Django Views

What Is a View?

In Django, a view is simply a Python function (or callable class) that takes an HttpRequest object as its first argument and returns an HttpResponse object. Django is not opinionated about what happens inside a view - it can query the database, render a template, redirect the user, or return raw JSON. The only contract is: request in, response out.

The HttpRequest Object

Every view receives an HttpRequest instance describing the incoming request. This object carries the HTTP method, submitted form or query-string data, headers, cookies, and - once authentication middleware runs - the logged-in user.

• request.method - the HTTP verb, e.g. 'GET' or 'POST'
• request.GET - a dictionary-like QueryDict of URL query parameters
• request.POST - a QueryDict of submitted form data
• request.path - the path portion of the requested URL
• request.user - the currently authenticated user (or AnonymousUser)

# views.py
from django.http import HttpResponse

def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("<h1>Welcome to my Django site</h1>")

# views.py
from django.http import HttpResponse

def greet(request):
    name = request.GET.get("name", "stranger")
    if request.method == "GET":
        return HttpResponse(f"Hello, {name}! (via GET)")
    return HttpResponse("Only GET is supported here.", status=405)

Wiring a View to a URL

A view function does nothing until Django's URL dispatcher can find it. Each app typically defines its own urls.py listing path() entries that map a URL pattern to a view, and the project's root urls.py includes those app-level URL configurations.

# myapp/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path("", views.home, name="home"),
    path("greet/", views.greet, name="greet"),
]