mirror of
https://github.com/django/django.git
synced 2024-12-23 17:46:27 +00:00
93519513a1
git-svn-id: http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk@1261 bcc190cf-cafb-0310-a4f2-bffc1f526a37
763 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
763 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
====================================================
|
|
The Django template language: For Python programmers
|
|
====================================================
|
|
|
|
This document explains the Django template system from a technical
|
|
perspective -- how it works and how to extend it. If you're just looking for
|
|
reference on the language syntax, see
|
|
`The Django template language: For template authors`_.
|
|
|
|
.. _`The Django template language: For template authors`: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/templates/
|
|
|
|
Basics
|
|
======
|
|
|
|
A **template** is a text document, or a normal Python string, that is marked-up
|
|
using the Django template language. A template can contain **block tags** or
|
|
**variables**.
|
|
|
|
A **block tag** is a symbol within a template that does something.
|
|
|
|
This definition is deliberately vague. For example, a block tag can output
|
|
content, serve as a control structure (an "if" statement or "for" loop), grab
|
|
content from a database or enable access to other template tags.
|
|
|
|
Block tags are surrounded by ``"{%"`` and ``"%}"``.
|
|
|
|
Example template with block tags::
|
|
|
|
{% if is_logged_in %}Thanks for logging in!{% else %}Please log in.{% endif %}
|
|
|
|
A **variable** is a symbol within a template that outputs a value.
|
|
|
|
Variable tags are surrounded by ``"{{"`` and ``"}}"``.
|
|
|
|
Example template with variables::
|
|
|
|
My first name is {{ first_name }}. My last name is {{ last_name }}.
|
|
|
|
A **context** is a "variable name" -> "variable value" mapping that is passed
|
|
to a template.
|
|
|
|
A template **renders** a context by replacing the variable "holes" with values
|
|
from the context and executing all block tags.
|
|
|
|
Using the template system
|
|
=========================
|
|
|
|
Using the template system in Python is a two-step process:
|
|
|
|
* First, you compile the raw template code into a ``Template`` object.
|
|
* Then, you call the ``render()`` method of the ``Template`` object with a
|
|
given context.
|
|
|
|
Compiling a string
|
|
------------------
|
|
|
|
The easiest way to create a ``Template`` object is by instantiating it
|
|
directly. The class lives at ``django.core.template.Template``. The constructor
|
|
takes one argument -- the raw template code::
|
|
|
|
>>> from django.core.template import Template
|
|
>>> t = Template("My name is {{ my_name }}.")
|
|
>>> print t
|
|
<django.core.template.Template instance>
|
|
|
|
.. admonition:: Behind the scenes
|
|
|
|
The system only parses your raw template code once -- when you create the
|
|
``Template`` object. From then on, it's stored internally as a "node"
|
|
structure for performance.
|
|
|
|
Even the parsing itself is quite fast. Most of the parsing happens via a
|
|
single call to a single, short, regular expression.
|
|
|
|
Rendering a context
|
|
-------------------
|
|
|
|
Once you have a compiled ``Template`` object, you can render a context -- or
|
|
multiple contexts -- with it. The ``Context`` class lives at
|
|
``django.core.template.Context``, and the constructor takes one (optional)
|
|
argument: a dictionary mapping variable names to variable values. Call the
|
|
``Template`` object's ``render()`` method with the context to "fill" the
|
|
template::
|
|
|
|
>>> from django.core.template import Context, Template
|
|
>>> t = Template("My name is {{ my_name }}.")
|
|
|
|
>>> c = Context({"my_name": "Adrian"})
|
|
>>> t.render(c)
|
|
"My name is Adrian."
|
|
|
|
>>> c = Context({"my_name": "Dolores"})
|
|
>>> t.render(c)
|
|
"My name is Dolores."
|
|
|
|
Variable names must consist of any letter (A-Z), any digit (0-9), an underscore
|
|
or a dot.
