.. method:: QueryDict.__getitem__(key)
Returns the value for the given key. If the key has more than one value,
it returns the last value. Raises
``django.utils.datastructures.MultiValueDictKeyError`` if the key does not
exist. (This is a subclass of Python's standard :exc:`KeyError`, so you can
stick to catching ``KeyError``.)
.. method:: QueryDict.__setitem__(key, value)
Sets the given key to ``[value]`` (a list whose single element is
``value``). Note that this, as other dictionary functions that have side
effects, can only be called on a mutable ``QueryDict`` (such as one that
was created via :meth:`QueryDict.copy`).
.. method:: QueryDict.__contains__(key)
Returns ``True`` if the given key is set. This lets you do, e.g., ``if "foo"
in request.GET``.
.. method:: QueryDict.get(key, default=None)
Uses the same logic as :meth:`__getitem__`, with a hook for returning a
default value if the key doesn't exist.
.. method:: QueryDict.setdefault(key, default=None)
Like :meth:`dict.setdefault`, except it uses :meth:`__setitem__` internally.
.. method:: QueryDict.update(other_dict)
Takes either a ``QueryDict`` or a dictionary. Like :meth:`dict.update`,
except it *appends* to the current dictionary items rather than replacing
them. For example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1', mutable=True)
>>> q.update({'a': '2'})
>>> q.getlist('a')
['1', '2']
>>> q['a'] # returns the last
'2'
.. method:: QueryDict.items()
Like :meth:`dict.items`, except this uses the same last-value logic as
:meth:`__getitem__` and returns an iterator object instead of a view object.
For example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=2&a=3')
>>> list(q.items())
[('a', '3')]
.. method:: QueryDict.values()
Like :meth:`dict.values`, except this uses the same last-value logic as
:meth:`__getitem__` and returns an iterator instead of a view object. For
example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=2&a=3')
>>> list(q.values())
['3']
In addition, ``QueryDict`` has the following methods:
.. method:: QueryDict.copy()
Returns a copy of the object using :func:`copy.deepcopy`. This copy will
be mutable even if the original was not.
.. method:: QueryDict.getlist(key, default=None)
Returns a list of the data with the requested key. Returns an empty list if
the key doesn't exist and ``default`` is ``None``. It's guaranteed to
return a list unless the default value provided isn't a list.
.. method:: QueryDict.setlist(key, list_)
Sets the given key to ``list_`` (unlike :meth:`__setitem__`).
.. method:: QueryDict.appendlist(key, item)
Appends an item to the internal list associated with key.
.. method:: QueryDict.setlistdefault(key, default_list=None)
Like :meth:`setdefault`, except it takes a list of values instead of a
single value.
.. method:: QueryDict.lists()
Like :meth:`items()`, except it includes all values, as a list, for each
member of the dictionary. For example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=2&a=3')
>>> q.lists()
[('a', ['1', '2', '3'])]
.. method:: QueryDict.pop(key)
Returns a list of values for the given key and removes them from the
dictionary. Raises ``KeyError`` if the key does not exist. For example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=2&a=3', mutable=True)
>>> q.pop('a')
['1', '2', '3']
.. method:: QueryDict.popitem()
Removes an arbitrary member of the dictionary (since there's no concept
of ordering), and returns a two value tuple containing the key and a list
of all values for the key. Raises ``KeyError`` when called on an empty
dictionary. For example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=2&a=3', mutable=True)
>>> q.popitem()
('a', ['1', '2', '3'])
.. method:: QueryDict.dict()
Returns a ``dict`` representation of ``QueryDict``. For every (key, list)
pair in ``QueryDict``, ``dict`` will have (key, item), where item is one
element of the list, using the same logic as :meth:`QueryDict.__getitem__`::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=3&a=5')
>>> q.dict()
{'a': '5'}
.. method:: QueryDict.urlencode(safe=None)
Returns a string of the data in query string format. For example::
>>> q = QueryDict('a=2&b=3&b=5')
>>> q.urlencode()
'a=2&b=3&b=5'
Use the ``safe`` parameter to pass characters which don't require encoding.
For example::
>>> q = QueryDict(mutable=True)
>>> q['next'] = '/a&b/'
>>> q.urlencode(safe='/')
'next=/a%26b/'
``HttpResponse`` objects
========================
.. class:: HttpResponse
In contrast to :class:`HttpRequest` objects, which are created automatically by
Django, :class:`HttpResponse` objects are your responsibility. Each view you
write is responsible for instantiating, populating, and returning an
:class:`HttpResponse`.
