Django - Render a List of File Names to Template

Question

I am generating a template for an image gallery page. My approach is as follows:

Host the images from a sub directory of an images folder
- The image folder will be titled the same as the gallery title
The view passes a list of filenames to the template
The template loops through the list and creates img tags

So my view would be

def some_gallery(request):
    #LOGIC TO GET A LIST OF FILENAMES

    variables = RequestContext(request,{
        'user' : request.user,
        'title' : 'something',
        'files' : fileList
    })
    return render_to_response('gallery_template.html',variables)

And the template

....
{% for file in files %}
    <img src="/path/to/images/{{ title }}/{{ file }}">
{% endfor %}
....

The problem I am running into is that Django is putting up a 500 error when I try to use the os.listdir function. How can I get the file list that I need??

Problematic version of the view which is giving the 500 error

def some_gallery(request):

    variables = RequestContext(request,{
        'user' : request.user,
        'title' : 'something',
        'files' : os.listdir('/path/to/gallery')
    })
    return render_to_response('gallery_template.html',variables)

Also I should note that the file path does work, so if I go directly to the url, I get just the image as expected.

EDIT: Fixed the typos in code samples

What is the error message that's being thrown? That will probably say what's going wrong. `listdir` should work for Windows and Unix-like systems, so there's likely a problem in how you're using it. — Michael C. O'Connor, Nov 29 '11 at 01:47
I was going for permission problems and get the error message thru the webserver — Guilherme David da Costa, Nov 29 '11 at 02:07
I am using an Twisted Web Server on Ubuntu Server. As in the comment below, the way I am using listdir works fine in a Python shell, just not in the Django view. I'm guessing it is permissions within the Twisted server — jyore, Nov 29 '11 at 04:46
Usually a server error appears in the webserver log files, can you find it and post it? — Guilherme David da Costa, Nov 29 '11 at 06:57

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 29 '11 at 01:58

2

Your dictionary is not a valid python code because you are using "=" instead of ":". It should be:

variables = RequestContext(request,{
    'user' : request.user,
    'title' : 'something',
    'files' : os.listdir('/path/to/gallery')
})

One last thing, listdir expects an abosulte path, you can get the root path of your project with:

ROOT_PATH = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__).decode('utf-8')).replace('\\', '/')

answered Nov 29 '11 at 01:58

Hugo Andrés

36
2

os.listdir() doesn't expect an absolute path. It can be any path as long it is a path to something. – Guilherme David da Costa Nov 29 '11 at 02:09
The "=" was a typo in the post, idk why I did that, lol. I am using the ":" operator as I should. Second, if I run a Python shell, the os.listdir is working fine, just not in the Django view – jyore Nov 29 '11 at 04:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '11 at 07:09

I got it sorted out. My methods were correct, so anyone looking to do this type of thing, the code samples should work.

The problem that I had was that Django was tripping up on the listdir function call due to some problems accessing the file path that was provided. I made sure the directory permissions and path was correct and it worked.

Thanks to those that helped.

Django - Render a List of File Names to Template

2 Answers2

Linked