No standard method of indicating import paths in documentation

[davesque@…]

I've been using Django for about a year now and there's something about the Django documentation that's always seemed inconvenient to me.

If you're ever reading about a class, function, etc. in docs, it's rarely obvious where to import that resource from. The module path is almost never indicated a consistent or obvious way.

For example, take a look at this doc page:

​https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/template-response/

What I would expect is that, directly above ​this heading or somewhere similar, the full import path of the class would be indicated in some way. Perhaps like this:

...
module: django.template.response

class SimpleTemplateResponse
...

...or something like that. I'm aware of the hash links next to each heading which contain the full import path. This is fine, but that information should not be hidden. It should be on the page in plain view.

I think we should launch an initiative to fix this problem with usability in the Django docs.

[davesque@…]

It seems what I was talking about above, with the full import path being present in the hash link href, is not always the case. Take ​this link, for example. In that case, the import path is indicated somewhere on the page, but you have to search for it.

[Carl Meyer]

I agree that it would be better if the full import path were more consistently available in the reference documentation. There will need to be some decisions made about how/where to display it (for instance, in your example case I think it would be even clearer if it just said class django.template.response.SimpleTemplateResponse rather than class SimpleTemplateResponse.)

The next thing needed to get this "initiative" rolling is a proposed patch to the docs!

[Aymeric Augustin]

This is a duplicate of #19281 and #15396.