# Django 1.8.18.dev20170123152445 documentation

# Built-in Views

Several of Django’s built-in views are documented in Writing views as well as elsewhere in the documentation.

## Serving files in development

`static.``serve`(request, path, document_root, show_indexes=False)

There may be files other than your project’s static assets that, for convenience, you’d like to have Django serve for you in local development. The `serve()` view can be used to serve any directory you give it. (This view is not hardened for production use and should be used only as a development aid; you should serve these files in production using a real front-end web server).

The most likely example is user-uploaded content in `MEDIA_ROOT`. `django.contrib.staticfiles` is intended for static assets and has no built-in handling for user-uploaded files, but you can have Django serve your `MEDIA_ROOT` by appending something like this to your URLconf:

    from django.conf import settings
    from django.views.static import serve

    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...

    if settings.DEBUG:
        urlpatterns += [
            url(r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', serve, {
                'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT,
            }),
        ]

Note, the snippet assumes your `MEDIA_URL` has a value of `'/media/'`. This will call the `serve()` view, passing in the path from the URLconf and the (required) `document_root` parameter.

Since it can become a bit cumbersome to define this URL pattern, Django ships with a small URL helper function `static()` that takes as parameters the prefix such as `MEDIA_URL` and a dotted path to a view, such as `'django.views.static.serve'`. Any other function parameter will be transparently passed to the view.

## Error views

Django comes with a few views by default for handling HTTP errors. To override these with your own custom views, see Customizing error views.

### The 404 (page not found) view

`defaults.``page_not_found`(request, template_name='404.html')

When you raise `Http404` from within a view, Django loads a special view devoted to handling 404 errors. By default, it’s the view `django.views.defaults.page_not_found()`, which either produces a very simple “Not Found” message or loads and renders the template `404.html` if you created it in your root template directory.

The default 404 view will pass one variable to the template: `request_path`, which is the URL that resulted in the error.

Three things to note about 404 views:

- The 404 view is also called if Django doesn’t find a match after checking every regular expression in the URLconf.
- The 404 view is passed a `RequestContext` and will have access to variables supplied by your template context processors (e.g. `MEDIA_URL`).
- If `DEBUG` is set to `True` (in your settings module), then your 404 view will never be used, and your URLconf will be displayed instead, with some debug information.

### The 500 (server error) view

`defaults.``server_error`(request, template_name='500.html')

Similarly, Django executes special-case behavior in the case of runtime errors in view code. If a view results in an exception, Django will, by default, call the view `django.views.defaults.server_error`, which either produces a very simple “Server Error” message or loads and renders the template `500.html` if you created it in your root template directory.

The default 500 view passes no variables to the `500.html` template and is rendered with an empty `Context` to lessen the chance of additional errors.

If `DEBUG` is set to `True` (in your settings module), then your 500 view will never be used, and the traceback will be displayed instead, with some debug information.

### The 403 (HTTP Forbidden) view

`defaults.``permission_denied`(request, template_name='403.html')

In the same vein as the 404 and 500 views, Django has a view to handle 403 Forbidden errors. If a view results in a 403 exception then Django will, by default, call the view `django.views.defaults.permission_denied`.

This view loads and renders the template `403.html` in your root template directory, or if this file does not exist, instead serves the text “403 Forbidden”, as per RFC 2616 (the HTTP 1.1 Specification).

`django.views.defaults.permission_denied` is triggered by a `PermissionDenied` exception. To deny access in a view you can use code like this:

    from django.core.exceptions import PermissionDenied

    def edit(request, pk):
        if not request.user.is_staff:
            raise PermissionDenied
        # ...

### The 400 (bad request) view

`defaults.``bad_request`(request, template_name='400.html')

When a `SuspiciousOperation` is raised in Django, it may be handled by a component of Django (for example resetting the session data). If not specifically handled, Django will consider the current request a ‘bad request’ instead of a server error.

`django.views.defaults.bad_request`, is otherwise very similar to the `server_error` view, but returns with the status code 400 indicating that the error condition was the result of a client operation.

`bad_request` views are also only used when `DEBUG` is `False`.