<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Returning URLs - Django REST framework</title>
<link href="../../img/favicon.ico" rel="icon" type="image/x-icon">
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/reverse/" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta name="description" content="Django, API, REST, Returning URLs">
<meta name="author" content="Tom Christie">
<!-- Le styles -->
<link href="../../css/prettify.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="../../css/bootstrap.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="../../css/bootstrap-responsive.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="../../css/default.css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- Le HTML5 shim, for IE6-8 support of HTML5 elements -->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-18852272-2']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script');
ga.type = 'text/javascript';
ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
<style>
#sidebarInclude img {
margin-bottom: 10px;
}
#sidebarInclude a.promo {
color: black;
}
@media (max-width: 767px) {
div.promo {
display: none;
}
}
</style>
</head>
<body onload="prettyPrint()" class="-page">
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top">
<div class="navbar-inner">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="repo-link btn btn-primary btn-small" href="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/tree/master">GitHub</a>
<a class="repo-link btn btn-inverse btn-small " rel="prev" href="../exceptions/">
Next <i class="icon-arrow-right icon-white"></i>
</a>
<a class="repo-link btn btn-inverse btn-small " rel="next" href="../format-suffixes/">
<i class="icon-arrow-left icon-white"></i> Previous
</a>
<a id="search_modal_show" class="repo-link btn btn-inverse btn-small" href="#mkdocs_search_modal" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#mkdocs_search_modal"><i class="icon-search icon-white"></i> Search</a>
<a class="btn btn-navbar" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".nav-collapse">
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
</a>
<a class="brand" href="http://www.django-rest-framework.org">Django REST framework</a>
<div class="nav-collapse collapse">
<!-- Main navigation -->
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li >
<a href="../..">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="dropdown">
<a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">Tutorial <b class="caret"></b></a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu">
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/quickstart/">Quickstart</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/1-serialization/">1 - Serialization</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/2-requests-and-responses/">2 - Requests and responses</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/3-class-based-views/">3 - Class based views</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/4-authentication-and-permissions/">4 - Authentication and permissions</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/5-relationships-and-hyperlinked-apis/">5 - Relationships and hyperlinked APIs</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/6-viewsets-and-routers/">6 - Viewsets and routers</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../tutorial/7-schemas-and-client-libraries/">7 - Schemas and client libraries</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="dropdown active">
<a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">API Guide <b class="caret"></b></a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu">
<li >
<a href="../requests/">Requests</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../responses/">Responses</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../views/">Views</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../generic-views/">Generic views</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../viewsets/">Viewsets</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../routers/">Routers</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../parsers/">Parsers</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../renderers/">Renderers</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../serializers/">Serializers</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../fields/">Serializer fields</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../relations/">Serializer relations</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../validators/">Validators</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../authentication/">Authentication</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../permissions/">Permissions</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../throttling/">Throttling</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../filtering/">Filtering</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../pagination/">Pagination</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../versioning/">Versioning</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../content-negotiation/">Content negotiation</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../metadata/">Metadata</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../schemas/">Schemas</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../format-suffixes/">Format suffixes</a>
</li>
<li class="active" >
<a href="./">Returning URLs</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../exceptions/">Exceptions</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../status-codes/">Status codes</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../testing/">Testing</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../settings/">Settings</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="dropdown">
<a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">Topics <b class="caret"></b></a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu">
<li >
