How to generate link for file download? - django

Question

I created a model without using FileField() and saved the url into path field. Now while displaying I can see the attributes but I cannot download the file. href treats it as a page and i get an error saying GET request failed.
I need to do the same for static files also.
models.py looks like this:
import os
from django.conf import settings
from django.db import models
# Create your models here.
class Document(models.Model):
code = models.CharField(max_length = 50)
path = models.CharField(max_length = 500)
date_of_submission = models.CharField(max_length = 50)
type = models.CharField(max_length = 50)
title = models.CharField(max_length = 200)
department = models.CharField(max_length = 50)
subject = models.CharField(max_length = 100)
updation_allowed = models.CharField(max_length = 1, default = '0')
#property
def relative_path(self):
return os.path.relpath(self.path, settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
template has some code like this:
<a href = '{{ MEDIA_URL }}{{ value.thesis.relative_path }}'> Thesis </a>
*static files*
<a href='/uploads/report.pdf'> Front Page</a>
I tried using the property and provinding the path myself.

Answer 1

urls.py (project/urls.py)
from django.conf.urls.static import static
urlpatterns = [
...
]
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
settings.py
...
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

Answer 2

To allow file downloading you need to create a separate view with FileResponse as a response. This view will take some unique argument (I suppose it will be relative path to the file) with url provided in html template. Inside this view, FileResponse will open your file by provided path and then will return response with your file. I think you should do it like this:
Views.py:
def download_file(request, relative_path): # this is a view with file response
media_root = settings.MEDIA_ROOT
return FileResponse(open(f"{media_root}\{relative_path}", "rb"), as_attachment=True, filename="some_name.smth")
template:
<a href = '{% url "download" relative_path=value.thesis.relative_path %}'> Thesis </a>
*static files*
<a href='/uploads/report.pdf'> Front Page</a>
urls.py:
urlpatterns = [
path("download-file/<slug:relative_path>/", views.download_file, name="download")]
You will need to combine with PATHes to get it to work.