|
|
|
|
Dots have a special meaning in template rendering. A dot in a variable name
|
|
signifies **lookup**. Specifically, when the template system encounters a dot
|
|
in a variable name, it tries the following lookups, in this order:
|
|
|
|
* Dictionary lookup. Example: ``foo["bar"]``
|
|
* Attribute lookup. Example: ``foo.bar``
|
|
* Method call. Example: ``foo.bar()``
|
|
* List-index lookup. Example: ``foo[bar]``
|
|
|
|
The template system uses the first lookup type that works. It's short-circuit
|
|
logic.
|
|
|
|
Here are a few examples::
|
|
|
|
>>> from django.core.template import Context, Template
|
|
>>> t = Template("My name is {{ person.first_name }}.")
|
|
>>> d = {"person": {"first_name": "Joe", "last_name": "Johnson"}}
|
|
>>> t.render(Context(d))
|
|
"My name is Joe."
|
|
|
|
>>> class PersonClass: pass
|
|
>>> p = PersonClass()
|
|
>>> p.first_name = "Ron"
|
|
>>> p.last_name = "Nasty"
|
|
>>> t.render(Context({"person": p}))
|
|
"My name is Ron."
|
|
|
|
>>> class PersonClass2:
|
|
... def first_name(self):
|
|
... return "Samantha"
|
|
>>> p = PersonClass2()
|
|
>>> t.render(Context({"person": p}))
|
|
"My name is Samantha."
|
|
|
|
>>> t = Template("The first stooge in the list is {{ stooges.0 }}.")
|
|
>>> c = Context({"stooges": ["Larry", "Curly", "Moe"]})
|
|
>>> t.render(c)
|
|
"The first stooge in the list is Larry."
|
|
|
|
If a variable doesn't exist, the template system fails silently. The variable
|
|
is replaced with an empty string::
|
|
|
|
>>> t = Template("My name is {{ my_name }}.")
|
|
>>> c = Context({"foo": "bar"})
|
|
>>> t.render(c)
|
|
"My name is ."
|
|
|
|
Method lookups are slightly more complex than the other lookup types. Here are
|
|
some things to keep in mind:
|
|
|
|
* If, during the method lookup, a method raises an exception, the exception
|
|
will be propagated, unless the exception subclasses
|
|
``django.core.template.SilentVariableFailure``. If the exception
|
|
subclasses ``SilentVariableFailure``, the variable will render as an
|
|
empty string. Example::
|
|
|
|
>>> t = Template("My name is {{ person.first_name }}.")
|
|
>>> class PersonClass3:
|
|
... def first_name(self):
|
|
... raise AssertionError, "foo"
|
|
>>> p = PersonClass3()
|
|
>>> t.render(Context({"person": p}))
|
|
Traceback (most recent call last):
|
|
...
|
|
AssertionError: foo
|
|
|
|
>>> from django.core.template import SilentVariableFailure
|
|
>>> class SilentAssertionError(SilentVariableFailure): pass
|
|
>>> class PersonClass4:
|
|
... def first_name(self):
|
|
... raise SilentAssertionError, "foo"
|
|
>>> p = PersonClass4()
|
|
>>> t.render(Context({"person": p}))
|
|
"My name is ."
|
|
|
|
* A method call will only work if the method has no required arguments.
|
|
Otherwise, the system will move to the next lookup type (list-index
|
|
lookup).
|
|
|
|
* Obviously, some methods have side effects, and it'd be either foolish or
|
|
a security hole to allow the template system to access them.
|
|
|
|
A good example is the ``delete()`` method on each Django model object.
|
|
The template system shouldn't be allowed to do something like this::
|
|
|
|
I will now delete this valuable data. {{ data.delete }}
|
|
|
|
To prevent this, set a function attribute ``alters_data`` on the method.
