DetailView - Class Based Views Django

A DetailView is a built-in class-based view used to show a single record from the database. It automatically fetches the record using a primary key or slug, reducing extra code.

• Specify the model from which the record will be retrieved.
• Set the template that will display the record’s details.
• The selected record is available in the template as an object or a custom context name.
• Django handles the lookup and passes the data to the template automatically.

Example: Consider a project named 'geeksforgeeks' having an app named 'geeks'. After you have a project and an app, let's create a model of which we will be creating instances through our view.

In geeks/models.py:

After creating this model, we need to run two commands in order to create Database for the same.

Python manage.py makemigrations
Python manage.py migrate

Now let's create some instances of this model using shell, run form bash.

Python manage.py shell

Enter following commands:

>>> from geeks.models import GeeksModel
>>> GeeksModel.objects.create( title="title1", description="description1")
>>> GeeksModel.objects.create(title="title2", description="description2")
>>> GeeksModel.objects.create(title="title3", description="description3")

Now that the backend setup complete, we need to confirm that instances have been created by visiting: http://localhost:8000/admin/geeks/geeksmodel/ 👁 django-listview-check-models-instances

To create a DetailView, it is only necessary to specify the model. Django’s DetailView will then look for a template named app_name/modelname_detail.html. Here, expected template path is geeks/templates/geeks/geeksmodel_detail.html.

In geeks/views.py:

Now, create a url path to map the view in geeks/urls.py:

Next, create a template in templates/geeks/geeksmodel_detail.html:

Now, Visit http://localhost:8000/1/ to view the details of the model instance with ID 1.

👁 django-detailview-class-based
Manipulate Context Data in DetailView

By default DetailView will only display fields of a table. If one wants to modify this context data before sending it to template or add some extra field, context data can be overridden.

In geeks/views.py:

In geeks/templates/geeksmodel_detail.html:

Now, Visit http://localhost:8000/1/ to view the details: