how to make URL pattern accept variable arguments in Django? - django

Question

my title may not be very clear.
The problem I am facing now is:
my view passes arbitrary keyword arguments to another view.
This view handles with what info(keyword arguments it gets)
This is the example of search feature I am implementing.
Each user will have a list of Saved Searches. when they click on any one of the items in Search list, they will be directed to a different view that process the information it receives
In the Searches model, I have defined a get_absolute_url method that constructs the URL pattern of each of these search (based on models in the field).
my model:
class Searches(models.Model):
SELLER_CHOICES=(('OWNER','owner'),
('DEALER','dealer'),
('BOTH','both'), )
#search_id = models.IntegerField(primary_key=True)
user = models.ForeignKey(User)
make = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True)
model = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True)
keywords = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True)
max_price = models.IntegerField(blank=True, null=True)
min_price = models.IntegerField(blank=True, null=True)
max_year = models.IntegerField(blank=True, null=True)
min_year = models.IntegerField(blank=True, null=True)
pic_only = models.NullBooleanField()
search_title_only = models.NullBooleanField()
owner_dealer_all = models.CharField(max_length=10,choices=SELLER_CHOICES,verbose_name='owner/dealer')
class Meta:
#managed = False
db_table = 'Searches'
verbose_name_plural = "Searches"
def __unicode__(self):
return "%s %s %s-%s" %(self.make,self.model,self.max_year,self.min_year)
def get_absolute_url(self):
return reverse('postings.views.detail',args=[model_to_dict(self.object)])
view:
class SearchListView(ListView):
model=Searches
template:
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block content %}
{% for obj in object_list %}
<p>{{ obj }}</p>
{% endfor %}
{% endblock %}
you can see from the image, when I click the your searches, I get error;
Reverse for 'postings.views.detail' with arguments '({'owner_dealer_all': u'DEALER', 'pic_only': True, 'make': u'toyota', u'id': 3, 'min_year': 1990, 'min_price': 4000, 'user': 1, 'keywords': u'hybrid', 'search_title_only': True, 'model': u'prius', 'max_price': 20000, 'max_year': 2012},)' and keyword arguments '{}' not found. 0 pattern(s) tried: []
Basically, I dont know how to handle this in the URL pattern.
OR
IF THIS IS A BAD DESIGN, PLEASE PLEASE SUGGEST A SOLUTION

Answer 1

If you really need to have all the variables in the URL, then you need to pass the variables as params of a GET query, so your URL will look like this:
http://example.com/search?owner_dealer_all=DEALER&pic_only=True&make=toyota&id=3&min_year=1990&min_price=4000&user=1&keywords=hybrid&search_title_only=True&model=prius&max_price=20000&max_year=2012
But, I would strongly suggest that you keep that URL as separate from the Search.get_absolute_url result, as the latter is supposed to point to the actual model. So have that function return something like:
http://example.com/search/23465
where the number is the ID for your Search model instance. In that view, get all the saved details and make a search on them. If you actually don't need the data in your URL, simply opt for the latter version only.