Django how to set main page

Question

i want to set a main page or an index page for my app. i tried adding MAIN_PAGE in settings.py and then creating a main_page view returning a main_page object, but it doesn't work Also, i tries to add in the urls.py a declaration like

(r'^$', index),

where indexshould be the name of the index.html file on the root (but it obviously does not work)

What is the best way to set a main page in a Django website?

thanks!

Answer 1

In case someone searching for an updated version of the answer..

from django.urls import re_path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    re_path(r'^$', views.index, name='index')
]

and in your views.py

def index(req):
    return render(req, 'myApp/index.html')

Answer 2

If you want to refer to a static page (not have it go through any dynamic processing), you can use the direct_to_template view function from django.views.generic.simple. In your URL conf:

from django.views.generic.simple import direct_to_template
urlpatterns += patterns("",
    (r"^$", direct_to_template, {"template": "index.html"})
)

(Assuming index.html is at the root of one of your template directories.)

Answer 3

The new preferred way of doing this would be to use the TemplateView class. See this SO answer if you would like to move from direct_to_template.

In your main urls.py file:

from django.conf.urls import url
from django.contrib import admin
from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView

urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
    # the regex ^$ matches empty
    url(r'^$', TemplateView.as_view(template_name='static_pages/index.html'),
        name='home'),
]

Note, I choose to put any static pages linke index.html in its own directory static_pages/ within the templates/ directory.

Answer 4

You could use the generic direct_to_template view function:

# in your urls.py ...
...
url(r'^faq/$', 
    'django.views.generic.simple.direct_to_template', 
    { 'template': 'faq.html' }, name='faq'),
...