How do I call a Django function on button click?

here is a pure-javascript, minimalistic approach. I use JQuery but you can use any library (or even no libraries at all).

<html>
    <head>
        <title>An example</title>
        <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
        <script>
            function call_counter(url, pk) {
                window.open(url);
                $.get('YOUR_VIEW_HERE/'+pk+'/', function (data) {
                    alert("counter updated!");
                });
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <button onclick="call_counter('http://www.google.com', 12345);">
            I update object 12345
        </button>
        <button onclick="call_counter('http://www.yahoo.com', 999);">
            I update object 999
        </button>
    </body>
</html>

Alternative approach

Instead of placing the JavaScript code, you can change your link in this way:

<a target="_blank" 
    class="btn btn-info pull-right" 
    href="{% url YOUR_VIEW column_3_item.pk %}/?next={{column_3_item.link_for_item|urlencode:''}}">
    Check It Out
</a>

and in your views.py:

def YOUR_VIEW_DEF(request, pk):
    YOUR_OBJECT.objects.filter(pk=pk).update(views=F('views')+1)
    return HttpResponseRedirect(request.GET.get('next'))

There are 2 possible solutions that I personally use

1.without using form

 <button type="submit" value={{excel_path}} onclick="location.href='{% url 'downloadexcel' %}'" name='mybtn2'>Download Excel file</button>

2.Using Form

<form action="{% url 'downloadexcel' %}" method="post">
{% csrf_token %}


 <button type="submit" name='mybtn2' value={{excel_path}}>Download results in Excel</button>
 </form>

Where urls.py should have this

path('excel/',views1.downloadexcel,name="downloadexcel"),