Question

For Django 1.3.1, where is the source code that makes it possible to do a from django.conf.urls import patterns ?

In the Django 1.3.1 source code for the django.conf.urls package, __init__.py is empty, so there is no code or __all__ variable. The code for the patterns() function appears to be in defaults.py which does have an __all__ variable.

How does Python end up including a pattern() function in the django.conf.urls package?

Answer 1

I figured out my problem:

1. I discovered I was wrong about thinking I was successfully running
   from django.conf.urls import pattern
   in Django 1.3.1. The code was actually
   from django.conf.urls.defaults import pattern

2. There are two different Django tutorials:

   • https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/intro/tutorial01/ – this is the one that shows up first in a google search for “django tutorial”. However, this is for the Django “dev” version, not for Django 1.3.1. It uses
     from django.conf.urls import pattern
   • https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/intro/tutorial01/ – this is the one for Django 1.3.1, and uses from django.conf.urls.defaults import pattern

3. I opened Django ticket 17770 for this, and it was closed as a duplicate of ticket 16932. Ticket 16933 was opened and fixed to remedy the confusion of the different versions of documentation/tutorials. However, it wasn’t apparent to me. I added a screenshot to 16933 showing how to see which version of the docs you are reading (and to select a different version).
   

4. I was confused because I thought I was using
   from django.conf.urls import...
   as the tutorial states, and I thought that code was working. But in fact I was using the urls.py code that gets created with django-admin.py startproject, and this code is correctly using
   from django.conf.urls.defaults import...
   for Django 1.3.1. That worked.

5. My confusion surfaced in tutorial 4, when I copied the polls/urls.py code from the tutorial for the dev version. That code is from django.conf.urls import... and it causes:

   Django Version: 1.3.1
   Exception Type: ImportError
   Exception Value: cannot import name patterns
   Exception Location: /…/django_tutorial_1/polls/urls.py in , line 1

jdi, thanks for your help. Although your answer wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, it encouraged me to keep going. My question stated a false fact, which I later discovered (per #1 above).