django, views direct to a another html page - django

Question

I am using Django for develop a website. The website is intended to use to search information stored in a MySQL database.
This is the current basic flow of the web site.
1) index.html - this has a form to select an option
2) according the option, users will redirect to search.html (include a form)
3) once the user provides the criteria, the result will be displayed in reply.html
In my views.py , I have two functions.
from django.shortcuts import render
from website.models import WebsiteRepository
from .forms import SearchForm
from .forms import SelectTypeForm
def Search(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
#do something
return render(request, 'reply.html', {'env_dict':env_dict})
else:
#do something
return render(request, 'search.html', context = context)
def index(request):
if request.method =='POST':
#do something
return render(request, 'search.html', context = context)
else:
#do something
return render(request, 'index.html', context= context)
When I go to index.html page, I can select a option and it will direct me to search.html. After, I fill the form there and submit, it wont give me the reply.html page.
I have a feeling that, I could make this work by changing urls.py.
from django.urls import path
from website import views
urlpatterns = [
path('', views.index, name='index'),
#path('search/', view.Search, name ='Search')
]
I tried to google it. But its too much details and Iam kind of lost.
Do any of you guys know how to achieve this?
Thanks
search.html
{% extends "base_generic.html" %}
{% block content %}
<h3>Welcome to search information Repository</h3>
<form method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{form.as_p}}
<button type = 'submit'>submit</button>
</form>
{% endblock %}
index.html
{% block content %}
<h3>Welcome to information Repository</h3>
<form method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{form.as_p}}
<button type = 'submit'>submit</button>
</form>
just for clarify things more, ill add the forms.py too
from django import forms
from .models import WebsiteRepository
class SearchForm(forms.Form):
websiterepository = WebsiteRepository
env_indicators = websiterepository.objects.filter (key_aspect='Environmental').values_list('repo_id','indicator')
indicator = forms.ChoiceField(choices=env_indicators,label = 'Indicator' )
OPTIONS = (('2000','2000'),('2001','2001'),('2002','2002'), ('2003','2003'),('0000','0000'),)
year = forms.ChoiceField(choices=OPTIONS)
class SelectTypeForm(forms.Form):
OPTIONS = (('1', 'Envirnmental Indicators'),('2','Economic Indicators'),('3','Social Indicators'),)
types = forms.ChoiceField(choices=OPTIONS)

Answer 1

Your code is wrong on many points.
First thing first: for a search, you want a GET request, not a POST (POST is for updating the server's state - adding or updating your database mostly). This is the semantically correct method (since you want to GET data), and it will allow a user to bookmark the url.
Second point: you don't want to submit the search form to the index view but to the search view. No need for redirects etc, just use the {% url %} templatetag to fill the action attribute of your form (you of course need to have a 'Search' url in your urls.py):
<form method="get" action="{% url 'Search' %}">
{% csrf_token %}
{{form.as_p}}
<button type = 'submit'>submit</button>
</form>
if you want to have this form on more than one page (which is often the case for search forms), use an inclusion tag tha will take care of creating an unbound SearchForm and render the template fragment.
Then in your search view, you only want GET requests, and do not use two different templates, this will only lead to useless duplication.
def Search(request):
form = SearchForm(request.GET)
# use the form's data - if any - to get search results
# and put those results (even if empty) in you context
return render(request, 'reply.html', {'env_dict':env_dict})
And finally, your search form is totally broken:
class SearchForm(forms.Form):
# this is totally useless
websiterepository = WebsiteRepository
# this will only be evaluated once at process startup, so you will
# get stale data in production - and probably different data
# per process, in a totally unpredictable way.
# You need to either put this in the form's __init__ or wrap it
# in a callable and pass this callable
env_indicators = websiterepository.objects.filter (key_aspect='Environmental').values_list('repo_id','indicator')
indicator = forms.ChoiceField(choices=env_indicators,label = 'Indicator' )
# are you going to manually add a new year choice every year ???
OPTIONS = (('2000','2000'),('2001','2001'),('2002','2002'), ('2003','2003'),('0000','0000'),)
year = forms.ChoiceField(choices=OPTIONS)
For the "indicators" ChoiceField you want something like:
def get_indicators_choices():
return Websiterepository.objects.filter (key_aspect='Environmental').values_list('repo_id','indicator')
class SearchForm(forms.Form):
# IMPORTANT : we are NOT calling the function here, just
# passing it (python functions are objects) to the field, which
# will call it everytime the form is instanciated, so you don't
# have stale data
indicator = forms.ChoiceField(
choices=get_indicator_choices,
label='Indicator')
As a last note: be consistent with your namings (ie why name one view in all lower (index) and capitalize the other (Search) ? Whichever convention you choose (I strongly suggest respecting pep8 here), at least stick to it for the whole project.

Answer 2

The problem is that code is not redirecting to /search, instead rendering search.html after post from index.html.
Try doing like-
views.py-
#your code
def index(request):
#do something
if request.method == 'POST':
return redirect('Search')
else:
#render index.html
def search(request):
#do something
if request.method == 'POST':
#render reply.html
else:
#render search.html
Another way to achieve this is if you specify action in your form so that form posts on /search.
search.html
<form method="post" action="/search">
{% csrf_token %}
{{form.as_p}}
<button type = 'submit'>submit</button>
</form>