Question

I am using named url-patterns in my Django app, but it is failing and I don’t know why. I have followed the docs but my app errors out when it reads urls.py.

This works:

urls.py

from django.conf.urls import patterns
from www.apps.newsletter.models import Newsletter
from www.apps.newsletter.views import index, detail

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/no(?P<q_no>\d+)/(?P<q_slug>[^.*]+)/$', detail),
    (r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/no(?P<q_no>\d+)/$', index),
    (r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/$', index),
    (r'^$', index),
)

But this fails:

urls.py

from django.conf.urls import patterns
from www.apps.newsletter.models import Newsletter
from www.apps.newsletter.views import index, detail

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/no(?P<q_no>\d+)/(?P<q_slug>[^.*]+)/$', detail, name='newsletter-detail'),
    (r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/no(?P<q_no>\d+)/$', index),
    (r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/$', index),
    (r'^$', index),
)

I want to use named url patterns (so I can use {% url %} in my template), but Django doesn’t seem to want to play nice. Any ideas? All I am doing is adding the arg name=”” and it causes the error:

SyntaxError at /newsletter/

invalid syntax (urls.py, line 6)

This urls.py is referenced by the parent urls.py:

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^grappelli/', include('grappelli.urls')),
    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
    url(r'^software/', include('www.apps.software.urls')),
    url(r'^newsletter/', include('www.apps.newsletter.urls')),
)

I am using Django version 1.4. TIA.

Answer 1

You need to use the url function to make use of the name parameter:

url(r'^vol(?P<q_vol>\d+)/no(?P<q_no>\d+)/(?P<q_slug>[^.*]+)/$', detail, name='newsletter-detail'),

In other words, there is a difference between using a tuple and the url function.

Btw, you don’t need to have named url patterns to make use of the url template tag, you can just use the view’s path instead, i.e. {% url "app.views.myview" %}