Django admin-tools menu for Applications does not shown after I subclass SiteAdmin

Question

I'm using Django with django-admin-tools. After I subclass the SiteAdmin and used it to register my admin classes, the whole Application menu disapears. My modification on index and app_index is just adding a picture property from admin_model to model_dict

class CustomAdminSite(AdminSite):
    @never_cache
    def index(self, request, extra_context=None):
        """
        Displays the main admin index page, which lists all of the installed
        apps that have been registered in this site.
        """
        app_dict = {}
        user = request.user
        for model, model_admin in self._registry.items():
            app_label = model._meta.app_label
            has_module_perms = user.has_module_perms(app_label)

            if has_module_perms:
                perms = model_admin.get_model_perms(request)

                # Check whether user has any perm for this module.
                # If so, add the module to the model_list.
                if True in perms.values():
                    info = (app_label, model._meta.module_name)
                    model_dict = {
                        'name': capfirst(model._meta.verbose_name_plural),
                        'perms': perms,
                    }
                    if hasattr(model_admin, 'picture'):model_dict['picture'] = model_admin.picture
                    if perms.get('change', False):
                        try:
                            model_dict['admin_url'] = reverse('admin:%s_%s_changelist' % info, current_app=self.name)
                        except NoReverseMatch:
                            pass
                    if perms.get('add', False):
                        try:
                            model_dict['add_url'] = reverse('admin:%s_%s_add' % info, current_app=self.name)
                        except NoReverseMatch:
                            pass
                    if app_label in app_dict:
                        app_dict[app_label]['models'].append(model_dict)
                    else:
                        app_dict[app_label] = {
                            'name': app_label.title(),
                            'app_url': reverse('admin:app_list', kwargs={'app_label': app_label}, current_app=self.name),
                            'has_module_perms': has_module_perms,
                            'models': [model_dict],
                        }

        # Sort the apps alphabetically.
        app_list = list(six.itervalues(app_dict))
        app_list.sort(key=lambda x: x['name'])

        # Sort the models alphabetically within each app.
        for app in app_list:
            app['models'].sort(key=lambda x: x['name'])

        context = {
            'title': _('Site administration'),
            'app_list': app_list,
        }
        context.update(extra_context or {})
        return TemplateResponse(request, self.index_template or
                                'admin/index.html', context,
                                current_app=self.name)


    def app_index(self, request, app_label, extra_context=None):
        user = request.user
        has_module_perms = user.has_module_perms(app_label)
        app_dict = {}
        for model, model_admin in self._registry.items():
            if app_label == model._meta.app_label:
                if has_module_perms:
                    perms = model_admin.get_model_perms(request)

                    # Check whether user has any perm for this module.
                    # If so, add the module to the model_list.
                    if True in perms.values():
                        info = (app_label, model._meta.module_name)
                        model_dict = {
                            'name': capfirst(model._meta.verbose_name_plural),
                            'perms': perms,
                        }
                        if hasattr(model_admin, 'picture'):model_dict['picture'] = model_admin.picture
                        if perms.get('change', False):
                            try:
                                model_dict['admin_url'] = reverse('admin:%s_%s_changelist' % info, current_app=self.name)
                            except NoReverseMatch:
                                pass
                        if perms.get('add', False):
                            try:
                                model_dict['add_url'] = reverse('admin:%s_%s_add' % info, current_app=self.name)
                            except NoReverseMatch:
                                pass
                        if app_dict:
                            app_dict['models'].append(model_dict),
                        else:
                            # First time around, now that we know there's
                            # something to display, add in the necessary meta
                            # information.
                            app_dict = {
                                'name': app_label.title(),
                                'app_url': '',
                                'has_module_perms': has_module_perms,
                                'models': [model_dict],
                            }
        if not app_dict:
            raise Http404('The requested admin page does not exist.')
        # Sort the models alphabetically within each app.
        app_dict['models'].sort(key=lambda x: x['name'])
        context = {
            'title': _('%s administration') % capfirst(app_label),
            'app_list': [app_dict],
        }
        context.update(extra_context or {})

        return TemplateResponse(request, self.app_index_template or [
            'admin/%s/app_index.html' % app_label,
            'admin/app_index.html'
        ], context, current_app=self.name)


custom_site = CustomAdminSite(name='admin')
custom_site.register(Group, GroupAdmin)
custom_site.register(User, UserAdmin)
custom_site.register(Site, SiteAdmin)

I have registered all my app models the same way as above, auth and sites menu are shown but none of my apps and their model_admin's

Answer 1

It seems that Django admin-tools support only custom dashboard when using custom admin classes:

Multiple admin site support in django-admin-tools is, at the moment, limited to dashboards. This means you cannot have different menus or theming for each instance of admin sites. This will change in the near near future though.

See here for more info: Working with multiple admin sites