(simplified version of this)

The simple but not recommended approach:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
from mysite.views import hello, current_datetime, hours_ahead
 
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^hello/$', hello),
    (r'^time/$', current_datetime),
    (r'^time/plus/(\d{1,2})/$', hours_ahead),
)

Can be written as:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
from mysite import views
 
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^hello/$', views.hello),
    (r'^time/$', views.current_datetime),
    (r'^time/plus/(d{1,2})/$', views.hours_ahead),
)

or

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
 
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^hello/$', 'mysite.views.hello'),
    (r'^time/$', 'mysite.views.current_datetime'),
    (r'^time/plus/(d{1,2})/$', 'mysite.views.hours_ahead'),
)

or

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
 
urlpatterns = patterns('mysite.views',
    (r'^hello/$', 'hello'),
    (r'^time/$', 'current_datetime'),
    (r'^time/plus/(d{1,2})/$', 'hours_ahead'),
)

Patterns can be split as:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
 
urlpatterns = patterns('mysite.views',
    (r'^hello/$', 'hello'),
    (r'^time/$', 'current_datetime'),
    (r'^time/plus/(\d{1,2})/$', 'hours_ahead'),
)
 
urlpatterns += patterns('weblog.views',
    (r'^tag/(\w+)/$', 'tag'),
)

Named and non-named groups

(r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', views.year_archive),
# become
(r'^articles/(?P<year>\d{4})/$', views.year_archive),

NOTE: Each captured argument is sent to the view as a plain Python Unicode string

Passing Extra Options to View Functions

(r'^foo/$', views.foobar_view, {'template_name': 'template1.html'}),
# and the function will be (in views.py)
def foobar_view(request, template_name):

Faking Captured URLconf Values

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^mydata/birthday/$', views.my_view, {'month': 'jan', 'day': '06'}),
    (r'^mydata/(?P<month>\w{3})/(?P<day>\d\d)/$', views.my_view),
)

Special-Casing Views

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # ...
    # auth/user/add will match the first one and execute views.user_add_stage
    ('^auth/user/add/$', views.user_add_stage),
    # myblog/entries/add will match the second one
    ('^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/add/$', views.add_stage),
    # ...
)

Variable arguments with asterisks

def foo(*args, **kwargs):
 
foo(1, 2, name='Adrian', framework='Django')
Positional arguments are:
(1, 2)
Keyword arguments are:
{'framework': 'Django', 'name': 'Adrian'}

# single asterisk in front of a parameter in a function definition → any positional arguments to that function will be rolled up into a single tuple.
# two asterisks in front of a parameter in a function definition → any keyword arguments to that function will be rolled up into a single dictionary.

Wrapping View Functions

If repeating a lot of common code (e.g. authenticate check), we can build a view wrapper:

def requires_login(view):
    def new_view(request, *args, **kwargs):
        if not request.user.is_authenticated():
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/accounts/login/')
        return view(request, *args, **kwargs)
    return new_view

and then in url.conf

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^view1/$', requires_login(my_view1)),
    (r'^view2/$', requires_login(my_view2)),
    (r'^view3/$', requires_login(my_view3)),
)

Including Other URLconfs

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
 
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^weblog/', include('mysite.blog.urls')),
    (r'^photos/', include('mysite.photos.urls')),
    (r'^about/$', 'mysite.views.about'),
)

Note: include() do not have a $ (end-of-string match character) but do include a trailing slash

mysite.blog.urls:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
 
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^(\d\d\d\d)/$', 'mysite.blog.views.year_detail'),
    (r'^(\d\d\d\d)/(\d\d)/$', 'mysite.blog.views.month_detail'),
)

/weblog/2007/ will match first line in the main urls.conf (strip the weblog/) and send the rest (2007/) to the mysite.blog.urls (where it will match first line)

Note: if you add extra URLconf options

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^blog/', include('inner'), {'blogid': 3}),
)

or capture parameters

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^(?P<username>\w+)/blog/', include('foo.urls.blog')),
)

these will be sent to EVERY view function within that URLconf.