title: Templates not loading in Django
body: <p>Problem: template not loading with view ....</p>
  
  <p>I've been following a django tutorial, hoping to get some templates working that I created. It looks like this. </p>
  
  <pre><code>app/templates
  └── app
      └── profile.html
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Settings file looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"""
  Django settings for demonstration project.
  
  Generated by 'django-admin startproject' using Django 1.10.3.
  
  For more information on this file, see
  https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/settings/
  
  For the full list of settings and their values, see
  https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/settings/
  """
  
  import os
  
  # Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
  BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
  
  TEMPLATE_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')]
  
  # Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
  # See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/howto/deployment/checklist/
  
  # SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
  SECRET_KEY = 'SOME_KEY_NON_PROD_TESTING_LOCALLY'
  
  # SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
  DEBUG = True
  
  ALLOWED_HOSTS = []
  
  
  # Application definition
  
  INSTALLED_APPS = [
      'django.contrib.admin',
      'django.contrib.auth',
      'django.contrib.contenttypes',
      'django.contrib.sessions',
      'django.contrib.messages',
      'django.contrib.staticfiles',
      'app',
  ]
  
  MIDDLEWARE = [
      'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
      'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
      'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
      'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
  ]
  
  ROOT_URLCONF = 'demonstration.urls'
  
  TEMPLATES = [
      {
          'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
          'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
          'APP_DIRS': True,
          'OPTIONS': {
              'context_processors': [
                  'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                  'django.template.context_processors.request',
                  'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                  'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
              ],
          },
      },
  ]
  
  WSGI_APPLICATION = 'demonstration.wsgi.application'
  
  
  # Database
  # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/settings/#databases
  
  DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
          'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
      }
  }
  
  
  # Password validation
  # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators
  
  AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
      {
          'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
      },
      {
          'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
      },
      {
          'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
      },
      {
          'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
      },
  ]
  
  
  # Internationalization
  # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/i18n/
  
  LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
  
  TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
  
  USE_I18N = True
  
  USE_L10N = True
  
  USE_TZ = True
  
  
  # Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
  # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/howto/static-files/
  
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The tutorial mentioned defining a template dir so I defined: </p>
  
  <pre><code>TEMPLATE_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, that didn't work so I also saw the DIRs option in the template stanza to I set that to the same value as TEMPLATE_DIRS that I added above. </p>
  
  <p>I still don't see any change here. I am obviously missing something about the config that should point to the template but I'm stumped as to what that is at the moment. </p>
  
  <p>The view: </p>
  
  <pre><code>from django.shortcuts import render, HttpResponse
  import requests
  import json
  
  # Create your views here.
  
  def index(request):
      return HttpResponse('Hello World!')
  
  def second_view(request):
      return HttpResponse('This is the second view!')
  
  def profile(request):
      jsonList = []
      req = requests.get('https://api.github.com/users/&lt;username_here&gt;')
      jsonList.append(json.loads(req.content.decode()))
      parsedData = []
      userData = {}
      for data in jsonList:
          userData['name'] = data['name']
          userData['email'] = data['email']
          userData['public_gists'] = data['public_gists']
          userData['public_repos'] = data['public_repos']
          userData['avatar_url'] = data['avatar_url']
          userData['followers'] = data['followers']
          userData['following'] = data['following']
      parsedData.append(userData)
      return HttpResponse(parsedData)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The page source of localhost:8000/app/profile </p>
  
  <pre><code>{'followers': 1, 'public_repos': 5, 'avatar_url': 'https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/XXXXX', 'email': None, 'following': 4, 'name': None, 'public_gists': 1}
  </code></pre>