ImportError: cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’ is a common error faced by programmers using who are using the Django framework. You are facing this error message means you have upgraded to the latest Django version 4.x from the previous Django 3.x version.
In this article we will study 3 possible working solutions to solve ImportError cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’ error message. So go through this article thoroughly for root cause analysis of this error and workable solutions.
What is meant by ImportError: cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’?
Let’s first try to understand the meaning of this error message. We can divide the error message into the following two parts.
ImportError: It clearly indicates that your code is not able to access or import the required function library.
cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’: It says that code is not able to access ‘url’ function from the ‘django.conf.urls’
Why you are getting by ImportError: cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’?
If you have upgraded to Django 4.0+ from Django 3.x versions then you will get this error message because django.conf.urls.url() is deprecated and removed from Django4.0+ versions. Refer release notes for more details.
The following example works perfectly in the Django 3.x versions but if you run the same code in the Django 4.x versions then you will get the error message as shown below.
from django.urls import include, url
from django.contrib import admin
urlpatterns =
[
url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
url(r'^hello_world/', include('hello_world.urls')),
]
Output:
3 working methods to solve ImportError: cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’
Here we will see three different approaches one by one to solve the Import Error.
1. Use path() function instead of url:
As shown below use the path function instead of the url in your code and add it from django.urls import path, include in the import statement. path() function does not treat url as a regex hence there is a change in the way we pass url to the function as shown below. You have to change the pattern in which you pass the url.
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
urlpatterns =
[
path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
path('', include("hello_world.urls")),
]
2. Replace deprecated url function with re_path function
In this method, you have to replace url with re_path function and add the following header in the import section.
from django.urls import include, re_path
re_path() function treats url as a regex.
from django.urls import include, re_path
from myapp.views import home
urlpatterns = [
re_path(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
re_path(r'^hello_world/', include('hello_world.urls')),
]
3. Downgrade to a lower supported version of the software.
If you don’t want to make any changes to your codes then you can simply downgrade the version of Django to the supported version. Execute the following command on your command prompt to install a specific version of Django framework.
pip install django ==3.2 #Your required version of softwareIf your windows system contains both versions of Django then you have to create two separate to virtual environments for execution.
Note:
We at Technolads recommend you to use path() function instead of url. Because it’s always good practice to use the latest version of any software. You will not be able to use the latest functionality which supports other software applications by downgrading the software version. re_path function treats url as a regex and there is no need for that. So using a path() function instead of url() is the easiest and widely accepted solution.
Conclusion:
We hope this article was informative and you are able to get rid of ImportError: cannot import name ‘url’ from ‘django.conf.urls’. Please let us know, out of the above three which method really worked for you. If you are still facing the error then you can reach out to us using the contact form or mention it in the comment section. We would be happy to assist you.
