Django urls.py, what does the name parameter do?

Question

I was poking around my friends project and as I looked through the urls.py file i noticed this:

    url(r'^apply/$', contact.as_view(), name='careers_contact'),

I just recently learned about class based views, and it all makes sense to me except for the last bit name='careers_contact'. I also can't seem to find the meaning of this online.

Can someone shed light on what this is, where that name lives, and what its doing?

Answer 1

url() name parameter

"What is it? Where does it live?"

url() is simply a function that returns a django.core.urlresolvers.RegexURLPattern object, so passing in a name='careers_contact' argument sets name for that object. None of that is really relevant until this url(...) is placed into a URLconf.

THEN, if we need the URL of a view, we can now get it by passing that name into {% url 'careers_contact' %} in templates or reverse('careers_contact') in code and on the backend those functions will use the name to map back to the correct URL.

Why do we need it?

We can reverse the Python Path to get the URL (ex. reverse(blog.views.home) ), so what's the point in using name?

URL Naming and Namespacing allow for 3 things:

• A simple way to reverse URL match Class-Based Views. Though it is possible without it.
• A way to distinguish URL patterns using the same view and parameters.
• A way to differentiate URL names between apps.

(Click the links for an example of the issue and how naming/namespacing solves it)

Answer 2

The reason they probably added a namespace for the URL is so that they can do reverse namespaced URL.

For example in a template somewhere, you will probably see something like:

<a href="{% URL 'contact:careers_contact' %}"> Click me! </a>