|
|
The template system won't execute a method if the method has
|
|
``alters_data=True`` set. The dynamically-generated ``delete()`` and
|
|
``save()`` methods on Django model objects get ``alters_data=True``
|
|
automatically. Example::
|
|
|
|
def sensitive_function(self):
|
|
self.database_record.delete()
|
|
sensitive_function.alters_data = True
|
|
|
|
Playing with Context objects
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
Most of the time, you'll instantiate ``Context`` objects by passing in a
|
|
fully-populated dictionary to ``Context()``. But you can add and delete items
|
|
from a ``Context`` object once it's been instantiated, too, using standard
|
|
dictionary syntax::
|
|
|
|
>>> c = Context({"foo": "bar"})
|
|
>>> c['foo']
|
|
'bar'
|
|
>>> del c['foo']
|
|
>>> c['foo']
|
|
''
|
|
>>> c['newvariable'] = 'hello'
|
|
>>> c['newvariable']
|
|
'hello'
|
|
|
|
A ``Context`` object is a stack. That is, you can ``push()`` and ``pop()`` it.
|
|
If you ``pop()`` too much, it'll raise
|
|
``django.core.template.ContextPopException``::
|
|
|
|
>>> c = Context()
|
|
>>> c['foo'] = 'first level'
|
|
>>> c.push()
|
|
>>> c['foo'] = 'second level'
|
|
>>> c['foo']
|
|
'second level'
|
|
>>> c.pop()
|
|
>>> c['foo']
|
|
'first level'
|
|
>>> c['foo'] = 'overwritten'
|
|
>>> c['foo']
|
|
'overwritten'
|
|
>>> c.pop()
|
|
Traceback (most recent call last):
|
|
...
|
|
django.core.template.ContextPopException
|
|
|
|
Using a ``Context`` as a stack comes in handy in some custom template tags, as
|
|
you'll see below.
|
|
|
|
Subclassing Context: DjangoContext
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Django comes with a special ``Context`` class,
|
|
``django.core.extensions.DjangoContext``, that acts slightly differently than
|
|
the normal ``django.core.template.Context``. It takes an ``HttpRequest`` object
|
|
as its first argument, and it automatically populates the context with a few
|
|
variables:
|
|
|
|
* ``user`` -- An ``auth.User`` instance representing the currently
|
|
logged-in user (or an ``AnonymousUser`` instance, if the client isn't
|
|
logged in). See the `user authentication docs`.
|
|
* ``messages`` -- A list of ``auth.Message`` objects for the currently
|
|
logged-in user.
|
|
* ``perms`` -- An instance of ``django.core.extensions.PermWrapper``,
|
|
representing the permissions that the currently logged-in user has. See
|
|
the `permissions docs`_.
|
|
|
|
Also, if your ``DEBUG`` setting is set to ``True``, every ``DjangoContext``
|
|
instance has the following two extra variables:
|
|
|
|
* ``debug`` -- ``True``. You can use this in templates to test whether
|
|
you're in ``DEBUG`` mode.
|
|
* ``sql_queries`` -- A list of ``{'sql': ..., 'time': ...}`` dictionaries,
|
|
representing every SQL query that has happened so far during the request
|
|
and how long it took. The list is in order by query.
|
|
|
|
Feel free to subclass ``Context`` yourself if you find yourself wanting to give
|
|
each template something "automatically." For instance, if you want to give
|
|
every template automatic access to the current time, use something like this::
|
|
|
|
from django.core.template import Context
|
|
import datetime
|
|
class TimeContext(Context):
|
|
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
|
|
Context.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
|
|
self['current_time'] = datetime.datetime.now()
|
|
|
|
This technique has two caveats:
|
|
|
|
* You'll have to remember to use ``TimeContext`` instead of ``Context`` in
|
|
your template-loading code.
|
|
|
|
* You'll have to be careful not to set the variable ``current_time`` when
|
|
you populate this context. If you do, you'll override the other one.