The :class:`HttpResponse` class lives in the :mod:`django.http` module.
Usage
-----
Passing strings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Typical usage is to pass the contents of the page, as a string, bytestring,
or :class:`memoryview`, to the :class:`HttpResponse` constructor::
>>> from django.http import HttpResponse
>>> response = HttpResponse("Here's the text of the web page.")
>>> response = HttpResponse("Text only, please.", content_type="text/plain")
>>> response = HttpResponse(b'Bytestrings are also accepted.')
>>> response = HttpResponse(memoryview(b'Memoryview as well.'))
But if you want to add content incrementally, you can use ``response`` as a
file-like object::
>>> response = HttpResponse()
>>> response.write("Here's the text of the web page.
")
>>> response.write("Here's another paragraph.
")
Passing iterators
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, you can pass ``HttpResponse`` an iterator rather than strings.
``HttpResponse`` will consume the iterator immediately, store its content as a
string, and discard it. Objects with a ``close()`` method such as files and
generators are immediately closed.
If you need the response to be streamed from the iterator to the client, you
must use the :class:`StreamingHttpResponse` class instead.
.. _setting-header-fields:
Setting header fields
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To set or remove a header field in your response, use
:attr:`HttpResponse.headers`::
>>> response = HttpResponse()
>>> response.headers['Age'] = 120
>>> del response.headers['Age']
You can also manipulate headers by treating your response like a dictionary::
>>> response = HttpResponse()
>>> response['Age'] = 120
>>> del response['Age']
This proxies to ``HttpResponse.headers``, and is the original interface offered
by ``HttpResponse``.
When using this interface, unlike a dictionary, ``del`` doesn't raise
``KeyError`` if the header field doesn't exist.
You can also set headers on instantiation::
>>> response = HttpResponse(headers={'Age': 120})
For setting the ``Cache-Control`` and ``Vary`` header fields, it is recommended
to use the :func:`~django.utils.cache.patch_cache_control` and
:func:`~django.utils.cache.patch_vary_headers` methods from
:mod:`django.utils.cache`, since these fields can have multiple, comma-separated
values. The "patch" methods ensure that other values, e.g. added by a
middleware, are not removed.
HTTP header fields cannot contain newlines. An attempt to set a header field
containing a newline character (CR or LF) will raise ``BadHeaderError``
Telling the browser to treat the response as a file attachment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To tell the browser to treat the response as a file attachment, set the
``Content-Type`` and ``Content-Disposition`` headers. For example, this is how
you might return a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet::
>>> response = HttpResponse(my_data, headers={
... 'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.ms-excel',
... 'Content-Disposition': 'attachment; filename="foo.xls"',
... })
There's nothing Django-specific about the ``Content-Disposition`` header, but
it's easy to forget the syntax, so we've included it here.
Attributes
----------
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.content
A bytestring representing the content, encoded from a string if necessary.
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.headers
A case insensitive, dict-like object that provides an interface to all
HTTP headers on the response. See :ref:`setting-header-fields`.
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.charset
A string denoting the charset in which the response will be encoded. If not
given at ``HttpResponse`` instantiation time, it will be extracted from
``content_type`` and if that is unsuccessful, the
:setting:`DEFAULT_CHARSET` setting will be used.
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.status_code
The :rfc:`HTTP status code <7231#section-6>` for the response.
Unless :attr:`reason_phrase` is explicitly set, modifying the value of
``status_code`` outside the constructor will also modify the value of
``reason_phrase``.
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.reason_phrase
The HTTP reason phrase for the response. It uses the :rfc:`HTTP standard's
<7231#section-6.1>` default reason phrases.
Unless explicitly set, ``reason_phrase`` is determined by the value of
:attr:`status_code`.
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.streaming
This is always ``False``.
This attribute exists so middleware can treat streaming responses
differently from regular responses.
.. attribute:: HttpResponse.closed
``True`` if the response has been closed.
Methods
-------
.. method:: HttpResponse.__init__(content=b'', content_type=None, status=200, reason=None, charset=None, headers=None)
Instantiates an ``HttpResponse`` object with the given page content,
content type, and headers.
``content`` is most commonly an iterator, bytestring, :class:`memoryview`,
or string. Other types will be converted to a bytestring by encoding their
string representation. Iterators should return strings or bytestrings and
those will be joined together to form the content of the response.
``content_type`` is the MIME type optionally completed by a character set
encoding and is used to fill the HTTP ``Content-Type`` header. If not
specified, it is formed by ``'text/html'`` and the
:setting:`DEFAULT_CHARSET` settings, by default:
``"text/html; charset=utf-8"``.
