urls.py#

What is urls.py (in an app)?#

urls.py answers this question:: When a user opens a URL, which view should run?

Example:

/           → home view
/products/ → products view

Where myapp/urls.py fits in Django#

There are two levels of URLs:

1️⃣ Project-level (mysite/urls.py)

Main router
Includes app URLs

2️⃣ App-level (myapp/urls.py)

App’s own routes
Clean and reusable

Basic structure of myapp/urls.py#

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path("", views.home, name="home"),
]

Explanation:

Part	Meaning
path()	Define a URL pattern
“”	Empty path → app root
views.home	Function to execute
name=”home”	URL name (used by reverse)

Example: Create a simple view

views.py

from django.http import HttpResponse

def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello from myapp")

Connect app URLs to project URLs#

mysite/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
    path("", include("myapp.urls")),
]

This line:

path("", include("myapp.urls"))

means:: “Send requests to myapp’s urls.py”

Final URL result

URL	What happens
http://127.0.0.1:8000/	runs views.home()
http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/	Django admin

Multiple URLs in myapp/urls.py#

urlpatterns = [
    path("", views.home, name="home"),
    path("about/", views.about, name="about"),
    path("contact/", views.contact, name="contact"),
]

URL parameters

URL with ID

path("product/<int:id>/", views.product_detail, name="product_detail")

View

def product_detail(request, id):
    return HttpResponse(f"Product ID: {id}")

Example URL:

/product/5/

URL Names & reverse()

Why names matter:

from django.urls import reverse
reverse("home")

This avoids hardcoding URLs.

Mental Model

Think of urls.py as:

URL → View → Response

Browser
  ↓
urls.py
  ↓
views.py
  ↓
HTML / JSON / Text

Common Mistakes

Forgetting to include app URLs in project

Writing logic in urls.py

Hardcoding URLs instead of using names

Best Practice (Production)

myapp/
    urls.py
    views/
        __init__.py
        home.py
        products.py

Keeps large apps clean.

urls.py

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