Get the Current URL within a Django Template
Last Updated : 01 Aug, 2024
Django, a high-level Python web framework, encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. One common requirement when developing web applications is to access the current URL within a template. This can be useful for various purposes such as highlighting the active link in a navigation menu or generating dynamic content based on the URL.
In this article, we will walk you through the steps to create a Django project and demonstrate how to get the current URL within a Django template.
Here are a few useful attributes of the request object that we will use:
- {{ request.path }}: The path of the current URL without the domain.
- {{ request.build_absolute_uri }}: The full URL including the domain.
Get the Current URL within a Django Template
Before we dive into fetching the current URL within a template, let's first set up a basic Django project. If you haven't installed Django yet, you can do so by running
pip install django
Step 1: Start a New Django Project
Open your terminal and run the following command to start a new Django project named myproject:
django-admin startproject myproject
Navigate into the project directory:
cd myproject
Step 2: Create a Django App
Next, create a new app within the project. We'll name it myapp:
python manage.py startapp myapp
Add the new app to the INSTALLED_APPS list in myproject/settings.py:
INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
'myapp',
]
Step 3: Create a View
In myapp/views.py, create a simple view for the home page and about page:
Python from django.shortcuts import render def home(request): return render(request, 'home.html') def about(request): return render(request, 'about.html')
Step 4: Create a Template
Create a directory named templates within the myapp directory, and inside it, create a file named home.html and about.html. In the example above, we use {{ request.get_full_path }} within the home.html template. This expression will output the current URL, including the query string if any.
home.html
HTML <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Home Page</title> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to MyApp</h1> <p>The current URL is: {{ request.get_full_path }}</p> <a href="{% url 'about' %}">About</a> </body> </html> about.html
HTML <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>About Page</title> </head> <body> <h1>About MyApp</h1> <p>The current URL is: {{ request.get_full_path }}</p> <a href="{% url 'home' %}">Home</a> </body> </html> Step 5: Define a URL Pattern
Open myproject/urls.py and include the URL patterns for myapp:
Python from django.contrib import admin from django.urls import path, include urlpatterns = [ path('admin/', admin.site.urls), path('', include('myapp.urls')), ] Now, create a urls.py file within the myapp directory and define a simple URL pattern:
Python from django.urls import path from . import views urlpatterns = [ path('', views.home, name='home'), path('about/', views.about, name='about'), ] Run the Server
run the server using the below command
python manage.py runserver
navigate the http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in web browser
Output
Conclusion
Accessing the current URL within a Django template is straightforward once you have the request object available. By configuring the request context processor, you can easily retrieve various attributes of the current request, including the URL, and use them within your templates to create dynamic and responsive web applications.
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