How do I fix my Django app's urls.py so I stop getting a TemplateDoesNotExist exception?

Question

I am currently following along with a somewhat questionable Django tutorial called A complete blog engine using Django in 60 minutes and am stuck on page 6. So I have a Django project called blog and an inside I've an app called blogengine. Currently I am getting a TemplateDoesNotExist exception when I try loading

127.0.0.1:8000/blog/

Here is the full Traceback:

Environment:


Request Method: GET
Request URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/blog/

Django Version: 1.3.1
Python Version: 2.7.2
Installed Applications:
['blogengine',
 'django.contrib.admin',
 'django.contrib.auth',
 'django.contrib.contenttypes',
 'django.contrib.sessions']
Installed Middleware:
('django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware')

Template Loader Error:
Django tried loading these templates, in this order:
Using loader django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader:
/home/sez/blog/templates/blogengine/post_list.html (File does not exist)
Using loader django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader:
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/blogengine/post_list.html (File does not exist)



Traceback:
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in get_response
  111.                         response = callback(request, *callback_args, **callback_kwargs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/views/generic/list_detail.py" in object_list
  107.     t = template_loader.get_template(template_name)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/template/loader.py" in get_template
  157.     template, origin = find_template(template_name)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/template/loader.py" in find_template
  138.     raise TemplateDoesNotExist(name)

Exception Type: TemplateDoesNotExist at /blog/
Exception Value: blogengine/post_list.html

In the Template Loader Error you can see Django tries to look for the post_list.html template in the /home/sez/blog/templates/blogengine/' directory. To get this working I have to make Django look in the/home/sez/blog/templates/blog/' directory but I still do not fully understand how URLconf works.

Below are my 2 url.py files. The first is my project level url.py

from django.conf.urls.defaults import patterns, include, url
from django.views.generic.simple import direct_to_template
from blog.views import *

from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
        (r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
        (r'^static/(.*)$',
            'django.views.static.serve',
            {'document_root': '/home/siddhion/blog/static/'}),
        (r'^(?P<template>\w+)$', direct_to_template),
        (r'^$', static_page, {'template':'base'}),
        (r'^blog/', include('blog.blogengine.urls')),
        url(r'^(?P<template>\w+)/$', static_page, name='static_page'),
        )

As I understand it, the line (r'^blog/', include('blog.blogengine.urls')), is telling redirecting control over to the url.py file in my blogengine directory. Here is the code for that file

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
from django.views.generic import list_detail
from blog.blogengine.views import Post

urlpatterns = patterns('',
        url(r'^$',
            list_detail.object_list,
            {
                'queryset': Post.objects.all(),
                'template_object_name':'post',
            },
            name='blog_home'
            ),
    )

So how what edits would I have to make to my urls.py files in order to get Django to find and render the post_list.html template?

Answer 1

Assuming that the file /home/sez/blog/templates/blog/post_list.html exists, you only have to tell Django where to look for it. Apparently, it looks for your templates in /home/sez/blog/templates/blogengine/. You can change that by adjusting TEMPLATE_DIRS in your settings.py:

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    # Put strings here, like "/home/html/django_templates" or "C:/www/django/templates".
    # Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
    # Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
    '/home/sez/blog/templates/blog',
)

However, it is common practice to name the template subdirectories as their corresponding apps, so you might want to consider moving your templates to blogengine, where Django assumes they are at the moment.

Answer 2

You can do two things, either explicitly tell it which template by passing in the template_name parameter, or move post_list.html into /blog/blog/templates/ directory, which is where django will look for it (even if you don't specify the location in TEMPLATE_DIRS)

From the documentation on generic views:

Template name:

If template_name isn't specified, this view will use the template <app_label>/<model_name>_list.html by default.