Rendering a template in Django is an essential skill when developing web applications using this Python-based web framework. According to the official Django documentation, Django’s template language is designed to strike a balance between power and ease. It’s designed to feel comfortable to those used to working with HTML.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to render a template in Django:
1. First, you need to create a template. Django will look for templates in a directory named “templates” in each installed application, so start by creating this directory inside your application.
1. Inside the “templates” directory, create an HTML file. For the purpose of this guide, name it “home.html”. You can include regular HTML and also Django’s template language in this file. For example:
```
{{ message }}
1. In your view (which should be located in the file “views.py” in your application), import the function `render()` from `django.shortcuts`. Then, create a function for your view. This function will take at least one parameter, typically named “request”. Then, use the `render()` function to return your template. Lastly, pass in any variables you want to use in the template as a dictionary. For example:
```
from django.shortcuts import render
def home(request):
context = {‘message’: ‘Hello, world!’}
return render(request, ‘home.html’, context)
```
In this example, ‘home.html’ is the template and `context` is a dictionary with one key-value pair. The key is ‘message’ and the value is ‘Hello, world!’. This means that wherever `{{ message }}` appears in ‘home.html’, it will be replaced with ‘Hello, world!’.
1. Finally, you need to set up the URL for your view. In the file “urls.py” in your application, import your view and then add a path for it. Here is an example:
```
from django.urls import path
from .views import home
urlpatterns = [
path(‘’, home, name=“home”),
]
```
In this example, ‘’ is the route (i.e., it’s the main page), home is the view, and “home” is the name of this path.
Now, whenever you navigate to this page, you will see ‘Hello, world!’ underneath a header that says ‘Welcome to our website!’.
Sources:
- Django Documentation. (2022). Django template language: for Python programmers.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/templates/#the-django-template-language
- Django Documentation. (2022). The view function.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/http/views/#the-view-function
- Django Documentation. (2022). URL dispatcher.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/http/urls/
