Django Search Forms & Results Pages Django.How

Setting up the Search results template

We make Listing model is our example

1.Create the url

in listings/urls.py


 path('search', views.search, name='search'),

2. Create the template

templates/listings/search.html

3. Form Action Attribute

In the search form, we send the search queries to the results page


form action="{% url 'search' %}">

If we want users to be able to make changes to the options ins this case we need to create a model for these options, but if choices list is not changeable we can create a python file and list of options to a dictionary

1. Create the file listings/choices.py

bedroom_choices = { ‘1’:1, ‘2’:2, ‘3’:3, ‘4’:4, ‘5’:5, ‘6’:6, ‘7’:7, ‘8’:8, ‘9’:9, ’10’:10 } price_choices = { ‘100000’:’$100,000′, ‘200000’:’$200,000′, ‘300000’:’$300,000′, ‘400000’:’$400,000′, ‘500000’:’$500,000′, ‘600000’:’$600,000′, ‘700000’:’$700,000′, ‘800000’:’$800,000′, ‘900000’:’$900,000′, ‘1000000’:’$1M+’, } state_choices = { ‘AK’: ‘Alaska’, ‘AL’: ‘Alabama’, ‘AR’: ‘Arkansas’, ‘AS’: ‘American Samoa’, ‘AZ’: ‘Arizona’, }

2. Import the file listings/choices.py

We want to use it in the home page so edit the file pages.views.py


from listings.choices import price_choices, bedroom_choices, state_choices

3. Edit the index method

Edit the same file pages.views.py


def index(request):
    listings =Listing.objects.order_by('-list_date').filter(is_published=True)[:3]
    context = {
        'listings' : listings,
        'state_choices' : state_choices,
        'price_choices' : price_choices,
        'bedroom_choices' : bedroom_choices,
    }
    return render(request, 'pages/index.html', context)

4. Loop throw the list of choices in the HTML File

In the HTML file that contains the search form, templates/pages/index.html

<select name="state"><option selected="true" disabled="disabled">State (All)</option>{% for kye,value in state_choices.items %}<option value="{{key}}"> {% if key == values.state %} selected {% endif %} {{value}}</option>{% endfor %} </select>

Search Filters

1. We get all the results as they are


queryset_list =Listing.objects.order_by('-list_date')

2. We check the user inputs


  if 'keywords' in request.GET:
        keywords = request.GET['keywords']

3. If exists, we filter the list based on users inputs


if keywords: 
            queryset_list = queryset_list.filter(description__icontains=keywords)

Code Example

def search(request): queryset_list =Listing.objects.order_by('-list_date') if 'keywords' in request.GET: keywords = request.GET['keywords'] if keywords: queryset_list = queryset_list.filter(description__icontains=keywords) if 'city' in request.GET: city = request.GET['city'] if city: queryset_list = queryset_list.filter(city__iexact=city) if 'state' in request.GET: state = request.GET['state'] if state: queryset_list = queryset_list.filter(state__iexact=state) if 'bedrooms' in request.GET: bedrooms = request.GET['bedrooms'] if bedrooms: queryset_list = queryset_list.filter(bedrooms__lte=bedrooms) if 'price' in request.GET: price = request.GET['price'] if price: queryset_list = queryset_list.filter(price__lte=price) context = { 'listings' : queryset_list, 'state_choices' : state_choices, 'price_choices' : price_choices, 'bedroom_choices' : bedroom_choices, }

Query Filters

queryset_list(description__icontains=keywords) contains

queryset_list(description__contains=keywords) contains case sensative

queryset_list.filter(city__iexact=city) exact match

queryset_list.filter(city__exact=city) exact match and case sensative

queryset_list.filter(bedrooms__lte=bedrooms) less than or equal

queryset_list.filter(bedrooms__mte=bedrooms) more than or equal

Preserving Form Input

After the user hit the search button, the search inputs fields will be cleared, to avoid that you need to:

1. Send the request.GET in the context


context = {
        'listings' : queryset_list,
        'valuse' : request.GET,
    }

2. Edit the for HTML code, input to include value="{{ values.keywords }}">

For dropdown lists values, we need to set the values selected

<select name="state" class="form-control"><option selected="true" disabled="disabled">State (All)</option>{% for key,value in state_choices.items %}<option value="{{ key }}" {% if key == values.state %} selected {% endif %} >{{ value }}</option>{% endfor %} </select>