{"id":1427,"date":"2022-05-28T21:49:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T21:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zerotobyte.com\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2022-05-28T21:55:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T21:55:06","slug":"django-reverse-url-reverse-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zerotobyte.com\/django-reverse-url-reverse-function\/","title":{"rendered":"Django Reverse URL &#8211; reverse() function"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Managing URLs in Django can become very cumbersome if you don\u2019t employ the right tactic in the beginning. Imagine that you have to deal with thousands of hardcoded URLs and know which one to use for each situation. To make it easier, the Django <code>reverse()<\/code> function can be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, <strong>the Django reverse function is used to transform a view name given to the URL pattern into an actual URL.<\/strong> A quick example of usage is shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\">from django.urls import reverse\nfrom django.http import HttpResponseRedirect\n\ndef example_view(request):\n    return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('named-url'))<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Django reverse() function explained<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When resolving incoming requests, Django tries to match the URL pattern <code>(URL -&gt; view name)<\/code>, then picks the right view and generates a response.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But when you need to go another way around, you\u2019ll want to pick a view and build an appropriate URL out of it <code>(view name -&gt; URL)<\/code>. For that purpose, you can use the <code>django.urls.reverse<\/code> function. <strong>The main point of using this function is to avoid hardcoding URLs which keeps you from breaking your application if you decide to change URL paths in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <code>reverse()<\/code> function is commonly used in pair with the redirect logic. You can learn more about redirects in our <a href=\"https:\/\/zerotobyte.com\/django-redirect-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Django Redirect Explained<\/a> post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s see what the function constructor looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>reverse(viewname, urlconf=None, args=None, kwargs=None, current_app=None)<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><code>viewname<\/code> &#8211; name of the view (URL pattern name) or the callable view object for which the URL will be generated.<\/li><li><code>urlconf<\/code> &#8211; URLconf module containing the URL patterns to use for reversing.<\/li><li><code>args<\/code> &#8211; arguments if URL accepts them.<\/li><li><code>kwargs<\/code> &#8211; keyword-arguments if URL accepts them.<\/li><li><code>current_app<\/code> &#8211; application to which the currently executing view belongs.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Examples of Django reverse() function usage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this section, we\u2019ll show how to use the reverse() function:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>without additional arguments and parameters,<\/li><li>with args,<\/li><li>with kwargs<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using Django reverse() function without additional arguments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To make it clear what our URL patterns look like, let\u2019s take a sneak peek into <strong>urls.py<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># urls.py\nfrom django.urls import path\nfrom . import views\n\nurlpatterns = [\n    path('\/original-url\/', views.original_view),\n    path('\/another-url\/', views.another_view, name='named-url')\n]<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Now if we want to use the <code>original-url\/<\/code> to redirect the request to the <code>another-url\/<\/code> we can define the logic inside the <code>original_view<\/code> (in the <strong>views.py<\/strong>). Here we pass the <strong>named-url<\/strong> string to the <code>reverse()<\/code> function to point to the correct view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># views.py\nfrom django.urls import reverse\nfrom django.http import HttpResponseRedirect\n\ndef original_view(request):\n    # line below is an example of how you SHOULD NOT hardcode a URL\n    # return HttpResponseRedirect('\/another-url\/')\n    reversed_url = reverse('named-url')  # \/another-url\/\n    return HttpResponseRedirect(reversed_url)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Another way of correct usage is by passing the callable view object as the first argument. In the example below, we are passing the <code>another_view<\/code> as a function argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># views.py\nfrom django.urls import reverse\nfrom django.http import HttpResponse, HttpResponseRedirect\n\ndef another_view(request):\n    content = '&lt;p>dummy content&lt;\/p>'\n    return HttpResponse(content)\n\ndef original_view(request):\n    reversed_url = reverse(another_view)  # \/another-url\/\n    return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse(another_view))<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>NOTE<\/strong> - If no match can be made, <strong>reverse()<\/strong> function will raise the <strong>NoReverseMatch<\/strong> exception.