How to retrieve objects with a foreign key self

Question

I have a model Category which has a FK reference to itself. How can i send the data to a template and make it look like this

• Category 1
  • List item
  • List item
• Category 2
  • List item
  • List item

Answer 1

Looks like you're trying to make recursion work in templates. This might help: http://www.undefinedfire.com/lab/recursion-django-templates/

Answer 2

You might be looking for something like this:

models.py

from django.db import models

class Category(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    parent = models.ForeignKey('self', blank=True, null=True, related_name='child')
    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name
    class Meta:
        verbose_name_plural = 'categories'
        ordering = ['name']

views.py

from myapp.models import Category # Change 'myapp' to your applications name.
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response

def category(request)
    cat_list = Category.objects.select_related().filter(parent=None)
    return render_to_response('template.html', { 'cat_list': cat_list })

template.html

<ul>
{% for cat in cat_list %}
    <li>{{ cat.name }}</li>
    <ul>
    {% for item in cat.child.all %}
        <li>{{ item.name }}</li>
    {% endfor %}
    </ul>
{% endfor %}
</ul>