.

The issue has been resolved. Show all issues

Can we add tests for some of the new behavior?

get_default_admin_actions()
get_default_admin_attachment_points()
Item counts/urls.

chipx86

Dec. 4, 2025, 4:40 p.m.

Forgot to add the tests files. Adding and updating for some other changes I've made. But I don't know that there's really anything to gain from tests for get_default_admin_*, since these are just returning instances and don't contain any real logic. What were you wanting there?

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 1)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
Shouldn't this inherit from BaseAdminSidebarGroupAction
```
reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 1)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
Shouldn't this inherit from BaseAdminSidebarGroupAction
```

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 1)

The issue has been resolved. Show all issues

This ends up creating the queryset object when the class is defined, which seems like it might create confusing bugs (especially in the case of running tests). I feel like this would be much better done as a property that can be reimplemented in subclasses and return a new QuerySet when needed.

chipx86

Dec. 4, 2025, 4:40 p.m.

I had forgotten the second step in this pattern (which Django also uses), which is to turn the class-defined instance into a local one (adding a .all() at the end does this). I glossed over this part while working on another problem.

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 1)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
This should be typed to return Iterator[ActionAttachmentPoint]
```

Change Summary:


Manage action items can now define a model, with titles/URLs/querysets derived from that.
Caches are now longer and invalidated only when managed models are added/deleted.
Fixed the parent class for the sidebar group actions.
Renamed count_queryset to item_queryset.
Added get_item_queryset(), which returns a local instance instead of a shared copy.
Added exception handling around URL resolution, so a bad URL name doesn't break half the sidebar.
Added back an import to rbadmintags.
FixAddeded typing on get_default_admin_actions() and get_default_admin_attachment_points().
Added unit tests.

Commits:

	Summary	ID
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	61244c3196e612e5e86f2e9ea69d602810c30082
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	737a59ec0d0b9d1ba080d24d469a507099d90a91

Diff:

Revision 2 (+3860 -306)

Show changes

	docs/manual/extending/coderef/index.rst
	reviewboard/actions/base.py
	reviewboard/actions/registry.py
	reviewboard/admin/actions.py
	reviewboard/admin/templatetags/rbadmintags.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_group_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_base_admin_sidebar_manage_item_action.py
	4 more

Checks run (2 succeeded)

flake8 passed.

JSHint passed.

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revisions 1 - 2)

The issue has been resolved. Show all issues

This is no longer setting an expiration on the cache, which means it's not 5 minutes, it's 1 month.

chipx86

Dec. 10, 2025, 12:23 a.m.

Yeah, I removed that now that we have the proper cache invalidation. It's no longer depending on eventually-consistent behavior, which was really noticeable in some of my tests.

david

Dec. 10, 2025, 1:24 p.m.

Can we clarify that in the comment above?

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revisions 1 - 2)

The issue has been resolved. Show all issues

It looks like this method is unused now. Can it go away?

reviewboard/admin/tests/test_base_admin_sidebar_manage_item_action.py (Diff revision 2)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
Typo: actinos -> actions
```

reviewboard/templates/admin/actions/sidebar_group_action.html (Diff revision 2)

The issue has been resolved. Show all issues

This is making an assumption that sidebar_hook_point is non-None, and it seems like that's the case for the existing groups here, but that attribute is typed as str | None and defaults to None, and template_hook_point doesn't do any validation there. Can we wrap this in an if?

Change Summary:


Removed an unused function.
Fixed a typo in a docstring.
Template hook points are now only set if sidebar_hook_point is set.

Commits:

	Summary	ID
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	737a59ec0d0b9d1ba080d24d469a507099d90a91
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	4c8194b52bf409425db2410878eb8999e48dc85d

Diff:

Revision 3 (+3864 -306)

Show changes

	docs/manual/extending/coderef/index.rst
	reviewboard/actions/base.py
	reviewboard/actions/registry.py
	reviewboard/admin/actions.py
	reviewboard/admin/templatetags/rbadmintags.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_group_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_base_admin_sidebar_manage_item_action.py
	4 more

Checks run (2 succeeded)

flake8 passed.