|
|
|
|
.. _user authentication docs: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/models/authentication/#users
|
|
.. _permissions docs: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/models/authentication/#permissions
|
|
|
|
Loading templates
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
|
Generally, you'll store templates in files on your filesystem rather than using
|
|
the low-level ``Template`` API yourself. Save templates in a file with an
|
|
".html" extension in a directory specified as a **template directory**.
|
|
|
|
If you don't like the requirement that templates have an ".html" extension,
|
|
change your ``TEMPLATE_FILE_EXTENSION`` setting. It's set to ``".html"`` by
|
|
default.
|
|
|
|
Also, the .html extension doesn't mean templates can contain only HTML. They
|
|
can contain whatever textual content you want.
|
|
|
|
The TEMPLATE_DIRS setting
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
Tell Django what your template directories are by using the ``TEMPLATE_DIRS``
|
|
setting in your settings file. This should be set to a list or tuple of strings
|
|
that contain full paths to your template directory(ies). Example::
|
|
|
|
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
|
|
"/home/html/templates/lawrence.com",
|
|
"/home/html/templates/default",
|
|
)
|
|
|
|
The Python API
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
Django has two ways to load templates from files:
|
|
|
|
``django.core.template.loader.get_template(template_name)``
|
|
``get_template`` returns the compiled template (a ``Template`` object) for
|
|
the template with the given name. If the template doesn't exist, it raises
|
|
``django.core.template.TemplateDoesNotExist``.
|
|
|
|
``django.core.template.loader.select_template(template_name_list)``
|
|
``select_template`` is just like ``get_template``, except it takes a list
|
|
of template names. Of the list, it returns the first template that exists.
|
|
|
|
For example, if you call ``get_template("story_detail")`` and have the above
|
|
``TEMPLATE_DIRS`` setting, here are the files Django will look for, in order:
|
|
|
|
* ``/home/html/templates/lawrence.com/story_detail.html``
|
|
* ``/home/html/templates/default/story_detail.html``
|
|
|
|
If you call ``select_template(["story_253_detail", "story_detail"])``, here's
|
|
what Django will look for:
|
|
|
|
* ``/home/html/templates/lawrence.com/story_253_detail.html``
|
|
* ``/home/html/templates/default/story_253_detail.html``
|
|
* ``/home/html/templates/lawrence.com/story_detail.html``
|
|
* ``/home/html/templates/default/story_detail.html``
|
|
|
|
When Django finds a template that exists, it stops looking.
|
|
|
|
.. admonition:: Tip
|
|
|
|
You can use ``select_template`` for super-flexible "templatability." For
|
|
example, if you've written a news story and want some stories to have
|
|
custom templates, use something like
|
|
``select_template(["story_%s_detail" % story.id, "story_detail"])``.
|
|
That'll allow you to use a custom template for an individual story, with a
|
|
fallback template for stories that don't have custom templates.
|
|
|
|
Using subdirectories
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
It's possible -- and preferable -- to organize templates in subdirectories of
|
|
the template directory. The convention is to make a subdirectory for each
|
|
Django app, with subdirectories within those subdirectories as needed.
|
|
|
|
Do this for your own sanity. Storing all templates in the root level of a
|
|
single directory gets messy.
|
|
|
|
To load a template that's within a subdirectory, just use a slash, like so::
|
|
|
|
get_template("news/story_detail")
|
|
|
|
Loader types
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
By default, Django uses a filesystem-based template loader, but Django comes
|
|
with a few other template loaders. They're disabled by default, but you can
|
|
activate them by editing your ``TEMPLATE_LOADERS`` setting.
|
|
``TEMPLATE_LOADERS`` should be a tuple of strings, where each string represents
|
|
a template loader. Here are the built-in template loaders:
|
|
|
|
``django.core.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source``
|
|
Loads templates from the filesystem, according to ``TEMPLATE_DIRS``.
|
|
|
|
``django.core.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source``
|
|
Loads templates from Django apps on the filesystem. For each app in
|
|
``INSTALLED_APPS``, the loader looks for a ``templates`` subdirectory. If
|
|
the directory exists, Django looks for templates in there.
