SearchView

baseviews.py

from django.views.generic import ListView
from django.views.generic.edit import FormMixin
from django.db.models import Q

class SearchView(FormMixin, ListView):
    template_name_suffix = '_search'
    filter_operator = 'contains'
    allow_or_operator = False

    def get_filter_operator(self):
        if self.filter_operator:
            return '__' + self.filter_operator
        else:
            return ''

    def get_allow_or_operator(self):
        return self.allow_or_operator

    def get_queryset(self):
        queryset = super(SearchView, self).get_queryset()
        params = dict([
            ('%s%s' % (k, self.get_filter_operator()), v)
            for k,v in self.request.GET.dict().iteritems()
            if v
        ])
        if self.get_allow_or_operator():
            filter_or = Q()
            for p in params.items():
                filter_or = filter_or | Q(**dict([p]))
            queryset = queryset.filter(filter_or)
        else:
            queryset = queryset.filter(**params)
        return queryset

    def get_initial(self):
        initial = self.initial.copy()
        initial.update(self.request.GET.dict())
        return initial

    def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        self.object_list = self.get_queryset()
        context = self.get_context_data(
            object_list=self.object_list,
            form=self.get_form(self.get_form_class())
        )
        return self.render_to_response(context)

forms.py

from django import forms

class SearchUserForm(forms.Form):
    username = forms.CharField(label='Username', max_length=30)
    first_name = forms.CharField(label='First Name', max_length=30)

views.py

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

from baseviews import SearchView
from forms import SearchUserForm


class SearchUserView(SearchView):
    model = User
    form_class = SearchUserForm
    allow_or_operator = True
    filter_operator = 'startswith'