How do I call a Django function on button click?
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?
Answer
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')))