URL parameters with angle brackets in Django - Mini Project: Build & Apply

URL Parameters with Angle Brackets in Django

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Django web app that shows details for different products. Each product has a unique ID number. You want to create a URL pattern that captures this product ID from the URL using angle brackets.

🎯 Goal: Build a Django URL pattern that uses angle brackets to capture a product ID as a URL parameter, and create a simple view function that receives this parameter and returns a response showing the product ID.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a URL pattern in urls.py using angle brackets to capture an integer parameter called product_id

Create a view function called product_detail in views.py that accepts product_id as an argument

Return an HTTP response from the view that includes the product_id in the text

Connect the URL pattern to the product_detail view

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Capturing URL parameters is essential for building dynamic web pages that show different content based on user input or links.

💼 Career

Understanding Django URL routing and parameter capturing is a key skill for backend web developers working with Django.

1

Create the URL pattern dictionary

In urls.py, create a list called urlpatterns with one entry: a call to path with the route '' (empty string), the view product_detail, and the name 'product_detail'. Import path from django.urls and product_detail from views.

Django

from django.urls import path
from views import product_detail

urlpatterns = [
    # Your code here
]

Need a hint?

Remember to import path and your view function before creating urlpatterns.

2

Add the URL parameter with angle brackets

Modify the path in urlpatterns to capture an integer parameter called product_id using angle brackets. Change the route from '' to 'product//'.

Django

from django.urls import path
from views import product_detail

urlpatterns = [
    # Change the route to capture  as an int
    # Your code here
]

Need a hint?

Use <int:product_id> inside the route string to capture the integer parameter.

3

Create the view function to accept the parameter

In views.py, define a function called product_detail that takes request and product_id as parameters. Return an HttpResponse with the text "Product ID: {product_id}" using an f-string. Import HttpResponse from django.http.

Django

from django.http import HttpResponse

# Define product_detail view here
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Make sure your function accepts product_id and uses it inside the response text.

4

Connect the URL pattern and view

Ensure that urls.py imports product_detail from views and that the urlpatterns list includes the path 'product//' connected to product_detail. This completes the URL parameter setup.

Django

from django.urls import path
from views import product_detail

urlpatterns = [
    # Add the URL pattern with parameter here
    # Your code here
]

Need a hint?

Double-check your imports and that the URL pattern matches the view function.