Hey there! Let's break down your question step by step since you're new to Django—no need to overcomplicate things here.

Can you modify the template's href directly to achieve this? #

Short answer: No, not really. Django templates render statically when the page loads, so the href would get fixed to a single URL once the page is sent to the browser. You could use JavaScript to handle the random redirect on the frontend (more on that later), but the cleaner, more Django-native approach is to handle this logic in your view.

Do you need to add a model? #

Absolutely not! This requirement doesn't involve storing any data in a database—you just need to pick a random URL at runtime, which can be done entirely in your view without touching models at all.

How to implement this with random.choice? #

This is the straightforward solution you're looking for. Here's how to adjust your existing code:

1. Update your views.py to handle the random redirect:

from django.shortcuts import redirect, reverse
import random

def surprise(request):
    # Replace these with the actual 'name' values from your urls.py for the three target pages
    target_url_names = ['page1', 'page2', 'page3']
    
    # Use reverse() to get the full URL path from each name (avoids hardcoding paths)
    target_urls = [reverse(name) for name in target_url_names]
    
    # Pick a random URL with equal probability
    chosen_url = random.choice(target_urls)
    
    # Redirect the user to the chosen URL
    return redirect(chosen_url)

• Using reverse() is better than hardcoding URLs because if you ever change the path in urls.py, you won't have to update this view—just keep the name attribute consistent.

2. Keep your template and urls.py as-is! The existing anchor tag pointing to {% url 'surprise' %} works perfectly, because clicking it will send the user to your updated surprise view, which then handles the random redirect.

Bonus: Frontend alternative with JavaScript #

If you prefer to handle the redirect on the client side (no round-trip to the server), you can adjust your template like this:

<a class="nav-item nav-link" id="surprise-link" href="#">Surprise</a>

<script>
document.getElementById('surprise-link').addEventListener('click', function(e) {
    e.preventDefault(); // Stop the default link behavior
    // Get the three target URLs using Django's template tag
    const possibleUrls = [
        "{% url 'page1' %}",
        "{% url 'page2' %}",
        "{% url 'page3' %}"
    ];
    // Pick a random index (0, 1, or 2)
    const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * possibleUrls.length);
    // Redirect to the chosen URL
    window.location.href = possibleUrls[randomIndex];
});
</script>

This works for simple use cases, but note that the random choice happens in the user's browser instead of your server. If you ever need to track clicks or add other backend logic, the server-side approach is the better choice.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者SteveKerr