Skip to main content

Write Views

There is a file named views.py in our app directory (blog).

Let's Create view functions named signup, signin, create_post, get_all_posts, get_post_by_id and comment. Together with the home view from the Getting Started topic, these cover every URL we wired up in the previous topic.

Add following code in your blog/views.py.

blog/views.py
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404, redirect, render

from .forms import BlogForm, CommentForm, LoginForm, SignUpForm
from .models import Blog, Comment


def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello, World. You're at the blog's home Page.")


def signup(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        signupForm = SignUpForm(request.POST)
        if signupForm.is_valid():
            signupForm.save()
            return redirect('signin')
        return render(request, 'signup.html', {'signupForm': signupForm})

    signupForm = SignUpForm()
    return render(request, 'signup.html', {'signupForm': signupForm})


def signin(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        loginForm = LoginForm(request.POST)
        if loginForm.is_valid():
            user = authenticate(
                request,
                username=loginForm.cleaned_data['username'],
                password=loginForm.cleaned_data['password'],
            )
            if user is not None:
                login(request, user)
                return redirect('posts')
        return HttpResponse("Invalid username or password.")

    loginForm = LoginForm()
    return render(request, 'signin.html', {'loginForm': loginForm})


def create_post(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        blogForm = BlogForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
        if blogForm.is_valid():
            blog = blogForm.save(commit=False)
            blog.author = request.user
            blog.save()
            return redirect('post', id=blog.id)
        return render(request, 'create_post.html', {'postForm': blogForm})

    blogForm = BlogForm()
    return render(request, 'create_post.html', {'postForm': blogForm})


def get_all_posts(request):
    posts = Blog.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'posts.html', {'posts': posts})


def get_post_by_id(request, id):
    post = get_object_or_404(Blog, id=id)
    comments = Comment.objects.filter(blog=post)
    commentForm = CommentForm()
    return render(
        request,
        'post_detail.html',
        {'post': post, 'comments': comments, 'commentForm': commentForm},
    )


def comment(request, id):
    blog = get_object_or_404(Blog, id=id)
    if request.method == 'POST':
        commentForm = CommentForm(request.POST)
        if commentForm.is_valid():
            new_comment = commentForm.save(commit=False)
            new_comment.blog = blog
            new_comment.author = request.user
            new_comment.save()
    return redirect('post', id=blog.id)

A few things worth noticing:

  • signup saves the user through SignUpForm (built on Django's UserCreationForm), so the password is validated and stored as a secure hash — never in plain text.
  • signin uses authenticate() and login() from django.contrib.auth. authenticate() checks the submitted password against the stored hash and returns the user (or None), and login() attaches that user to the session.
  • create_post and comment set author = request.user, so you must be signed in before calling them — sign up and sign in first when you test the app.
  • get_object_or_404 returns the object or raises a proper 404 page instead of an unhandled DoesNotExist error.
  • comment keeps the id parameter that post/<int:id>/comments/ passes to it, then redirects back to the post detail page.
note

The forms (SignUpForm, LoginForm, BlogForm, CommentForm) are written in the next topic, and the templates (signup.html, posts.html, ...) in the last one. Write them before starting the server, otherwise the imports and render() calls will fail.

Last updated on