My index.html file contains three forms, each connect to my views.py file and perform some function, everything is working fine but I am not understanding how to get a returned value back to my html page to display it.
index.html:
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
<form action="{% url 'start_or_end_fast' %}" method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
<button type="submit" name='start_fast' value='start_fast'>Add Fast</button>
</form>
<form action="{% url 'start_or_end_fast' %}" method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
<button type="submit" name='end_fast' value='end_fast'>End Fast</button>
</form>
<form action="{% url 'start_or_end_fast' %}" method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
<button type="submit" name='duration' value='duration'>Fast Duration</button>
</form>
<!-- DISPLAY FAST DURATION ON THE PAGE -->
{% if duration %}
<p>Fasting for {{duration}} </p>
{% endif %}
</body>
</html>
The third form is a button, when I press it the duration prints in the terminal.
views.py code to do that:
#If pressing Fast Duration button, show the duration difference between the current fast start_date_time and the current time
elif request.method == 'POST' and 'duration' in request.POST:
time_difference()
return render(request,'startandstoptimes/index.html')
else:
return render(request,'startandstoptimes/index.html')
def time_difference():
#Get the current date and time
current_time = datetime.now().strftime(("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))
time_now = datetime.strptime(current_time, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
#find the current fast that has not finished yet
#Get the date and time of that fast
get_start_date_time = logTimes.objects.get(fast_finished = False)
fast_started = get_start_date_time.start_date_time
#caluclate the difference between the start of the fast and the time right now
difference = time_now - fast_started
duration = difference.total_seconds()
days = divmod(duration, 86400) # Get days (without [0]!)
hours = divmod(days[1], 3600) # Use remainder of days to calc hours
minutes = divmod(hours[1], 60) # Use remainder of hours to calc minutes
seconds = divmod(minutes[1], 1)
difference_less_microseconds = str(difference).split(".")[0]
print(difference_less_microseconds)
Output in the terminal:
1:15:20
[12/Jul/2022 23:14:48] "POST /startandstoptimes/ HTTP/1.1" 200 1139
I am wondering if I need to use HttpResponse instead of request?
I have been researching and experimenting but the examples I find are a bit more complicated than what I am trying to achieve, any advice is appreciated.
>Solution :
You have to use the context for the template rendering to pass variables to the template.
views.py
# ... your code
elif request.method == 'POST' and 'duration' in request.POST:
duration = time_difference()
return render(request,'startandstoptimes/index.html', {'duration': duration})
Your time_difference() function has to return the value you like to diplay in the template
def time_difference():
# ... your code
difference_less_microseconds = str(difference).split(".")[0]
return difference_less_microseconds