How to reload urls without restarting the server

Using Django Forms & APIs
1

I want to implement a global lockdown scenario in the app after some event occurs and I am using an if condition in the core urls.py which reference to a global variable to implement control. Upon triggering of the global variable I want to redirect all urls to same endpoint /security ( for example ). But I came to know that the url conf is loaded just once at the starting of the server. How can I implement this?

( I am just a beginner and learning Django )

2

Hi. Using a global variable to control the flow in urls.py is not going to be the best approach.
Instead I recommend you to use some kind of Middleware for that.
Something Like this will work for your needs:

from django.http import HttpResponseRedirect
from django.urls import reverse

class GlobalLockdownMiddleware:
    def __init__(self, get_response):
        self.get_response = get_response

    def __call__(self, request):
        # Check the value of your global variable or any other condition
        # you want to use to trigger the lockdown. For example, you could
        # use a setting or a cache value.
        lockdown_triggered = False

        if lockdown_triggered and request.path != reverse('security'):
            # Redirect all requests to the /security endpoint
            return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('security'))

        response = self.get_response(request)
        return response
1 Like
3

or you can do this via nginx… (or apache or whatever)?

nginx.conf, site_enabled.conf, whatever:

server{
    ...
    error_page 503 /maintenance.html;
    location /maintenance.html{
        internal;
    }
    ...
    location / {
        include /etc/nginx/maintenance.conf;
        if ($maintenance = 1){
            return 503;
        }
    }
    ...
}

maintenance.conf:

set $maintenance 0;

or:

set $maintenance 1;

since this is all based on a single file, very easy to write, it can be very easy to script (python, bash, you name it).

While maintenance==1, restart your application to reload your new urls, something like:

reload_urls.sh:

# write maintenance=1;
# restart nginx
# restart django app
# write maintenance=0
# restart nginx
1 Like
4

Identify the web server software being used. Different web server have different method for loading URLs without retsarting the server.

5

Hello this is Gulshan Negi
Well, Middleware is one method for putting a global lockdown scenario into a Django app. Hooks for processing requests and responses as they pass through the Django app can be added using middleware.
If the lockdown scenario is in effect, you can develop a custom middleware class that checks the global variable and redirects all URLs to the /security endpoint. Here is an example:

class LockdownMiddleware:
def init(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response

def __call__(self, request):
    if lockdown_in_effect:
        return redirect('/security')
    response = self.get_response(request)
    return response

Thanks