Django “render” vs “render_to_response”

Summary: Always use render and not render_to_response In Django you have more than one way to return a response, but many times I get confused between render and render_to_response, render_to_response seems shorter, so why not use it!

To explain let’s assume simple posts page:

def article_list(request, template_name='article/list.html'):
    posts = Post.objects.all()
    # DON'T USE
    return render_to_response(template_name, {'posts': posts})

In this example you will be able to access “posts” in your template, but unfortunately you will not have access to other important variables from other Middlewares, most importantly: user, csrf_token, and messages. To make “render_to_response” pass all these parameters you must send a “context_instance” like this:

return render_to_response(template_name, {'posts': posts}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Not so short after all, compare to “render” version:

# USE THIS :)
return render(request, template_name, {'posts': posts})

In fact “render” is always shorter than “render_to_response”, even without the “context_instance”:

return render(request, template_name, {'posts': posts})
... vs ...
return render_to_response(template_name, {'posts': posts})

• Django
• Python