CODEWITHSUNDEEP
django
Naftuli Kay
Naftuli Kay

Reputation: 91650

Application logic in view code

Should I be writing application logic in my view code? For example, on submission of a form element, I need to create a user and send him an activation email. Is this something to do from a view function, or should I create a separate function to make it easier to test down the road? What does Django recommend here?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 259

Answers (2)

Timmy O'Mahony
Timmy O'Mahony

Reputation: 53991

I found it very hard to figure out where everything goes when I started using django. It really depends on the type of logic you are writing.

First start with the models: model-methods and managers are a good place to perform row-level logic and table level logic i.e. a model manager would be a good place to write code to get a list of categories that are associated with all blogposts. A model method is a good place to count the characters in a particular blogpost.

View level logic should deal with bringing it all together - taking the request, performing the necessary steps to get to the result you need (maybe using the model managers) and then getting it ready for the template.

If there is code that doesn't fit in else where, but has a logical structure you can simply write a module to perform that. Similarly if there are scraps of code that you don't think belong, keep a utils.py to hold them.

You shouldn't perform any logic really in your templates - instead use template tags if you have to. These are good for using reusable pieces of code that you you neither want in every request cycle nor one single request cycle - you might want them in a subset (i.e. displaying a list of categories while in the blog section of your website)

If you do want some logic to be performed in every request cycle, use either context processors or middleware. If you want some logic to be performed only in one single request cycle, the view is probably the place.

TLDR: Writing logic in your view is fine, but there are plenty of places that might be more appropriate

Upvotes: 6

Alasdair
Alasdair

Reputation: 308909

Separating the registration code into it's own function to make testing easier is a good reason. If you allowed admins to register users in a separate, private view, then a registration function would be more DRY. Personally, I don't think a little application logic in the code will do to much harm.

You might find it instructive to have a look at the registration view in the django-registration app -- just to see how it's written, I'm not saying you should or have to use it. It has encapsulated the user registration into it's own function (there's a level of indirection as well, because the registration backends are pluggable).

Upvotes: 2

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