Django - Tutorial - Setting IndexView but Getting TemplateDoesNotExist

Question

I have searched through all the questions here already on TemplateDoesNotExist. I have also been troubleshooting this for about 12 hours. There is something I am not understanding. I am new to django.

I am following the following Thinkster tutorial: Building Web Applications with Django and AngularJS

Here is the error:

Exception Location: C:\Users\Workstation333\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django\template\loader.py in select_template, line 47

Exception Type: TemplateDoesNotExist

Exception Value: index.html

Template-loader postmortem

Django tried loading these templates, in this order: Using engine django:

django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader: C:\Users\Workstation333\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\admin\templates\index.html (Source does not exist)
django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader: C:\Users\Workstation333\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\templates\index.html (Source does not exist)
django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader: C:\Users\Workstation333\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\site-packages\rest_framework\templates\index.html (Source does not exist)

This IndexView code I do not understand, and I believe is where the problem lies. The tutorial doesn't go over this code. I think this is what changes the index.html or how to find it. This is inside my views.py and is same project folder where my urls.py is located.

views.py

from django.views.decorators.csrf import ensure_csrf_cookie
from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView
from django.utils.decorators import method_decorator

class IndexView(TemplateView):
    template_name = 'index.html'

    @method_decorator(ensure_csrf_cookie)
    def dispatch(self, *args, **kwargs):
        return super(IndexView, self).dispatch(*args, **kwargs)

url.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, re_path, include
from rest_framework_nested import routers
from authentication.views import AccountViewSet
from HawkProject.views import IndexView

router = routers.SimpleRouter()
router.register(r'accounts', AccountViewSet)

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    re_path(r'^api/v1/', include(router.urls)),

    re_path(r'^.*$', IndexView.as_view(), name='index')
]

partial settings.py

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Please help, and Thank you.

Edit:

I added the following to the code, and I got it to not break right away, but I don't think it is a solution, but a hack that will break, or is not maintainable. I added the index for the admin index inside Dirs like so:

 'DIRS': 
['C:/Users/Workstation333/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python36/Lib/site- 
packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin'],

I couldn't find the other index files in the directories where it thinks they should have been. *notice the double admin in the directory above, not sure why that is. It also makes the "home" page take me directly to the admin page.

I believe it's this one: C:\Users\Workstation333\Documents\Git\Hawk\HawkProject\templates\index.html — everydaymage

HoneyNutIchiros HoneyNutIchiros · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-15T21:39:24

I haven't read through the tutorial you are doing but try doing this:

TEMPLATES = [
{
    'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
    'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
    'APP_DIRS': True,
    'OPTIONS': {
        'context_processors': [
            'django.template.context_processors.debug',
            'django.template.context_processors.request',
            'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
            'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
        ],
    },
},

]

As you can see, I think you are getting this error because your template directory 'DIRS' is blank and as such Django does not know where to search for 'index.html'. The 'templates' name can be changed to any name you want but just name it according to the folder which you keep your templates in within each of your apps.

Django Templates

Django - Tutorial - Setting IndexView but Getting TemplateDoesNotExist

Template-loader postmortem

1 Answers