Handling Ajax request in Django

Last Updated : 15 May, 2025

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a web development technique that allows a web page to communicate with the server without reloading the entire page. In Django, AJAX is commonly used to enhance user experience by sending and receiving data in the background using JavaScript (or libraries like jQuery).

In this tutorial, we’ll build a simple post-liking app where users can like a post via an AJAX request without refreshing the page.

1. Initialize the Django Project and App

Make sure Django is installed. Then run:

django-admin startproject post
cd post
python manage.py startapp postapp

Add 'post' to your INSTALLED_APPS in post/settings.py.

Now you will have file structure similar to this:

djano_fs_01 — file structure of the project

2. Create Models

In postapp/models.py, define two models: Post and Like.

Python

from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
    post_heading = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    post_text = models.TextField()

    def __str__(self):  # Use __unicode__ if Python 2
        return self.post_heading

class Like(models.Model):
    post = models.ForeignKey(Post, on_delete=models.CASCADE)

Then run the migration commands to create the database:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

3. Create Views

In postapp/views.py:

Python

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.http import HttpResponse
from .models import Post, Like

def index(request):
    posts = Post.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'post/index.html', {'posts': posts})

def likePost(request):
    if request.method == 'GET':
        post_id = request.GET['post_id']
        liked_post = Post.objects.get(pk=post_id)
        Like.objects.create(post=liked_post)
        return HttpResponse("Liked!")
    return HttpResponse("Invalid request.")

4. Set Up URLs

In post/urls.py:

Python

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('post.urls')),
]

5. Template and AJAX Request

Create the file post/templates/post/index.html:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Like Post App</title>
</head>
<body>
    <p id="message"></p>
    {% for post in posts %}
        <h3>{{ forloop.counter }}) {{ post.post_heading }}</h3>
        <p>{{ post.post_text }}</p>
        <a class="likebutton" id="like{{ post.id }}" href="#" data-catid="{{ post.id }}">Like</a>
    {% endfor %}

    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script>
        $('.likebutton').click(function(e){
            e.preventDefault();
            var postId = $(this).data("catid");
            $.ajax({
                type: "GET",
                url: "/likepost/",
                data: {
                    post_id: postId
                },
                success: function(data) {
                    $('#like' + postId).remove();
                    $('#message').text(data);
                }
            });
        });
    </script>
</body>
</html>

When the "Like" link is clicked, it sends a GET request to /likepost/?post_id=<id>, and the like count is updated in the background without refreshing the page.

6. Register Models in Admin

In postapp/admin.py:

Python

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Post, Like

admin.site.register(Post)
admin.site.register(Like)

Running the App

We can check the working of the app by creating a superuser by running the following command:

python manage.py createsuperuser

You’ll be prompted to enter a username, email, and password, after entering those credentials the superuser will be created and now we can run the app using command: