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Django shortcut functions

The package django.shortcuts collects helper functions and classes that “span” multiple levels of MVC. In other words, these functions/classes introduce controlled coupling for convenience’s sake.

render

render(request, template_name[, dictionary][, context_instance][, content_type][, status][, current_app][, dirs])

Combines a given template with a given context dictionary and returns an HttpResponse object with that rendered text.

render() is the same as a call to render_to_response() with a context_instance argument that forces the use of a RequestContext.

Django does not provide a shortcut function which returns a TemplateResponse because the constructor of TemplateResponse offers the same level of convenience as render().

Required arguments

request
The request object used to generate this response.
template_name
The full name of a template to use or sequence of template names.

Optional arguments

dictionary
A dictionary of values to add to the template context. By default, this is an empty dictionary. If a value in the dictionary is callable, the view will call it just before rendering the template.
context_instance
The context instance to render the template with. By default, the template will be rendered with a RequestContext instance (filled with values from request and dictionary).
content_type
The MIME type to use for the resulting document. Defaults to the value of the DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE setting.
status
The status code for the response. Defaults to 200.
current_app
A hint indicating which application contains the current view. See the namespaced URL resolution strategy for more information.
dirs
A tuple or list of values to override the TEMPLATE_DIRS setting.
Changed in Django 1.7:

The dirs parameter was added.

Example

The following example renders the template myapp/index.html with the MIME type application/xhtml+xml:

from django.shortcuts import render

def my_view(request):
    # View code here...
    return render(request, 'myapp/index.html', {"foo": "bar"},
        content_type="application/xhtml+xml")

This example is equivalent to:

from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.template import RequestContext, loader

def my_view(request):
    # View code here...
    t = loader.get_template('myapp/index.html')
    c = RequestContext(request, {'foo': 'bar'})
    return HttpResponse(t.render(c),
        content_type="application/xhtml+xml")

If you want to override the TEMPLATE_DIRS setting, use the dirs parameter:

from django.shortcuts import render

def my_view(request):
    # View code here...
    return render(request, 'index.html', dirs=('custom_templates',))

render_to_response

render_to_response(template_name[, dictionary][, context_instance][, content_type][, dirs])

Renders a given template with a given context dictionary and returns an HttpResponse object with that rendered text.

Required arguments

template_name
The full name of a template to use or sequence of template names. If a sequence is given, the first template that exists will be used. See the template loader documentation for more information on how templates are found.

Optional arguments

dictionary
A dictionary of values to add to the template context. By default, this is an empty dictionary. If a value in the dictionary is callable, the view will call it just before rendering the template.
context_instance

The context instance to render the template with. By default, the template will be rendered with a Context instance (filled with values from dictionary). If you need to use context processors, render the template with a RequestContext instance instead. Your code might look something like this:

return render_to_response('my_template.html',
                          my_data_dictionary,
                          context_instance=RequestContext(request))
content_type
The MIME type to use for the resulting document. Defaults to the value of the DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE setting.
dirs
A tuple or list of values to override the TEMPLATE_DIRS setting.
Changed in Django 1.7:

The dirs parameter was added.

Example

The following example renders the template myapp/index.html with the MIME type application/xhtml+xml:

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response

def my_view(request):
    # View code here...
    return render_to_response('myapp/index.html', {"foo": "bar"},
        content_type="application/xhtml+xml")

This example is equivalent to:

from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.template import Context, loader

def my_view(request):
    # View code here...
    t = loader.get_template('myapp/index.html')
    c = Context({'foo': 'bar'})
    return HttpResponse(t.render(c),
        content_type="application/xhtml+xml")

If you want to override the TEMPLATE_DIRS setting, use the dirs parameter:

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response

def my_view(request):
    # View code here...
    return render_to_response('index.html', dirs=('custom_templates',))

redirect

redirect(to, [permanent=False, ]*args, **kwargs)

Returns an HttpResponseRedirect to the appropriate URL for the arguments passed.

The arguments could be:

  • A model: the model’s get_absolute_url() function will be called.
  • A view name, possibly with arguments: urlresolvers.reverse will be used to reverse-resolve the name.
  • An absolute or relative URL, which will be used as-is for the redirect location.

By default issues a temporary redirect; pass permanent=True to issue a permanent redirect.

Changed in Django 1.7:

The ability to use relative URLs was added.

Examples

You can use the redirect() function in a number of ways.

  1. By passing some object; that object’s get_absolute_url() method will be called to figure out the redirect URL:

    from django.shortcuts import redirect

def my_view(request):
    ...
    object = MyModel.objects.get(...)
    return redirect(object)

  2. By passing the name of a view and optionally some positional or keyword arguments; the URL will be reverse resolved using the reverse() method:

    def my_view(request):
    ...
    return redirect('some-view-name', foo='bar')

  3. By passing a hardcoded URL to redirect to:

    def my_view(request):
    ...
    return redirect('/some/url/')

    This also works with full URLs:

    def my_view(request):
    ...
    return redirect('http://example.com/')

By default, redirect() returns a temporary redirect. All of the above forms accept a permanent argument; if set to True a permanent redirect will be returned:

def my_view(request):
    ...
    object = MyModel.objects.get(...)
    return redirect(object, permanent=True)

get_object_or_404

get_object_or_404(klass, *args, **kwargs)

Calls get() on a given model manager, but it raises Http404 instead of the model’s DoesNotExist exception.

Required arguments

klass
A Model class, a Manager, or a QuerySet instance from which to get the object.
**kwargs
Lookup parameters, which should be in the format accepted by get() and filter().

Example

The following example gets the object with the primary key of 1 from MyModel:

from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404

def my_view(request):
    my_object = get_object_or_404(MyModel, pk=1)

This example is equivalent to:

from django.http import Http404

def my_view(request):
    try:
        my_object = MyModel.objects.get(pk=1)
    except MyModel.DoesNotExist:
        raise Http404("No MyModel matches the given query.")

The most common use case is to pass a Model, as shown above. However, you can also pass a QuerySet instance:

queryset = Book.objects.filter(title__startswith='M')
get_object_or_404(queryset, pk=1)

The above example is a bit contrived since it’s equivalent to doing:

get_object_or_404(Book, title__startswith='M', pk=1)

but it can be useful if you are passed the queryset variable from somewhere else.

Finally, you can also use a Manager. This is useful for example if you have a custom manager:

get_object_or_404(Book.dahl_objects, title='Matilda')

You can also use related managers:

author = Author.objects.get(name='Roald Dahl')
get_object_or_404(author.book_set, title='Matilda')

Note: As with get(), a MultipleObjectsReturned exception will be raised if more than one object is found.

get_list_or_404

get_list_or_404(klass, *args, **kwargs)

Returns the result of filter() on a given model manager cast to a list, raising Http404 if the resulting list is empty.

Required arguments

klass
A Model, Manager or QuerySet instance from which to get the list.
**kwargs
Lookup parameters, which should be in the format accepted by get() and filter().

Example

The following example gets all published objects from MyModel:

from django.shortcuts import get_list_or_404

def my_view(request):
    my_objects = get_list_or_404(MyModel, published=True)

This example is equivalent to:

from django.http import Http404

def my_view(request):
    my_objects = list(MyModel.objects.filter(published=True))
    if not my_objects:
        raise Http404("No MyModel matches the given query.")
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