The MVT Pattern

Django organizes code into Models, Views and Templates — the MVT pattern.

Django follows the MVT pattern: Model, View, Template. It is Django's take on the classic MVC idea.

  • Model — defines your data and talks to the database.
  • View — a Python function or class that receives a request and returns a response. It holds your logic.
  • Template — an HTML file with placeholders that renders the final page.

A request flows through the URLconf first, which decides which view runs. The view can read data through a model and hand it to a template, which produces the HTML response.

Django MVT flow: a request travels from the browser to the URLconf, into a view, which reads the model and renders a template, then returns a responseBrowserURLconfurls.pyViewviews.pyModel (ORM)models.pyTemplate.htmlHTTP Response (rendered HTML)request
The Model-View-Template cycle behind every Django page.

Example

Example · python
# URLconf picks the view -> view builds context -> template renders it
from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Post

def post_list(request):
    posts = Post.objects.all()          # Model
    return render(request, "posts.html", {"posts": posts})  # Template

When to use it

  • A blog application separates its Post model, list/detail views, and HTML templates using the MVT pattern.
  • An online store keeps product database logic in models, pricing calculations in views, and product cards in templates.
  • A school portal uses MVT so designers modify HTML templates independently without touching Python business logic.

More examples

Model defines data structure

The Model layer declares the Article table structure Django will create in the database.

Example · python
from django.db import models

class Article(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    body = models.TextField()
    published = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

View fetches and passes data

The View retrieves articles from the Model and passes them to a Template via context.

Example · python
from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Article

def article_list(request):
    articles = Article.objects.order_by("-published")
    return render(request, "articles/list.html", {"articles": articles})

Template renders the data

The Template loops over articles passed by the view and renders each with Django template tags.

Example · html
{% for article in articles %}
  <article>
    <h2>{{ article.title }}</h2>
    <p>{{ article.body|truncatewords:30 }}</p>
  </article>
{% endfor %}

Related

dj introdj views basics

Discussion

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