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using reverse() function with args<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes you\u2019ll have a URL pattern that expects an additional parameter. You can notice in the <strong>urls.py<\/strong> that the <code>another-url\/<\/code> has an additional parameter defined, which allows it to look like any of the following URL paths: <code>another-url\/dummy\/<\/code>, <code>another-url\/123\/<\/code>, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># urls.py\nfrom django.urls import path\nfrom . import views\n\nurlpatterns = [\n    path('\/original-url\/', views.original_view),\n    path('\/another-url\/&lt;some_arg>\/', views.another_view, name='named-url')\n]<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>To reverse the view into a URL, inside the <strong>views.py<\/strong> we need to somehow tell the Django that the URL expects an additional argument. We do that by passing the <strong>args<\/strong> list as an additional argument to the <code>reverse()<\/code> function constructor. Doing this will reverse with arguments, constructing a full URL path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># views.py\nfrom django.urls import reverse\nfrom django.http import HttpResponseRedirect\n\ndef original_view(request):\n    reversed_url = reverse('named-url', args=[123])  # \/another-url\/123\/\n    return HttpResponseRedirect(reversed_url)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using reverse() function with kwargs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, sometimes you\u2019ll need to construct a URL that expects additional key-value parameters. In the <strong>urls.py<\/strong> you can see what such a URL pattern looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># urls.py\nfrom django.urls import path\nfrom . import views\n\nurlpatterns = [\n    path('\/original-url\/', views.original_view),\n    path(r'\/another-url\/&lt;arg1>\/&lt;arg2\/', views.another_view, name='named-url')\n]<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>To reverse with additional kwargs arguments, we need to pass the <strong>kwargs<\/strong> object as an additional argument to the <code>reverse()<\/code> function constructor. Doing this will construct a full URL path taking into consideration a <strong>kwargs<\/strong> object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># views.py\nfrom django.urls import reverse\nfrom django.http import HttpResponseRedirect\n\ndef original_view(request):\n    reversed_url = reverse('named-url', kwargs={'arg1':123, 'arg2':'dummy'})  # \/another-url\/123\/dummy\/\n    return HttpResponseRedirect(reversed_url)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Django reverse_lazy() function<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you need a URL reversal before your project\u2019s <strong>URLconf<\/strong> is loaded, you can use the <code>django.urls.reverse_lazy<\/code> function. It is a lazily evaluated version of <code>reverse()<\/code>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This function is commonly used in generic class-based views. Take a look at the following example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\" data-enlighter-theme=\"\" data-enlighter-highlight=\"\" data-enlighter-linenumbers=\"\" data-enlighter-lineoffset=\"\" data-enlighter-title=\"\" data-enlighter-group=\"\"># views.py\nfrom django.urls import reverse, reverse_lazy\nfrom django.views.generic import CreateView\n\nclass CreateItemView(CreateView):\n    # success_url = reverse_lazy('named-url')\n\n    def get_success_url(self, **kwargs):\n        return reverse('named-url')<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, we presented two ways of defining a success URL. The first one is by using the <code>success_url<\/code> attribute directly inside the <strong>CreateItemView<\/strong> class. This attribute will be evaluated exactly at the moment the class itself is imported; therefore we must use the lazily evaluated version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, if we build the success URL by using the <code>get_success_url<\/code> function, then we can use the <code>reverse()<\/code> function because it will be evaluated exactly when it\u2019s called.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Managing URLs in Django can become very cumbersome if you don\u2019t employ the right tactic in the beginning. Imagine that &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Django Reverse URL &#8211; reverse() function\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/zerotobyte.com\/django-reverse-url-reverse-function\/#more-1427\" aria-label=\"More on Django Reverse URL &#8211; reverse() function\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Django Reverse URL - reverse() function - ZeroToByte<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Django reverse function can help you construct full URLs for each of many views defined in your web application. 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