JSHint passed.

Change Summary:

Let's try that again.

Commits:

	Summary	ID
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	4c8194b52bf409425db2410878eb8999e48dc85d
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	00705d84da119ed1bee4d5d94f4e0b3c5301f938

Diff:

Revision 4 (+3826 -306)

Show changes

	docs/manual/extending/coderef/index.rst
	reviewboard/actions/base.py
	reviewboard/actions/registry.py
	reviewboard/admin/actions.py
	reviewboard/admin/templatetags/rbadmintags.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_group_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_base_admin_sidebar_manage_item_action.py
	4 more

Checks run (2 succeeded)

flake8 passed.

JSHint passed.

Change Summary:

Fixed an outdated comment about the cache time for item counts.

Commits:

	Summary	ID
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	00705d84da119ed1bee4d5d94f4e0b3c5301f938
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	252e3ded9ef0df4fc012e3ebb6a50570f8e22957

Diff:

Revision 5 (+3828 -306)

Show changes

	docs/manual/extending/coderef/index.rst
	reviewboard/actions/base.py
	reviewboard/actions/registry.py
	reviewboard/admin/actions.py
	reviewboard/admin/templatetags/rbadmintags.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_group_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_base_admin_sidebar_manage_item_action.py
	4 more

Checks run (2 succeeded)

flake8 passed.

JSHint passed.

Ship it!

```
Ship It!
```

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 5)

The issue has been resolved. Show all issues

Shouldn't we type all of the class variables in this class and in BaseAdminSidebarManageItemAction with ClassVar?

chipx86

Dec. 11, 2025, 5:03 p.m.

Yeah, I suppose we can. Initially I was letting subclasses modify some of this at instantiation time, but I moved to methods when adding error handling.

reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 5)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
This and the rest of the private methods below need a version added.
```
reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 5)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
This is missing from the Args docs.
```
reviewboard/admin/actions.py (Diff revision 5)
The issue has been resolved. Show all issues
```
This is missing from the Args docs.
```

Change Summary:


Added ClassVar to types.
Added missing Version Added docs.
Added missing sender arg docs.

Commits:

	Summary	ID
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	252e3ded9ef0df4fc012e3ebb6a50570f8e22957
	Convert the Admin UI sidebar to use the action framework. The admin sidebar used to be composed based off of an HTML file populated using state from a template tag, with template hooks to append custom HTML to the sections. While there was some degree of extensibility, it was a bit limited, requiring the consumer to generate just the right HTML. This change converts the sidebar to use actions instead. There's now an action group per group in the sidebar, and an action per child. Specialized sidebar action renderers take care of rendering with existing support for the template hook points. The Manage section has the most specializations. The group renderer takes care of looking up the counts and Add Item URLs for each child action, caching the results for quicker lookup. The item renderer then provides this to a template, based on the cached state (falling back to direct querying if not in the cache). With this, extensions can now simply register actions in the Admin UI sidebar, taking advantage of the built-in rendering and capabilities.	62600e33436f83cf6d95a0e6fb95ce44f4a28a0c

Diff:

Revision 6 (+3870 -306)

Show changes

	docs/manual/extending/coderef/index.rst
	reviewboard/actions/base.py
	reviewboard/actions/registry.py
	reviewboard/admin/actions.py
	reviewboard/admin/templatetags/rbadmintags.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_group_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_admin_sidebar_manage_action_renderer.py
	reviewboard/admin/tests/test_base_admin_sidebar_manage_item_action.py
	4 more

Checks run (2 succeeded)

flake8 passed.

JSHint passed.

Ship it!

```
Ship It!
```

Ship it!

```
Ship It!
```

Status:: Completed
Change Summary:: Pushed to release-7.1.x (9992cc3)