Django - what is the difference between render render to response and direct to template

Question

Whats the difference  in language a python django noob can understand  in a view between render    render to response   and direct to template     e g  from Nathan Borror s basic apps examples  def comment edit request  object id  template name  comments edit html        comment   get object or 404 Comment  pk object id  user request user                return render request  template name             form   form           comment   comment           But I ve also seen      return render to response template name  my data dictionary                context instance RequestContext request     And      return direct to template request  template name  my data dictionary    Whats the difference  what to use in any particular situation

User · Answer

Just one note I could not find in the answers above. In this code:

context_instance = RequestContext(request)
return render_to_response(template_name, user_context, context_instance)

What the third parameter context_instance actually does? Being RequestContext it sets up some basic context which is then added to user_context. So the template gets this extended context. What variables are added is given by TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS in settings.py. For instance django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth adds variable user and variable perm which are then accessible in the template.

User · Answer

From django docs       render   is the same as a call to   render to response   with a   context instance argument that that   forces the use of a RequestContext    direct to template is something different  It s a generic view that uses a data dictionary to render the html without the need of the views py  you use it in urls py  Docs here

User · Answer

https   docs djangoproject com en 1 8 topics http shortcuts  render  render request  template   dictionary    context instance    content type    status    current app     render   is a brand spanking new shortcut for render to response in 1 3 that will automatically use RequestContext that I will most definitely be using from now on     2020 EDIT  It should be noted that render to response   was removed in Django 3 0  https   docs djangoproject com en 1 8 topics http shortcuts  render-to-response  render to response template   dictionary    context instance    mimetype       render to response is your standard render function used in the tutorials and such  To use RequestContext you d have to specify context instance RequestContext request     https   docs djangoproject com en 1 8 ref generic-views  django-views-generic-simple-direct-to-template  direct to template is a generic view that I use in my views  as opposed to in my urls  because like the new render   function  it automatically uses RequestContext and all its context processors   But direct to template should be avoided as function based generic views are deprecated  Either use render or an actual class  see https   docs djangoproject com en 1 3 topics generic-views-migration   I m happy I haven t typed RequestContext in a long  long time

User · Answer

Render is  def render request   args    kwargs           Simple wrapper for render to response          kwargs  context instance     RequestContext request      return render to response  args    kwargs    So there is really no difference between render to response except it wraps your context making the template pre-processors work   Direct to template is a generic view   There is really no sense in using it here because there is overhead over render to response in the form of view function

User · Answer

Rephrasing Yuri  F  bio  and Frosts answers for the Django noob  i e  me  - almost certainly a simplification  but a good starting point    render to response   is the  original   but requires you putting context instance RequestContext request  in nearly all the time  a PITA  direct to template   is designed to be used just in urls py without a view defined in views py but it can be used in views py to avoid having to type RequestContext render   is a shortcut for render to response   that automatically supplies context instance Request     Its available in the django development version  1 2 1  but many have created their own shortcuts such as this one  this one or the one that threw me initially  Nathans basic tools shortcuts py

[python] Django - what is the difference between render(), render_to_response() and direct_to_template()?

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