The Base View Class
In this page:
Subclassing View Directly
The plain View class from django.views.generic.base gives you full control: you define exactly which HTTP methods the view understands by writing get(), post(), or any other lowercase method name matching an HTTP verb.
Example: Subclassing View Directly
PingView only responds to GET requests; any other method automatically gets a 405 Method Not Allowed response.
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.views import View
class PingView(View):
def get(self, request):
return HttpResponse('pong')Automatic 405 for Unsupported Methods
If a request arrives with an HTTP method the view class has not defined (for example a POST sent to a view that only defines get()), View.dispatch() automatically returns a 405 Method Not Allowed response instead of raising an error.
Note: This safety net means you never need to manually check request.method for methods you do not support.
Example: Automatic 405 for Unsupported Methods
Sending a POST request to ReadOnlyView returns Django's built-in 405 response without any extra code.
from django.views import View
from django.http import HttpResponse
class ReadOnlyView(View):
def get(self, request):
return HttpResponse('You can only GET this page')Accessing URL Arguments in a View Class
Just like function-based views, class-based views receive extra URL keyword arguments (captured from angle brackets in the URL pattern) as arguments to their methods, after self and request.
Example: Accessing URL Arguments in a View Class
A URL pattern like path("greet/<str:name>/", GreetView.as_view()) passes name into get() automatically.
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.views import View
class GreetView(View):
def get(self, request, name):
return HttpResponse(f'Hello, {name}!')- Overriding dispatch() and forgetting to call super().dispatch(request, *args, **kwargs), which breaks method routing entirely.
- Defining a method named after an HTTP verb that Django does not recognize (e.g. "handle_get" instead of "get"), so it is silently never called.
- Not listing an HTTP method in http_method_names when it needs to be blocked or allowed explicitly.
- django.views.generic.base.View is the base class every built-in generic CBV inherits from.
- View.as_view() returns a callable that Django's URL dispatcher can invoke like a function.
- View.dispatch() looks at request.method and calls the matching lowercase method (get, post, put, delete, etc.).
- A method not defined on the class simply is not supported, and Django returns an HTTP 405 response automatically.
Chapter Quiz — Complete all 10 topics to unlock
0/10 topics done
Complete these topics first: