Django ImportError: cannot import name 'render_to_response' from 'django.shortcuts'

Question

After upgrading to Django 3.0, I get the following error:

ImportError: cannot import name 'render_to_response' from 'django.shortcuts'

My view:

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response

from django.template import RequestContext

def index(request):
    context = {'foo': 'bar'}
    return render_to_response('index.html', context, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Here is the full traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./manage.py", line 21, in <module>
    main()
  File "./manage.py", line 17, in main
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 381, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 375, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 323, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 60, in execute
    super().execute(*args, **options)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 364, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 95, in handle
    self.run(**options)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 102, in run
    autoreload.run_with_reloader(self.inner_run, **options)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 580, in run_with_reloader
    start_django(reloader, main_func, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 565, in start_django
    reloader.run(django_main_thread)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 272, in run
    get_resolver().urlconf_module
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 48, in __get__
    res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/urls/resolvers.py", line 572, in urlconf_module
    return import_module(self.urlconf_name)
  File "/Users/alasdair/.pyenv/versions/3.7.2/lib/python3.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 983, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 967, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 677, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 728, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/Users/alasdair/dev/myproject/myproject/urls.py", line 19, in <module>
    from myapp import views
  File "/Users/alasdair/dev/myproject/myapp/views.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
ImportError: cannot import name 'render_to_response' from 'django.shortcuts' (/Users/alasdair/.virtualenvs/django30/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/shortcuts.py)

Answer 1

The render_to_response shortcut was deprecated in Django 2.0, and is removed in Django 3.0. You can use the render shortcut instead, which was added way back in Django 1.3. The render shortcut works similarly to render_to_response, but takes request as its first argument. Change your view as follows:

from django.shortcuts import render

def index(request):
    context = {'foo': 'bar'}
    return render(request, 'index.html', context) 

In your view, you have context_instance=RequestContext(request) as the third argument. This was deprecated in Django 1.8, and does not work in Django 1.10+.

If you are using render_to_response without context_instance, then you can pass None as the request to the render shortcut. For example, if you have,

return render_to_response('index.html', context)

then the equivalent with render is:

return render(None, 'index.html', context)

Note that if you pass None as the first argument, then your template will be rendered without any context processors. That could make the rendering slightly faster, but it might lead to CSRF errors, and means that you won't be able to access variables from the context processors (e.g. {{ request }} and {{ user }}) unless you explicitly add them to the context. I wouldn't recommend using None like this unless you understand these consequences.