Fix AlertAdminForm tags field and MultiChoiceArrayField issues in Dja…

[Nivikiwi]

Description
This PR fixes the tags field behavior in the Django Admin for the Alert model.
Previously, the tags ArrayField was rendered as a free-text input or appeared empty due to incorrect form/widget configuration. Multiple attempts using custom widgets and SimpleArrayField caused admin page crashes and internal server errors.

1. Steps to Reproduce

• Start the Django development server
  Run the command : python manage.py runserver on virtual environment

• Use the command : "docker restart buffalogs"
  run the command on the project root (BuffaLogs)

• Go to the admin panel
  http://127.0.0.1:8001/admin/

• Open any existing Alert object or create a new one

• Observe the tags field:
  Renders as a free-text input or
  Renders empty with no selectable values or
  Admin page crashes with HTTP 500 error

2. Evidence

• Django Admin returned:
  500 Internal Server Error

• Tracebacks included errors such as:
  TypeError: Field.init() got an unexpected keyword argument 'base_field'

3. Attempted Solutions

• Tried using filter_horizontal → only works with ManyToManyField
• Custom SimpleArrayField + widgets → broke admin rendering
• Passing base_field to MultipleChoiceField → invalid argument
• Overriding admin widgets directly → values disappeared

4. Changes

• Simplified tags handling by removing Select2 and custom widgets.
• Replaced complex multi-select configuration with a standard MultipleChoiceField.
• Added explicit clean_tags() implementation to correctly parse multi-value inputs from admin POST data.
• Prevented invalid None values by normalizing empty selections to an empty list.
• Reduced admin form complexity and eliminated prior widget-related errors.

5. Results and Screenshots

• Django Admin loads successfully
• Tags render as a searchable multi-select dropdown
• Multiple tags can be selected and saved
• Existing tag values are preserved
• No runtime errors or admin crashes

Closes #497

[Lorygold]

why 171 files changed?

[Nivikiwi]

why 171 files changed?

sorry i accidentally pushed all the files, the files that are not even changed were pushed.
I have edited it , now you can see 4 files only

[Lorygold]

could be possible to do it without new tools, such as select2? Same as the other fields are implemented

[Nivikiwi]

could be possible to do it without new tools, such as select2? Same as the other fields are implemented

I initially attempted this using Django’s built-in widgets and MultipleChoiceField, but couldn’t get it working as expected for this field. While exploring alternatives, I tried DjangoSelect2 as a quick solution. I found out that DjangoSelect2 has a better UI interface and the user need not search for the tag manually in the list. I checked the method used by others... they used something called append which is not having a good UI interface when compared with Djangoselect2 , user need to manually find tags in the list and it is hard to work with when there is a list of long tags

I agree that it’s better to avoid new dependencies here and I can refactor this to use Django’s native admin widgets instead.

[Lorygold]

yes, the same widget already used for other fields (such as in the Config model) are preferred

[Nivikiwi]

yes, the same widget already used for other fields (such as in the Config model) are preferred

I’ve pushed the updated code. Would you like me to make any additional changes?
The updated code output

[Lorygold]

the black linter fails, run it locally as defined in the CONTRIBUTING.md file

[Nivikiwi]

the black linter fails, run it locally as defined in the CONTRIBUTING.md file

I did use the command "black (file.py)" locally but I didn't understand why it is not reflecting on the file

[Lorygold]

@Nivikiwi you should use the linters locally with the configurations files defined in the project, so running them with exactly the same command defined in the CONTRIBUTING.md file.
For example:
> black --config .github/configurations/python_linters/.black .
not only > black .

Did you?

[Nivikiwi]

@Nivikiwi you should use the linters locally with the configurations files defined in the project, so running them with exactly the same command defined in the CONTRIBUTING.md file. For example: > black --config .github/configurations/python_linters/.black . not only > black .

Did you?

yes i did that and i am able to see

[Lorygold]

which version of black do you have locally?

[Nivikiwi]

which version of black do you have locally?

black, 24.2.0

[Nivikiwi]

which version of black do you have locally?

black, 24.2.0
I think there has been a version mismatch

[Lorygold]

Try to install black 26.1.0 locally and running:
> black . --check --diff --config ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/.github/configurations/python_linters/.black

[Lorygold]

@Nivikiwi in the CI it's already been updated, you have just to merged from the develop branch, not updating it manually in this PR

[Lorygold]

@Nivikiwi sorry, but why you changed a lot of files that should not been affected by this fix?

[Nivikiwi]

@Nivikiwi sorry, but why you changed a lot of files that should not been affected by this fix?

I'm so sorry but i was just checking why my files are failing in the CI run test
I have undo the files

[Lorygold]

@Nivikiwi I tested it locally, the changes to the forms.py work correctly, undo the changed to the other files (settings.py, docker-compose and _python.yml) please and it's okay

[Nivikiwi]

@Nivikiwi I tested it locally, the changes to the forms.py work correctly, undo the changed to the other files (settings.py, docker-compose and _python.yml) please and it's okay

Thank you so much and sorry for the inconvenience
I tested it locally and reformatted settings.py file locally with black and also ran "black . --check --diff --config .github/configurations/python_linters/.black" this command
It all looks good now
Can you retrigger the CI test now

[Lorygold]

@Nivikiwi I tested it locally, the changes to the forms.py work correctly, undo the changed to the other files (settings.py, docker-compose and _python.yml) please and it's okay

Thank you so much and sorry for the inconvenience I tested it locally and reformatted settings.py file locally with black and also ran "black . --check --diff --config .github/configurations/python_linters/.black" this command It all looks good now Can you retrigger the CI test now

Undo the changed to the other files (settings.py, docker-compose and _python.yml), not needed

[Lorygold]

Here we go, could you please undo also the changes to the docker-compose and settings files, please?

[Nivikiwi]

Here we go, could you please undo also the changes to the docker-compose and settings files, please?

yes

[Nivikiwi]

the CI test is failing again and I don't understand where it is going wrong as I have formatted the forms.py file locally and checked locally if it it formatted and it says it has been formatted
Can you help me?
Thank you

[Lorygold]

it's because the following lines are still modified, not left unchanged as required:

[Nivikiwi]

it's because the following lines are still modified, not left unchanged as required:

Yes , now I have reformatted the file and also the lines are now back to how there actually were

[Nivikiwi]

it's because the following lines are still modified, not left unchanged as required:

I have kept those lines as they were but the CI test failed again
I ran black forms.py command and noticed that when I executed the command, it formatted the file in such a way that the import from .constants line the alertagvalues and everything else goes one below the other because of the formatting

[Lorygold]

I've fixed just applying black, isort and flake8 locally and pushing the changes; I think that you just have different linters versions locally

[Nivikiwi]

I've fixed just applying black, isort and flake8 locally and pushing the changes; I think that you just have different linters versions locally

I think so
Thank you so much for your help and guidance throughout this issue.
This was my first contribution, and I made a few mistakes along the way — your explanations and patience really helped me understand where I was going wrong.
I really appreciate you taking the time to help me close this issue. Thanks again!

[Lorygold]

I've fixed just applying black, isort and flake8 locally and pushing the changes; I think that you just have different linters versions locally

I think so Thank you so much for your help and guidance throughout this issue. This was my first contribution, and I made a few mistakes along the way — your explanations and patience really helped me understand where I was going wrong. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me close this issue. Thanks again!

Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m really glad my explanations were helpful and that you were able to close the issue successfully. It was a pleasure to help, and I appreciate your thoughtful feedback.