``status`` is the :rfc:`HTTP status code <7231#section-6>` for the response.
You can use Python's :py:class:`http.HTTPStatus` for meaningful aliases,
such as ``HTTPStatus.NO_CONTENT``.
``reason`` is the HTTP response phrase. If not provided, a default phrase
will be used.
``charset`` is the charset in which the response will be encoded. If not
given it will be extracted from ``content_type``, and if that
is unsuccessful, the :setting:`DEFAULT_CHARSET` setting will be used.
``headers`` is a :class:`dict` of HTTP headers for the response.
.. method:: HttpResponse.__setitem__(header, value)
Sets the given header name to the given value. Both ``header`` and
``value`` should be strings.
.. method:: HttpResponse.__delitem__(header)
Deletes the header with the given name. Fails silently if the header
doesn't exist. Case-insensitive.
.. method:: HttpResponse.__getitem__(header)
Returns the value for the given header name. Case-insensitive.
.. method:: HttpResponse.get(header, alternate=None)
Returns the value for the given header, or an ``alternate`` if the header
doesn't exist.
.. method:: HttpResponse.has_header(header)
Returns ``True`` or ``False`` based on a case-insensitive check for a
header with the given name.
.. method:: HttpResponse.items()
Acts like :meth:`dict.items` for HTTP headers on the response.
.. method:: HttpResponse.setdefault(header, value)
Sets a header unless it has already been set.
.. method:: HttpResponse.set_cookie(key, value='', max_age=None, expires=None, path='/', domain=None, secure=False, httponly=False, samesite=None)
Sets a cookie. The parameters are the same as in the
:class:`~http.cookies.Morsel` cookie object in the Python standard library.
* ``max_age`` should be an integer number of seconds, or ``None`` (default)
if the cookie should last only as long as the client's browser session.
If ``expires`` is not specified, it will be calculated.
* ``expires`` should either be a string in the format
``"Wdy, DD-Mon-YY HH:MM:SS GMT"`` or a ``datetime.datetime`` object
in UTC. If ``expires`` is a ``datetime`` object, the ``max_age``
will be calculated.
* Use ``domain`` if you want to set a cross-domain cookie. For example,
``domain="example.com"`` will set a cookie that is readable by the
domains www.example.com, blog.example.com, etc. Otherwise, a cookie will
only be readable by the domain that set it.
* Use ``secure=True`` if you want the cookie to be only sent to the server
when a request is made with the ``https`` scheme.
* Use ``httponly=True`` if you want to prevent client-side
JavaScript from having access to the cookie.
HttpOnly_ is a flag included in a Set-Cookie HTTP response header. It's
part of the :rfc:`RFC 6265 <6265#section-4.1.2.6>` standard for cookies
and can be a useful way to mitigate the risk of a client-side script
accessing the protected cookie data.
* Use ``samesite='Strict'`` or ``samesite='Lax'`` to tell the browser not
to send this cookie when performing a cross-origin request. `SameSite`_
isn't supported by all browsers, so it's not a replacement for Django's
CSRF protection, but rather a defense in depth measure.
Use ``samesite='None'`` (string) to explicitly state that this cookie is
sent with all same-site and cross-site requests.
.. _HttpOnly: https://owasp.org/www-community/HttpOnly
.. _SameSite: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Set-Cookie/SameSite
.. warning::
:rfc:`RFC 6265 <6265#section-6.1>` states that user agents should
support cookies of at least 4096 bytes. For many browsers this is also
the maximum size. Django will not raise an exception if there's an
attempt to store a cookie of more than 4096 bytes, but many browsers
will not set the cookie correctly.
.. method:: HttpResponse.set_signed_cookie(key, value, salt='', max_age=None, expires=None, path='/', domain=None, secure=False, httponly=False, samesite=None)
Like :meth:`~HttpResponse.set_cookie()`, but
:doc:`cryptographic signing ` the cookie before setting
it. Use in conjunction with :meth:`HttpRequest.get_signed_cookie`.
You can use the optional ``salt`` argument for added key strength, but
you will need to remember to pass it to the corresponding
:meth:`HttpRequest.get_signed_cookie` call.
.. method:: HttpResponse.delete_cookie(key, path='/', domain=None, samesite=None)
Deletes the cookie with the given key. Fails silently if the key doesn't
exist.
Due to the way cookies work, ``path`` and ``domain`` should be the same
values you used in ``set_cookie()`` -- otherwise the cookie may not be
deleted.
.. method:: HttpResponse.close()
This method is called at the end of the request directly by the WSGI
server.
