Django template reading individual keys from dictionary instead of iterating - django

Question

I'm having trouble passing data from a Django model to a a Django template. The code below works, but I'm it seems clunky and I'm a bit confused by why it works. I'm trying to read a random entry from my database for each one of my models. I then want to print the data from each model on my home template. I thought I could add each model to a single dictionary, then iterate through the dictionary of dictionaries in my template, but that didn't work ( I know the models have different fields, but I was planning on working around that later). I played around with it for a while, and realized that my for loops weren't actually iterating through the dictionary of dictionaries, but was actually just reading each individual entry in the dictionary through its key. Additionally, it doesn't seem like the for loops are doing any iterating, since I can access the fields of my model directly with the .field notation. This seems to be the only method that works but I'm still not entirely sure why. Could anyone clarify why this works, or let me know if there is a more straightforward way of reading the dictionary? Here is the function that renders the template:
def home(request):
# Get a random song and album from the database
randomSong = randint(1,501)
randomAlbum = randint(1,501)
songChoice = Songs.objects.filter(rank = randomSong).values()
albumChoice = Albums.objects.filter(rank = randomAlbum).values()
entry = {'ent': songChoice, 'entry': albumChoice}
return render(request,'rollingStone/home.html', entry)
And this is the template that home renders:
{% extends "rollingStone/layout.html" %}
{% block title %}
A Record A Day
{% endblock %}
{% block body %}
{% for song in ent %}
<div class = "container">
<div class = "row">
<h1>#{{song.rank}}: {{song.title}} </h1>
</div>
<div class = "row ">
<div class = "col-sm">
<img src = {{song.cover}} alt = "No cover">
</div>
<div class = "col-sm">
<p>
<strong>{{song.releaseInfo}}</strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>Artist:</strong> {{song.artist}}
<br>
<strong>Writer(s):</strong> {{song.writers}}
<br>
<strong>Producer(s):</strong> {{song.producer}}
<br>
<br>
{{song.description}}
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{% endfor %}
{% for album in entry %}
<div class = "container">
<div class = "row">
<h1>#{{album.rank}}: {{album.title}} </h1>
</div>
<div class = "row ">
<div class = "col-sm">
<img src = {{album.cover}} alt = "No cover">
</div>
<div class = "col-sm">
<p>
<strong>Artist:</strong> {{album.artist}}
<br>
<strong>Label:</strong> {{album.label}}
<br>
<strong>Release Year:</strong> {{album.year}}
<br>
<br>
{{album.description}}
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{% endfor %}
{% endblock %}
And the definitions of the models themselves, if that helps:
# Model to store a Rolling Stone top 500 song
class Songs(models.Model):
rank = models.IntegerField()
artist = models.CharField(max_length=50)
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
cover = models.ImageField()
writers = models.CharField(max_length=100)
producers = models.CharField(max_length=100)
releaseInfo = models.CharField(max_length=100)
description = models.TextField()
used = models.BooleanField(default=False)
def __str__(self):
return self.title
# Model to store a Rolling Stone top 500 album
class Albums(models.Model):
rank = models.IntegerField()
artist = models.CharField(max_length=50)
title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
cover = models.ImageField()
label = models.CharField(max_length=100)
year = models.CharField(max_length=100)
description = models.TextField()
used = models.BooleanField(default=False)
def __str__(self):
return self.title

Answer 1

It works because you are filtering and retrieving .values(), which sort of means it's returning a queryset of probably 1.
In other words {% for song in ent %} is equivalent to for song in ent_queryset.
If you changed the filter to retrieve multiple songs/albums, you would see more than one song/album show up.
If you just want to retrieve one song/album, then you would need to do something like:
songChoice = Songs.objects.filter(rank = randomSong).values().first()
albumChoice = Albums.objects.filter(rank = randomAlbum).values().first()
entry = {'ent': songChoice, 'entry': albumChoice}
return render(request,'rollingStone/home.html', entry)
And then in your template you can access them directly:
{{ ent }} # this is your song obj
{{ ent.writers }}
{{ ent.artist }}
{{ entry }} # this is your album entry