Question

What is the significance of the first argument (containing '' in the example below) to patterns?

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^articles/2003/$', 'news.views.special_case_2003'),
    (r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', 'news.views.year_archive'),
)

Sometimes I’ve seen it filled in, like this:

urlpatterns = patterns(
    'zinnia.views.entries',
    url(r'^$',
        'entry_index', entry_conf_index,
        name='zinnia_entry_archive_index'),
    )

Answer 1

It’s a prefix to the view paths. See the documentation for patterns.

The equivalent of your first example using this argument is:

urlpatterns = patterns('news.views',
    (r'^articles/2003/$', 'special_case_2003'),
    (r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', 'year_archive'),
)

The equivalent of your second example with the first argument set to '' is:

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^$',
        'zinnia.views.entries.entry_index', entry_conf_index,
        name='zinnia_entry_archive_index'),
    )