django & the "TemplateDoesNotExist" error

Question

Ive got an as it seems common beginners problem.

im working on my first django project and when I set up my view I get an "TemplateDoesNotExist" error. Ive spend lots of hours on this now - and I know theres lots of topics on it but nothing helped me till now.

I hope I can supply all the information needed so an advanced django user can probably directly see what Im doing wrong.

im using the developement server. and windows 7 & sqlite3.

this is the error I get:

TemplateDoesNotExist at /skates/
allsk8s.html
Request Method: GET
Request URL:    http://127.0.0.1:8000/skates/
Django Version: 1.4.3
Exception Type: TemplateDoesNotExist

in settings.py I set up the TEMPLATE_DIRS like this:

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    r'H:/netz2/skateprojekt/templates/',
)

the template loaders looks like this:

TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
    'django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
    'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader',
#     'django.template.loaders.eggs.Loader',
)

this is my view:

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.template import RequestContext
from sk8.models import Sk8

def AllSk8s(request):
    skates      = Sk8.objects.all().order_by('name')
    context     = {'skates':skates}
    return render_to_response('allsk8s.html', context, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

it should link to allsk8s.html - and it looks like it does but the file can not be found although it is definitely in the right folder. but as you can see:

Template-loader postmortem
Django tried loading these templates, in this order:
Using loader django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader:
H:\netz2\skateprojekt\templates\allsk8s.html (File does not exist)

this is a part of my urls.py

    urlpatterns = patterns('',
         url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
         (r'^skates/$', 'sk8.views.AllSk8s'),
 )

and this is the system path:

H:\netz2\skateproject\templates

and in the templates folder is a file called allsk8s.html so as far as I understood it - this should work. I really hope somebody can help me cause this is the second time I ran into a problem like this and I can not figure out the problem.

thanks in advance danielll

---

edit:

I tried to add this to my settings.py:

import os
DIRNAME = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))

and changed my TEMPLATE_DIRS to:

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(DIRNAME, r'H:/netz2/skateprojekt/templates/'),
)

cause I read it would help - but it still returned the same error - so I changed it back again. ;(

---

edit:

also, Ive checked, when I enter a wront url, it throws this error:

Using the URLconf defined in skateproject.urls, Django tried these URL patterns, in this order:
^admin/
^skates/$

so the skates url should be there - but cant be "resolved" - i dont get it :(

---

edit:

I found out something new today, the Template-loader postmortem says it also checks these directories:

Using loader django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader:
C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\templates\allsk8s.html (File does not exist)
C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\admin\templates\allsk8s.html (File does not exist)

so I moved my template files there and received a new error - got this fixed by converting my html files from ansi to utf8 and tada - it worked. unfortunately I can not let the template files in this folder cause its not part of the project. when i moved the files back to the original location I was back at the old error :(

Answer 1

One of the solution to this problem is you should add apps to in settings.py. I assume you have an application named such as invoice then solution to this is

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'invoice.apps.InoviceConfig',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]

Answer 2

Holy mother of god! I solved it!

I do not know why - but this is the solution to the "TemplateDoesNotExist" error (in my case).

My folder structure is like this:

netz2 > skateproject

till now i had the templates folder in skateproject and in settings.py i pointed to this directory. this threw the template does not exist error when I tried to open the page in firefox.

as skateproject is the project folder in there ive got an folder sk8 - which is the app that im currently working on and that im trying to execute. The solution is super simple.

I had to move the templates in the subdirectory of the app. which looks like this

netz2 > skateproject > sk8 > templates

and now it works!

So if you have the same problem, make sure your templates folder is not in the root of the project but is a subdirectory of the app youre working on - AND add this path to the settings.py Template_dirs

it looks like this in my example:

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    r'H:/netz2/skateprojekt/sk8/templates/',
)