views.txt 5.9 KB

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159
  1. =============
  2. Writing views
  3. =============
  4. A view function, or *view* for short, is simply a Python function that takes a
  5. Web request and returns a Web response. This response can be the HTML contents
  6. of a Web page, or a redirect, or a 404 error, or an XML document, or an image .
  7. . . or anything, really. The view itself contains whatever arbitrary logic is
  8. necessary to return that response. This code can live anywhere you want, as long
  9. as it's on your Python path. There's no other requirement--no "magic," so to
  10. speak. For the sake of putting the code *somewhere*, the convention is to
  11. put views in a file called ``views.py``, placed in your project or
  12. application directory.
  13. A simple view
  14. =============
  15. Here's a view that returns the current date and time, as an HTML document:
  16. .. code-block:: python
  17. from django.http import HttpResponse
  18. import datetime
  19. def current_datetime(request):
  20. now = datetime.datetime.now()
  21. html = "<html><body>It is now %s.</body></html>" % now
  22. return HttpResponse(html)
  23. Let's step through this code one line at a time:
  24. * First, we import the class :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` from the
  25. :mod:`django.http` module, along with Python's ``datetime`` library.
  26. * Next, we define a function called ``current_datetime``. This is the view
  27. function. Each view function takes an :class:`~django.http.HttpRequest`
  28. object as its first parameter, which is typically named ``request``.
  29. Note that the name of the view function doesn't matter; it doesn't have to
  30. be named in a certain way in order for Django to recognize it. We're
  31. calling it ``current_datetime`` here, because that name clearly indicates
  32. what it does.
  33. * The view returns an :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` object that
  34. contains the generated response. Each view function is responsible for
  35. returning an :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` object. (There are
  36. exceptions, but we'll get to those later.)
  37. .. admonition:: Django's Time Zone
  38. Django includes a :setting:`TIME_ZONE` setting that defaults to
  39. ``America/Chicago``. This probably isn't where you live, so you might want
  40. to change it in your settings file.
  41. Mapping URLs to views
  42. =====================
  43. So, to recap, this view function returns an HTML page that includes the current
  44. date and time. To display this view at a particular URL, you'll need to create a
  45. *URLconf*; see :doc:`/topics/http/urls` for instructions.
  46. Returning errors
  47. ================
  48. Returning HTTP error codes in Django is easy. There are subclasses of
  49. :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` for a number of common HTTP status codes
  50. other than 200 (which means *"OK"*). You can find the full list of available
  51. subclasses in the :ref:`request/response <ref-httpresponse-subclasses>`
  52. documentation. Just return an instance of one of those subclasses instead of
  53. a normal :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` in order to signify an error. For
  54. example::
  55. from django.http import HttpResponse, HttpResponseNotFound
  56. def my_view(request):
  57. # ...
  58. if foo:
  59. return HttpResponseNotFound('<h1>Page not found</h1>')
  60. else:
  61. return HttpResponse('<h1>Page was found</h1>')
  62. There isn't a specialized subclass for every possible HTTP response code,
  63. since many of them aren't going to be that common. However, as documented in
  64. the :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` documentation, you can also pass the
  65. HTTP status code into the constructor for :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse`
  66. to create a return class for any status code you like. For example::
  67. from django.http import HttpResponse
  68. def my_view(request):
  69. # ...
  70. # Return a "created" (201) response code.
  71. return HttpResponse(status=201)
  72. Because 404 errors are by far the most common HTTP error, there's an easier way
  73. to handle those errors.
  74. The Http404 exception
  75. ---------------------
  76. .. class:: django.http.Http404()
  77. When you return an error such as :class:`~django.http.HttpResponseNotFound`,
  78. you're responsible for defining the HTML of the resulting error page::
  79. return HttpResponseNotFound('<h1>Page not found</h1>')
  80. For convenience, and because it's a good idea to have a consistent 404 error page
  81. across your site, Django provides an ``Http404`` exception. If you raise
  82. ``Http404`` at any point in a view function, Django will catch it and return the
  83. standard error page for your application, along with an HTTP error code 404.
  84. Example usage::
  85. from django.http import Http404
  86. from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
  87. from polls.models import Poll
  88. def detail(request, poll_id):
  89. try:
  90. p = Poll.objects.get(pk=poll_id)
  91. except Poll.DoesNotExist:
  92. raise Http404
  93. return render_to_response('polls/detail.html', {'poll': p})
  94. In order to use the ``Http404`` exception to its fullest, you should create a
  95. template that is displayed when a 404 error is raised. This template should be
  96. called ``404.html`` and located in the top level of your template tree.
  97. .. _customizing-error-views:
  98. Customizing error views
  99. =======================
  100. The default error views in Django should suffice for most Web applications,
  101. but can easily be overridden if you need any custom behavior. Simply specify
  102. the handlers as seen below in your URLconf (setting them anywhere else will
  103. have no effect).
  104. The :func:`~django.views.defaults.page_not_found` view is overridden by
  105. :data:`~django.conf.urls.handler404`::
  106. handler404 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_page_not_found_view'
  107. The :func:`~django.views.defaults.server_error` view is overridden by
  108. :data:`~django.conf.urls.handler500`::
  109. handler500 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_error_view'
  110. The :func:`~django.views.defaults.permission_denied` view is overridden by
  111. :data:`~django.conf.urls.handler403`::
  112. handler403 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_permission_denied_view'
  113. The :func:`~django.views.defaults.bad_request` view is overridden by
  114. :data:`~django.conf.urls.handler400`::
  115. handler400 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_bad_request_view'