.. method:: HttpResponse.write(content)
This method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a file-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.flush()
This method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a file-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.tell()
This method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a file-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.getvalue()
Returns the value of :attr:`HttpResponse.content`. This method makes
an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a stream-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.readable()
Always ``False``. This method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a
stream-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.seekable()
Always ``False``. This method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a
stream-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.writable()
Always ``True``. This method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a
stream-like object.
.. method:: HttpResponse.writelines(lines)
Writes a list of lines to the response. Line separators are not added. This
method makes an :class:`HttpResponse` instance a stream-like object.
.. _ref-httpresponse-subclasses:
``HttpResponse`` subclasses
---------------------------
Django includes a number of ``HttpResponse`` subclasses that handle different
types of HTTP responses. Like ``HttpResponse``, these subclasses live in
:mod:`django.http`.
.. class:: HttpResponseRedirect
The first argument to the constructor is required -- the path to redirect
to. This can be a fully qualified URL
(e.g. ``'https://www.yahoo.com/search/'``), an absolute path with no domain
(e.g. ``'/search/'``), or even a relative path (e.g. ``'search/'``). In that
last case, the client browser will reconstruct the full URL itself
according to the current path. See :class:`HttpResponse` for other optional
constructor arguments. Note that this returns an HTTP status code 302.
.. attribute:: HttpResponseRedirect.url
This read-only attribute represents the URL the response will redirect
to (equivalent to the ``Location`` response header).
.. class:: HttpResponsePermanentRedirect
Like :class:`HttpResponseRedirect`, but it returns a permanent redirect
(HTTP status code 301) instead of a "found" redirect (status code 302).
.. class:: HttpResponseNotModified
The constructor doesn't take any arguments and no content should be added
to this response. Use this to designate that a page hasn't been modified
since the user's last request (status code 304).
.. class:: HttpResponseBadRequest
Acts just like :class:`HttpResponse` but uses a 400 status code.
.. class:: HttpResponseNotFound
Acts just like :class:`HttpResponse` but uses a 404 status code.
.. class:: HttpResponseForbidden
Acts just like :class:`HttpResponse` but uses a 403 status code.
.. class:: HttpResponseNotAllowed
Like :class:`HttpResponse`, but uses a 405 status code. The first argument
to the constructor is required: a list of permitted methods (e.g.
``['GET', 'POST']``).
.. class:: HttpResponseGone
Acts just like :class:`HttpResponse` but uses a 410 status code.
.. class:: HttpResponseServerError
Acts just like :class:`HttpResponse` but uses a 500 status code.
.. note::
If a custom subclass of :class:`HttpResponse` implements a ``render``
method, Django will treat it as emulating a
:class:`~django.template.response.SimpleTemplateResponse`, and the
``render`` method must itself return a valid response object.
Custom response classes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you find yourself needing a response class that Django doesn't provide, you
can create it with the help of :py:class:`http.HTTPStatus`. For example::
from http import HTTPStatus
from django.http import HttpResponse
class HttpResponseNoContent(HttpResponse):
status_code = HTTPStatus.NO_CONTENT
``JsonResponse`` objects
========================
.. class:: JsonResponse(data, encoder=DjangoJSONEncoder, safe=True, json_dumps_params=None, **kwargs)
An :class:`HttpResponse` subclass that helps to create a JSON-encoded
response. It inherits most behavior from its superclass with a couple
differences:
Its default ``Content-Type`` header is set to :mimetype:`application/json`.
The first parameter, ``data``, should be a ``dict`` instance. If the
``safe`` parameter is set to ``False`` (see below) it can be any
JSON-serializable object.
The ``encoder``, which defaults to
:class:`django.core.serializers.json.DjangoJSONEncoder`, will be used to
serialize the data. See :ref:`JSON serialization
` for more details about this serializer.
The ``safe`` boolean parameter defaults to ``True``. If it's set to
``False``, any object can be passed for serialization (otherwise only
``dict`` instances are allowed). If ``safe`` is ``True`` and a non-``dict``
object is passed as the first argument, a :exc:`TypeError` will be raised.
The ``json_dumps_params`` parameter is a dictionary of keyword arguments
to pass to the ``json.dumps()`` call used to generate the response.
Usage
-----
Typical usage could look like::
>>> from django.http import JsonResponse
>>> response = JsonResponse({'foo': 'bar'})
>>> response.content
b'{"foo": "bar"}'
Serializing non-dictionary objects
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In order to serialize objects other than ``dict`` you must set the ``safe``
parameter to ``False``::
>>> response = JsonResponse([1, 2, 3], safe=False)
Without passing ``safe=False``, a :exc:`TypeError` will be raised.