|
|
|
|
This means you can store templates with your individual apps. This also
|
|
makes it easy to distribute Django apps with default templates.
|
|
|
|
For example, for this setting::
|
|
|
|
INSTALLED_APPS = ('myproject.polls', 'myproject.music')
|
|
|
|
...then ``get_template("foo")`` will look for templates in these
|
|
directories, in this order:
|
|
|
|
* ``/path/to/myproject/polls/templates/foo.html``
|
|
* ``/path/to/myproject/music/templates/music.html``
|
|
|
|
Note that the loader performs an optimization when it is first imported:
|
|
It caches a list of which ``INSTALLED_APPS`` packages have a ``templates``
|
|
subdirectory.
|
|
|
|
``django.core.template.loaders.eggs.load_template_source``
|
|
Just like ``app_directories`` above, but it loads templates from Python
|
|
eggs rather than from the filesystem.
|
|
|
|
Django uses the template loaders in order according to the ``TEMPLATE_LOADERS``
|
|
setting. It uses each loader until a loader finds a match.
|
|
|
|
Extending the template system
|
|
=============================
|
|
|
|
Although the Django template language comes with several default tags and
|
|
filters, you might want to write your own. It's easy to do.
|
|
|
|
First, create a ``templatetags`` package in the appropriate Django app's
|
|
package. It should be on the same level as ``models``, ``views``, etc. For
|
|
example::
|
|
|
|
polls/
|
|
models/
|
|
templatetags/
|
|
views/
|
|
|
|
Add two files to the ``templatetags`` package: an ``__init__.py`` file and a
|
|
file that will contain your custom tag/filter definitions. The name of the
|
|
latter file is the name you'll use to load the tags later. For example, if your
|
|
custom tags/filters are in a file called ``poll_extras.py``, you'd do the
|
|
following in a template::
|
|
|
|
{% load poll_extras %}
|
|
|
|
The ``{% load %}`` tag looks at your ``INSTALLED_APPS`` setting and only allows
|
|
the loading of template libraries within installed Django apps. This is a
|
|
security feature: It allows you to host Python code for many template libraries
|
|
on a single computer without enabling access to all of them for every Django
|
|
installation.
|
|
|
|
If you write a template library that isn't tied to any particular models/views,
|
|
it's perfectly OK to have a Django app package that only contains a
|
|
``templatetags`` package.
|
|
|
|
There's no limit on how many modules you put in the ``templatetags`` package.
|
|
Just keep in mind that a ``{% load %}`` statement will load tags/filters for
|
|
the given Python module name, not the name of the app.
|
|
|
|
Once you've created that Python module, you'll just have to write a bit of
|
|
Python code, depending on whether you're writing filters or tags.
|
|
|
|
.. admonition:: Behind the scenes
|
|
|
|
For a ton of examples, read the source code for Django's default filters
|
|
and tags. They're in ``django/core/template/defaultfilters.py`` and
|
|
``django/core/template/defaulttags.py``, respectively.
|
|
|
|
Writing custom template filters
|
|
-------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Custom filters are just Python functions that take two arguments:
|
|
|
|
* The value of the variable (input) -- not necessarily a string
|
|
* The value of the argument -- always a string
|
|
|
|
Filter functions should always return something. They shouldn't raise
|
|
exceptions. They should fail silently. In case of error, they should return
|
|
either the original input or an empty string -- whichever makes more sense.
|
|
|
|
Here's an example filter definition::
|
|
|
|
def cut(value, arg):
|
|
"Removes all values of arg from the given string"
|
|
return value.replace(arg, '')
|
|
|
|
Most filters don't take arguments. For filters that don't take arguments, the
|
|
convention is to use a single underscore as the second argument to the filter
|
|
definition. Example::
|
|
|
|
def lower(value, _):
|
|
"Converts a string into all lowercase"
|
|
return value.lower()
|
|
|
|
When you've written your filter definition, you need to register it, to make it
|
|
available to Django's template language::
|
|
|
|
from django.core import template
|
|
template.register_filter('cut', cut, True)
|
|
template.register_filter('lower', lower, False)
|
|
|
|
``register_filter`` takes three arguments:
|
|
|
|
1. The name of the filter -- a string.
|
|
2. The compilation function -- a Python function (not the name of the
|
|
function as a string).
