Django: getting previous url

python django url

31,222

Solution 1

You can do that by using request.META['HTTP_REFERER'], but it will exist if only your tab previous page was from your website, else there will be no HTTP_REFERER in META dict. So be careful and make sure that you are using .get() notation instead.

# Returns None if user came from another website
request.META.get('HTTP_REFERER')

Note: I gave this answer when Django 1.10 was an actual release. I'm not working with Django anymore, so I can't tell if this applies to Django 2

Solution 2

You can get the referring URL by using request.META.HTTP_REFERER

More info here: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/request-response/#django.http.HttpRequest.META

Solution 3

I can't answer @tryingtolearn comment, but for future people, you can use request.META['HTTP_REFERER']

Solution 4

Instead of adding it to your context, then passing it to the template, you can place it in your template directly with:

    <a href="{{ request.META.HTTP_REFERER }}">Return</a>

Solution 5

A much more reliable method would be to explicitly pass the category in the URL of the Add Post button.

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31,222

tryingtolearn

Updated on October 30, 2020

Comments

tryingtolearn over 3 years
I have a Post model that requires a certain category before being added to the database, and I want the category to be generated automatically. Clicking the addPost button takes you to a different page and so the category will be determined by taking a part of the previous page url.

Is there a way to get the previous page url as a string?

Thanks

Edit: I have added my AddPost button here.
```
<aside class="addPost">
       <article>
            <form action="/Forum/addPost">
                  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Add Post"/>
            </form>
       </article>
</aside>
```
tryingtolearn over 9 years

I'm sorry, could you elaborate? I'm a definite newbie to this.
tryingtolearn over 9 years

Apologies, I don't quite follow how that works. Could you explain? If I was able to retrieve the URL this way would it allow me to treat it as type string?
tryingtolearn over 9 years

when trying to use request.META.HTTP_REFERER I get an error saying dict object has no attribute HTTP_REFERER.
almost a beginner over 6 years

name 'self' is not defined?
Kurt Peek almost 6 years

This could raise a KeyError causing the page to crash; using dict.get() as described in the accepted answer would prevent this.
Willy satrio nugroho almost 5 years

just simply add self.request if you use class based view
justbeingalearner over 3 years

This is raising MultiValueDictKeyError
justbeingalearner over 3 years

Thanks for this, it is working for Django 3 as well
run_the_race over 2 years

@justbeingalearner sounds like your reverse proxy is not adding the header