[Django] #35403: URL path with optional parameter

#35403: URL path with optional parameter
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               Reporter:  Patrick Hintermayer  |          Owner:  nobody
                   Type:  Uncategorized        |         Status:  new
              Component:  Uncategorized        |        Version:  5.0
               Severity:  Normal               |       Keywords:  url
           Triage Stage:  Unreviewed           |      Has patch:  0
    Needs documentation:  0                    |    Needs tests:  0
Patch needs improvement:  0                    |  Easy pickings:  0
                  UI/UX:  0                    |
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 I sometimes have a class based view which has a GET and a POST method, for
 example a ListView which shows some objects with a POST form to create
 something out of it.

 In the documentation
 (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/topics/http/urls/) I did not find a
 simple way of doing that. Asking GitHub Copilot suggested me adding a
 question mark at the end to mark a parameter as optional which does not
 work.

 **I found myself 2 solutions:**
 1. using regex which looks cumbersome just for marking something as
 optional:
 {{{#!div style="font-size: 80%"
 Code highlighting:
   {{{#!python
   re_path(
         r"^activate/(?P<activation_token>[^/]+)?$",
         views.UserActivationView.as_view(),
         name="user_activation",
     )
   }}}
 }}}

 2. using 2 paths: one without a parameter and one with a parameter:
 {{{#!div style="font-size: 80%"
 Code highlighting:
   {{{#!python
   path(
         "activate/",
         views.UserActivationView.as_view(),
         name="user_activation",
     ),
     path(
         "activate/<str:activation_token>/",
         views.UserActivationView.as_view(),
         name="user_activation",
     )
   }}}
 }}}

 For this ticket, I want to suggest a) improve the documentation with a
 simple example how to do that and/or b) can this be simplified in django
 by adding for example a question mark at the end like "/<int:some_id?>/"
 or  "/<int?:some_id>/":
 {{{#!div style="font-size: 80%"
 Code highlighting:
   {{{#!python
   path(
         "activate/<str:activation_token?>/",
         views.UserActivationView.as_view(),
         name="user_activation",
     )
   }}}
 }}}
-- 
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/35403>
Django <https://code.djangoproject.com/>
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