Trying to figure out how to correctly create a download link to a csv file on my template.

Views.py

#this is the view that shows the html page (all queries work)
def admin_view(request, mysite):
 context = dict()
 context["mysite"] = mysite.upper()
 group = whid.lower() + "-group"
 user = request.user.get_username()
 authorized = is_authorized(user, group)
 end_time = timezone.now()
 start_time = end_time.replace(day=1, hour=00, minute=00, second=00)
 error_message = ("You are not authorized to be in this page.")
 context['data'] = CheckIn.objects.filter(Date__range=(start_time, end_time))
 today = datetime.datetime.now()
 context['today'] = today
 context['first_day'] = today.replace(day=1, hour=00, minute=1)

 #Calling the csv function here
 context['response'] = export_search_csv(start_time, end_time) 

 if (authorized):
 return render(request, 'mykiosk/admin.html', context)
 else:
 return HttpResponse(error)


#function to grab and create csv
def export_search_csv(start_time, end_time):
 data = CheckIn.objects.filter(Date__range=(start_time, end_time))
 response = HttpResponse(content_type='text/csv')
 response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="export.csv"'
 writer = csv.writer(response)
 writer.writerow(['id', 'EmpID', 'BarID', 'Username', 'Type', 'Liability', 'Date'])
 for item in data:
 writer.writerow([item.id, item.EmpID, item.BarID, item.Username, item.Type, item.Liability, item.Date])
 return response

Template

<a href=" response">export to csv</a>

Then all I get is a <HttpResponse status_code=200, "text/csv"> when trying to access the link. I'm missing something, I'm just not sure what. Due to internal company regulations, I can't use the djqscsv library either.

Any help is appreciated.

I think you are doing it wrong way. Rather than sending it via context, you should convert your export_search_csv method to a view and use it from template. For example:

def export_search_csv(request, start_date, end_date):
 data = CheckIn.objects.filter(Date__range=(datetime.strptime(start_date, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), datetime.strptime(end_date, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")))
 response = HttpResponse(content_type='text/csv')
 response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="export.csv"'
 writer = csv.writer(response)
 writer.writerow(['id', 'EmpID', 'BarID', 'Username', 'Type', 'Liability', 'Date'])
 for item in data:
 writer.writerow([item.id, item.EmpID, item.BarID, item.Username, item.Type, item.Liability, item.Date])
 return response


def admin_view(request, mysite):
 ...
 context['start_date'] = startdate.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
 context['end_date'] = enddate.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
 ...

In template:

<a href="% url 'export_search_csv' start_date end_date %">export to csv</a>

Add new url for new view:

path('your_path/<str:start_date>/<str:end_date>/', export_search_csv, name='export_search_csv'),