[SOLVED] Using {% url ??? %} in django templates

Using {% url ??? %} in django templates

I have looked a lot on google for answers of how to use the 'url' tag in templates only to find many responses saying 'You just insert it into your template and point it at the view you want the url for'. Well no joy for me :( I have tried every permutation possible and have resorted to posting here as a last resort.

So here it is. My urls.py looks like this:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
from login.views import *
from mainapp.views import *
import settings

# Uncomment the next two lines to enable the admin:
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Example:
    # (r'^weclaim/', include('weclaim.foo.urls')),
    (r'^login/', login_view),
    (r'^logout/', logout_view),
    ('^$', main_view),

    # Uncomment the admin/doc line below and add 'django.contrib.admindocs' 
    # to INSTALLED_APPS to enable admin documentation:
    # (r'^admin/doc/', include('django.contrib.admindocs.urls')),

    # Uncomment the next line to enable the admin:
    (r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
    #(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve',{'document_root': '/home/arthur/Software/django/weclaim/templates/static'}),
    (r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve',{'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT}),
)

My 'views.py' in my 'login' directory looks like:

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response, redirect
from django.template import RequestContext
from django.contrib import auth

def login_view(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        uname = request.POST.get('username', '')
        psword = request.POST.get('password', '')
        user = auth.authenticate(username=uname, password=psword)
        # if the user logs in and is active
        if user is not None and user.is_active:
            auth.login(request, user)
            return render_to_response('main/main.html', {}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))
            #return redirect(main_view)
        else:
            return render_to_response('loginpage.html', {'box_width': '402', 'login_failed': '1',}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))
    else:
        return render_to_response('loginpage.html', {'box_width': '400',}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

def logout_view(request):
    auth.logout(request)
    return render_to_response('loginpage.html', {'box_width': '402', 'logged_out': '1',}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

and finally the main.html to which the login_view points looks like:

<html>
<body>
test! <a href="{% url logout_view %}">logout</a>
</body>
</html>

So why do I get 'NoReverseMatch' every time?

(on a slightly different note I had to use 'context_instance=RequestContext(request)' at the end of all my render-to-response's because otherwise it would not recognise {{ MEDIA_URL }} in my templates and I couldn't reference any css or js files. I'm not to sure why this is. Doesn't seem right to me)

Solution

Instead of importing the logout_view function, you should provide a string in your urls.py file:

So not (r'^login/', login_view),

but (r'^login/', 'login.views.login_view'),

That is the standard way of doing things. Then you can access the URL in your templates using:

{% url login.views.login_view %}