Back
Feb 28, 2010

Composing multiple views in Django

In UNIX way, each view should solve single task. This is good idea, but sometimes we need to mix logic of different views on same page. Filter, sort, paginate, or, for example, add comment on product page. In this article I'll show how we can mix such multiple views.

Idea

We can write views as decorators.

Example

Simplified filtration can look like this:

from django.views.generic.list_detail import object_list


def filtered_list(request, filterset_class, queryset, *args, **kwargs):
    filterset = filterset_class(request.GET)
    queryset = filterset.filter(queryset)
    kwargs['extra_context']['filterset'] = filterset

    return object_list(request, queryset, *args, **kwargs)

This is simple and straightforward, but in order to add some tricky pagination, we have to copy entire view and add more code to it.

Instead, we can create decorator like this:

def filtered(view):
    def wrapped(request, filterset_class, queryset, *args, **kwargs):
        filterset = filterset_class(request.GET)
        queryset = filterset.filter(queryset)
        kwargs['extra_context']['filterset'] = filterset
        return view(request, queryset, *args, **kwargs)

    return wrapped

Result

Assuming, that we have similar decorators, sorted и paginated, we can easily combine them:

@filtered
@paginated
def technic_list(*args, **kwargs):
    # ...

Or even like this, in lisp style:

url(r'^technic/$', filtered(sorted(paginated(object_list))), {
    'filterset_class': FilterSet,
     # ...
}, name='technic_list'),

Subscribe for the news and updates

More thoughts
Apr 18, 2023Technology
TDD guide for busy people, with example

This quick introduction to TDD is meant to show the implementation of this practice with a real-life example.

Dec 13, 2022Technology
How to create a timelapse video from frames

We’ll tell you how to create a video timelapse from a sequence of snapshots and provide customers with video playlists optimized for browser playback.

Nov 29, 2022Technology
React Performance Testing with Jest

One of the key requirements for modern UI is being performant. No matter how beautiful your app looks and what killer features it offers, it will frustrate your users if it clangs.

Aug 18, 2022Technology
5 Best Practices of RESTful API Design to Keep Your Users Happy

Dive into our guide to RESTful API best practices

Aug 25, 2017Technology
How to Upload Files With Django

File upload works differently from simple form inputs, which can be somewhat troublesome for beginners. Here I'll show you how to handle uploads with ease.

Jun 14, 2017Technology
How to Deploy a Django Application on Heroku?

In this article I'll show you how to deploy Django with Celery and Postgres to Heroku.