How do I call a Django function on button click?

Question:

I am trying to write a Django application and I am stuck at how I can call a view function when a button is clicked.

In my template, I have a link button as below, when clicked it takes you to a different webpage:

<a target="_blank" href="{{ column_3_item.link_for_item }}">Check It Out</a>

When the button is clicked, I also want to call a Django view function (along with re-direct to a target website). The view function increments the value in the database which stores the number of times the button is clicked.

The column_3_item.link_for_item is a link to an external website (e.g. www.google.com). Right now when that button is clicked, it opens a new window which takes you to the google website.

What I would like to do is to call a Django view function also when the button is clicked which updates the database without refreshing the page. How I can achieve this?

Asked By: Dev

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Answers:

here is a pure-javascript, minimalistic approach. I use JQuery but you can use any library (or even no libraries at all).

<html>
    <head>
        <title>An example</title>
        <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
        <script>
            function call_counter(url, pk) {
                window.open(url);
                $.get('YOUR_VIEW_HERE/'+pk+'/', function (data) {
                    alert("counter updated!");
                });
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <button onclick="call_counter('http://www.google.com', 12345);">
            I update object 12345
        </button>
        <button onclick="call_counter('http://www.yahoo.com', 999);">
            I update object 999
        </button>
    </body>
</html>

Alternative approach

Instead of placing the JavaScript code, you can change your link in this way:

<a target="_blank" 
    class="btn btn-info pull-right" 
    href="{% url YOUR_VIEW column_3_item.pk %}/?next={{column_3_item.link_for_item|urlencode:''}}">
    Check It Out
</a>

and in your views.py:

def YOUR_VIEW_DEF(request, pk):
    YOUR_OBJECT.objects.filter(pk=pk).update(views=F('views')+1)
    return HttpResponseRedirect(request.GET.get('next'))
Answered By: furins

The following answer could be helpful for the first part of your question:

Django: How can I call a view function from template?

Answered By: Mahshid Zeinaly

There are 2 possible solutions that I personally use

1.without using form

 <button type="submit" value={{excel_path}} onclick="location.href='{% url 'downloadexcel' %}'" name='mybtn2'>Download Excel file</button>

2.Using Form

<form action="{% url 'downloadexcel' %}" method="post">
{% csrf_token %}


 <button type="submit" name='mybtn2' value={{excel_path}}>Download results in Excel</button>
 </form>

Where urls.py should have this

path('excel/',views1.downloadexcel,name="downloadexcel"),
Answered By: Sourabh SInha