Instead of going to views.py, I want it to go to to a template, robots.txt.
2 Answers
Django 2+
Note: is valid still as of Django 4+
Use the class based generic views but register with the django 2.0+ pattern.
from django.urls import path from django.views.generic import TemplateView urlpatterns = [ path('foo/', TemplateView.as_view(template_name='foo.html')) ] https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/class-based-views/#usage-in-your-urlconf
Django 1.5+
Use the class based generic views.
from django.views.generic import TemplateView urlpatterns = patterns('', (r'^foo/$', TemplateView.as_view(template_name='foo.html')), ) #Django <= 1.4 Docs: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/ref/generic-views/#django-views-generic-simple-direct-to-template
urlpatterns = patterns('django.views.generic.simple', (r'^foo/$', 'direct_to_template', {'template': 'foo_index.html'}), (r'^foo/(?P<id>\d+)/$', 'direct_to_template', {'template': 'foo_detail.html'}), ) answered Mar 5, 2011 at 3:03
Yuji 'Tomita' Tomita
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1 Comment
Anupam
For 1.5+, do we need to do this for every static HTML?
A further update for more recent versions and including mime type from this site:
http://www.techstricks.com/adding-robots-txt-to-your-django-project/
from django.conf.urls import url from django.views.generic import TemplateView urlpatterns = [ #... your project urls url(r'^robots.txt$', TemplateView.as_view(template_name="robots.txt", content_type="text/plain"), name="robots_file") ] 
nginx: stackoverflow.com/a/3746344/781695, Forapache: serverfault.com/a/213455/84120