|
|
3. A boolean, designating whether the filter requires an argument. This
|
|
tells Django's template parser whether to throw ``TemplateSyntaxError``
|
|
when filter arguments are given (or missing).
|
|
|
|
The convention is to put all ``register_filter`` calls at the bottom of your
|
|
template-library module.
|
|
|
|
Writing custom template tags
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
Tags are more complex than filters, because tags can do anything.
|
|
|
|
A quick overview
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
Above, this document explained that the template system works in a two-step
|
|
process: compiling and rendering. To define a custom template tag, you specify
|
|
how the compilation works and how the rendering works.
|
|
|
|
When Django compiles a template, it splits the raw template text into
|
|
''nodes''. Each node is an instance of ``django.core.template.Node`` and has
|
|
a ``render()`` method. A compiled template is, simply, a list of ``Node``
|
|
objects. When you call ``render()`` on a compiled template object, the template
|
|
calls ``render()`` on each ``Node`` in its node list, with the given context.
|
|
The results are all concatenated together to form the output of the template.
|
|
|
|
Thus, to define a custom template tag, you specify how the raw template tag is
|
|
converted into a ``Node`` (the compilation function), and what the node's
|
|
``render()`` method does.
|
|
|
|
Writing the compilation function
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
For each template tag the template parser encounters, it calls a Python
|
|
function with the tag contents and the parser object itself. This function is
|
|
responsible for returning a ``Node`` instance based on the contents of the tag.
|
|
|
|
By convention, the name of each compilation function should start with ``do_``.
|
|
|
|
For example, let's write a template tag, ``{% current_time %}``, that displays
|
|
the current date/time, formatted according to a parameter given in the tag, in
|
|
`strftime syntax`_. It's a good idea to decide the tag syntax before anything
|
|
else. In our case, let's say the tag should be used like this::
|
|
|
|
<p>The time is {% current_time "%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p" %}.</p>
|
|
|
|
.. _`strftime syntax`: http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-time.html#l2h-1941
|
|
|
|
The parser for this function should grab the parameter and create a ``Node``
|
|
object::
|
|
|
|
from django.core import template
|
|
def do_current_time(parser, token):
|
|
try:
|
|
# Splitting by None == splitting by spaces.
|
|
tag_name, format_string = token.contents.split(None, 1)
|
|
except ValueError:
|
|
raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag requires an argument" % token.contents[0]
|
|
if not (format_string[0] == format_string[-1] and format_string[0] in ('"', "'")):
|
|
raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag's argument should be in quotes" % tag_name
|
|
return CurrentTimeNode(format_string[1:-1])
|
|
|
|
Notes:
|
|
|
|
* ``parser`` is the template parser object. We don't need it in this
|
|
example.
|
|
|
|
* ``token.contents`` is a string of the raw contents of the tag. In our
|
|
example, it's ``'current_time "%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p"'``.
|
|
|
|
* This function is responsible for raising
|
|
``django.core.template.TemplateSyntaxError``, with helpful messages, for
|
|
any syntax error.
|
|
|
|
* The ``TemplateSyntaxError`` exceptions use the ``tag_name`` variable.
|
|
Don't hard-code the tag's name in your error messages, because that
|
|
couples the tag's name to your function. ``token.contents.split()[0]``
|
|
will ''always'' be the name of your tag -- even when the tag has no
|
|
arguments.
|
|
|
|
* The function returns a ``CurrentTimeNode`` with everything the node needs
|
|
to know about this tag. In this case, it just passes the argument --
|
|
``"%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p"``. The leading and trailing quotes from the
|
|
template tag are removed in ``format_string[1:-1]``.