<a href="../../topics/documenting-your-api/">Documenting your API</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/api-clients/">API Clients</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/internationalization/">Internationalization</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/ajax-csrf-cors/">AJAX, CSRF & CORS</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/html-and-forms/">HTML & Forms</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/browser-enhancements/">Browser Enhancements</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/browsable-api/">The Browsable API</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/rest-hypermedia-hateoas/">REST, Hypermedia & HATEOAS</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/third-party-packages/">Third Party Packages</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/tutorials-and-resources/">Tutorials and Resources</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/contributing/">Contributing to REST framework</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/project-management/">Project management</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/jobs/">Jobs</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.0-announcement/">3.0 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.1-announcement/">3.1 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.2-announcement/">3.2 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.3-announcement/">3.3 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.4-announcement/">3.4 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.5-announcement/">3.5 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/3.6-announcement/">3.6 Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/kickstarter-announcement/">Kickstarter Announcement</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/mozilla-grant/">Mozilla Grant</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/funding/">Funding</a>
</li>
<li >
<a href="../../topics/release-notes/">Release Notes</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!--/.nav-collapse -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="body-content">
<div class="container-fluid">
<!-- Search Modal -->
<div id="mkdocs_search_modal" class="modal hide fade" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
<div class="modal-header">
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">×</button>
<h3 id="myModalLabel">Documentation search</h3>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<form role="form" autocomplete="off">
<div class="form-group">
<input type="text" name="q" class="form-control" placeholder="Search..." id="mkdocs-search-query">
</div>
</form>
<div id="mkdocs-search-results"></div>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button class="btn" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">Close</button>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row-fluid">
<div class="span3">
<div id="table-of-contents">
<ul class="nav nav-list side-nav well sidebar-nav-fixed">
<li class="main">
<a href="#returning-urls">Returning URLs</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#reverse">reverse</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#reverse_lazy">reverse_lazy</a>
</li>
<div class="promo">
<hr/>
<div id="sidebarInclude">
</div>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div id="main-content" class="span9">
<a class="github" href="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/tree/master/rest_framework/reverse.py">
<span class="label label-info">reverse.py</span>
</a>
<h1 id="returning-urls"><a class="toclink" href="#returning-urls">Returning URLs</a></h1>
<blockquote>
<p>The central feature that distinguishes the REST architectural style from other network-based styles is its emphasis on a uniform interface between components.</p>
<p>— Roy Fielding, <a href="http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm#sec_5_1_5">Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a rule, it's probably better practice to return absolute URIs from your Web APIs, such as <code>http://example.com/foobar</code>, rather than returning relative URIs, such as <code>/foobar</code>.</p>
<p>The advantages of doing so are:</p>
<ul>
<li>It's more explicit.</li>
<li>It leaves less work for your API clients.</li>
<li>There's no ambiguity about the meaning of the string when it's found in representations such as JSON that do not have a native URI type.</li>
<li>It makes it easy to do things like markup HTML representations with hyperlinks.</li>
</ul>
<p>REST framework provides two utility functions to make it more simple to return absolute URIs from your Web API.</p>
<p>There's no requirement for you to use them, but if you do then the self-describing API will be able to automatically hyperlink its output for you, which makes browsing the API much easier.</p>
<h2 id="reverse"><a class="toclink" href="#reverse">reverse</a></h2>
<p><strong>Signature:</strong> <code>reverse(viewname, *args, **kwargs)</code></p>
<p>Has the same behavior as <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/topics/http/urls/#reverse"><code>django.urls.reverse</code></a>, except that it returns a fully qualified URL, using the request to determine the host and port.</p>
<p>You should <strong>include the request as a keyword argument</strong> to the function, for example:</p>
<pre><code>from rest_framework.reverse import reverse
from rest_framework.views import APIView
from django.utils.timezone import now
class APIRootView(APIView):
def get(self, request):
year = now().year
data = {
...
'year-summary-url': reverse('year-summary', args=[year], request=request)
}
return Response(data)
</code></pre>
<h2 id="reverse_lazy"><a class="toclink" href="#reverse_lazy">reverse_lazy</a></h2>
<p><strong>Signature:</strong> <code>reverse_lazy(viewname, *args, **kwargs)</code></p>
<p>Has the same behavior as <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/topics/http/urls/#reverse-lazy"><code>django.urls.reverse_lazy</code></a>, except that it returns a fully qualified URL, using the request to determine the host and port.</p>
<p>As with the <code>reverse</code> function, you should <strong>include the request as a keyword argument</strong> to the function, for example:</p>
<pre><code>api_root = reverse_lazy('api-root', request=request)
</code></pre>
</div> <!--/span-->
</div> <!--/row-->
</div> <!--/.fluid-container-->
</div> <!--/.body content-->
<div id="push"></div>
</div> <!--/.wrapper -->
<footer class="span12">
<p>Documentation built with <a href="http://www.mkdocs.org/">MkDocs</a>.
</p>
</footer>
<!-- Le javascript
================================================== -->
<!-- Placed at the end of the document so the pages load faster -->
<script src="../../js/jquery-1.8.1-min.js"></script>
<script src="../../js/prettify-1.0.js"></script>
<script src="../../js/bootstrap-2.1.1-min.js"></script>
<script src="https://fund.django-rest-framework.org/sidebar_include.js"></script>
<script>var base_url = '../..';</script>
<script src="../../mkdocs/js/require.js"></script>
<script src="../../js/theme.js"></script>
<script>
var shiftWindow = function() {
scrollBy(0, -50)
};
if (location.hash) shiftWindow();
window.addEventListener("hashchange", shiftWindow);
$('.dropdown-menu').on('click touchstart', function(event) {
event.stopPropagation();
});
// Dynamically force sidenav/dropdown to no higher than browser window
$('.side-nav, .dropdown-menu').css('max-height', window.innerHeight - 130);
$(function() {
$(window).resize(function() {
$('.side-nav, .dropdown-menu').css('max-height', window.innerHeight - 130);
});
});
</script>
</body>
</html>