Note that an API based on ``dict`` objects is more extensible, flexible, and
makes it easier to maintain forwards compatibility. Therefore, you should avoid
using non-dict objects in JSON-encoded response.
.. warning::
Before the `5th edition of ECMAScript
`_ it was possible to
poison the JavaScript ``Array`` constructor. For this reason, Django does
not allow passing non-dict objects to the
:class:`~django.http.JsonResponse` constructor by default. However, most
modern browsers implement ECMAScript 5 which removes this attack vector.
Therefore it is possible to disable this security precaution.
Changing the default JSON encoder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you need to use a different JSON encoder class you can pass the ``encoder``
parameter to the constructor method::
>>> response = JsonResponse(data, encoder=MyJSONEncoder)
.. _httpresponse-streaming:
``StreamingHttpResponse`` objects
=================================
.. class:: StreamingHttpResponse
The :class:`StreamingHttpResponse` class is used to stream a response from
Django to the browser. You might want to do this if generating the response
takes too long or uses too much memory. For instance, it's useful for
:ref:`generating large CSV files `.
.. admonition:: Performance considerations
Django is designed for short-lived requests. Streaming responses will tie
a worker process for the entire duration of the response. This may result
in poor performance.
Generally speaking, you should perform expensive tasks outside of the
request-response cycle, rather than resorting to a streamed response.
The :class:`StreamingHttpResponse` is not a subclass of :class:`HttpResponse`,
because it features a slightly different API. However, it is almost identical,
with the following notable differences:
* It should be given an iterator that yields bytestrings as content.
* You cannot access its content, except by iterating the response object
itself. This should only occur when the response is returned to the client.
* It has no ``content`` attribute. Instead, it has a
:attr:`~StreamingHttpResponse.streaming_content` attribute.
* You cannot use the file-like object ``tell()`` or ``write()`` methods.
Doing so will raise an exception.
:class:`StreamingHttpResponse` should only be used in situations where it is
absolutely required that the whole content isn't iterated before transferring
the data to the client. Because the content can't be accessed, many
middleware can't function normally. For example the ``ETag`` and
``Content-Length`` headers can't be generated for streaming responses.
Attributes
----------
.. attribute:: StreamingHttpResponse.streaming_content
An iterator of the response content, bytestring encoded according to
:attr:`HttpResponse.charset`.
.. attribute:: StreamingHttpResponse.status_code
The :rfc:`HTTP status code <7231#section-6>` for the response.
Unless :attr:`reason_phrase` is explicitly set, modifying the value of
``status_code`` outside the constructor will also modify the value of
``reason_phrase``.
.. attribute:: StreamingHttpResponse.reason_phrase
The HTTP reason phrase for the response. It uses the :rfc:`HTTP standard's
<7231#section-6.1>` default reason phrases.
Unless explicitly set, ``reason_phrase`` is determined by the value of
:attr:`status_code`.
.. attribute:: StreamingHttpResponse.streaming
This is always ``True``.
``FileResponse`` objects
========================
.. class:: FileResponse(open_file, as_attachment=False, filename='', **kwargs)
:class:`FileResponse` is a subclass of :class:`StreamingHttpResponse`
optimized for binary files. It uses :pep:`wsgi.file_wrapper
<3333#optional-platform-specific-file-handling>` if provided by the wsgi
server, otherwise it streams the file out in small chunks.
If ``as_attachment=True``, the ``Content-Disposition`` header is set to
``attachment``, which asks the browser to offer the file to the user as a
download. Otherwise, a ``Content-Disposition`` header with a value of
``inline`` (the browser default) will be set only if a filename is
available.
If ``open_file`` doesn't have a name or if the name of ``open_file`` isn't
appropriate, provide a custom file name using the ``filename`` parameter.
Note that if you pass a file-like object like ``io.BytesIO``, it's your
task to ``seek()`` it before passing it to ``FileResponse``.
The ``Content-Length`` and ``Content-Type`` headers are automatically set
when they can be guessed from contents of ``open_file``.
``FileResponse`` accepts any file-like object with binary content, for example
a file open in binary mode like so::
>>> from django.http import FileResponse
>>> response = FileResponse(open('myfile.png', 'rb'))
The file will be closed automatically, so don't open it with a context manager.
Methods
-------
.. method:: FileResponse.set_headers(open_file)
This method is automatically called during the response initialization and
set various headers (``Content-Length``, ``Content-Type``, and
``Content-Disposition``) depending on ``open_file``.