Can I use one route for multiple functions?

Question

I'm a newbie user to use the Flask framework and I'm trying to implement a following problem.

I've the webpage for the users which serves two links:

• Settings <a href="{{ url_for('user', user_name=name, user_id=id) }}">Settings</a>
• Details <a href="{{ url_for('user', user_name=name, user_id=id) }}">Details</a>

And in the py file I want to implement following functionality - one route, but two behaviors depends on the user action:

@app.route("/<user_name>/<int:user_id>")
def user(user_name, user_id):

    # if user click on the "Settings" link then:
    # ...
    # some code
    # ...
    return render_template('user_settings.html', ...)

    # if user click on the "Details" link then:
    # ...
    # some code
    # ...
    return render_template('user_details.html', ...)

Or maybe something like this - the same route but two different def's:

# if user click on the "Settings" link then:
@app.route("/<user_name>/<int:user_id>")
def user_settings(user_name, user_id):
    # ...
    # some code
    # ...
    return render_template('user_settings.html', ...)

# if user click on the "Details" link then:
@app.route("/<user_name>/<int:user_id>")
def user_details(user_name, user_id):
    # ...
    # some code
    # ...
    return render_template('user_details.html', ...)

Please give me some tips because I do not know how to do that? Thanks in advance for your help! :-)

EDIT: @dim: asking why I want to have the same URL? Above question it's just an example for better understanding what I want. In fact, I've an output in a table with rows and columns. Something like to output in the Oracle Enterprise Manager:

As you see there are two links but they have the same Oracle RMAN ID (it's important because query to the database has the same WHERE clause, for example: SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE SESSION_RECID = :parrent_id). So:

• When I click on the link in the column "Backup Name" I want to render one template.
• When I click on the link in the column "Status" I want to render another template.

In conclusion, I want to render two different templates depends on links with the same endpoint.

Answer 1

You can use URL query string parameters. Basically pass a query string parameter like <a href="{{ url_for('user', user_name=name, user_id=id, settings='true') }}">Settings</a> which will result in <a href="/sammy/873?settings=true">Settings</a>.

Inside the view, you can check for the existence of the settings parameter and then serve the proper template.

@app.route("/<user_name>/<int:user_id>")
def user_details(user_name, user_id):
    # ...
    # some code
    # ...
    if request.args.get('settings'):
        return render_template('user_settings.html', ...)
    else:
        return render_template('user_details.html', ...)