|
|
|
|
* The parsing is very low-level. The Django developers have experimented
|
|
with writing small frameworks on top of this parsing system, using
|
|
techniques such as EBNF grammars, but those experiments made the template
|
|
engine too slow. It's low-level because that's fastest.
|
|
|
|
Writing the renderer
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The second step in writing custom tags is to define a ``Node`` subclass that
|
|
has a ``render()`` method.
|
|
|
|
Continuing the above example, we need to define ``CurrentTimeNode``::
|
|
|
|
from django.core import template
|
|
import datetime
|
|
class CurrentTimeNode(template.Node):
|
|
def __init__(self, format_string):
|
|
self.format_string = format_string
|
|
def render(self, context):
|
|
return datetime.datetime.now().strftime(self.format_string)
|
|
|
|
Notes:
|
|
|
|
* ``__init__()`` gets the ``format_string`` from ``do_current_time()``.
|
|
Always pass any options/parameters/arguments to a ``Node`` via its
|
|
``__init__()``.
|
|
|
|
* The ``render()`` method is where the work actually happens.
|
|
|
|
* ``render()`` should never raise ``TemplateSyntaxError`` or any other
|
|
exception. It should fail silently, just as template filters should.
|
|
|
|
Ultimately, this decoupling of compilation and rendering results in an
|
|
efficient template system, because a template can render multiple context
|
|
without having to be parsed multiple times.
|
|
|
|
Registering the tag
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
Finally, use a ``register_tag`` call, as in ``register_filter`` above. Example::
|
|
|
|
from django.core import template
|
|
template.register_tag('current_time', do_current_time)
|
|
|
|
``register_tag`` takes two arguments:
|
|
|
|
1. The name of the template tag -- a string.
|
|
2. The compilation function -- a Python function (not the name of the
|
|
function as a string).
|
|
|
|
Setting a variable in the context
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
The above example simply output a value. Generally, it's more flexible if your
|
|
template tags set template variables instead of outputting values. That way,
|
|
template authors can reuse the values that your template tags create.
|
|
|
|
To set a variable in the context, just use dictionary assignment on the context
|
|
object in the ``render()`` method. Here's an updated version of
|
|
``CurrentTimeNode`` that sets a template variable ``current_time`` instead of
|
|
outputting it::
|
|
|
|
class CurrentTimeNode2(template.Node):
|
|
def __init__(self, format_string):
|
|
self.format_string = format_string
|
|
def render(self, context):
|
|
context['current_time'] = datetime.datetime.now().strftime(self.format_string)
|
|
return ''
|
|
|
|
Note that ``render()`` returns the empty string. ``render()`` should always
|
|
return string output. If all the template tag does is set a variable,
|
|
``render()`` should return the empty string.
|
|
|
|
Here's how you'd use this new version of the tag::
|
|
|
|
{% current_time "%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p" %}<p>The time is {{ current_time }}.</p>
|
|
|
|
But, there's a problem with ``CurrentTimeNode2``: The variable name
|
|
``current_time`` is hard-coded. This means you'll need to make sure your
|
|
template doesn't use ``{{ current_time }}`` anywhere else, because the
|
|
``{% current_time %}`` will blindly overwrite that variable's value. A cleaner
|
|
solution is to make the template tag specify the name of the output variable,
|
|
like so::
|
|
|
|
{% get_current_time "%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p" as my_current_time %}
|
|
<p>The current time is {{ my_current_time }}.</p>
|
|
|
|
To do that, you'll need to refactor both the compilation function and ``Node``
|
|
class, like so::
|
|
|
|
class CurrentTimeNode3(template.Node):
|
|
def __init__(self, format_string, var_name):
|
|
self.format_string = format_string
|
|
self.var_name = var_name
|
|
def render(self, context):
|
|
context[self.var_name] = datetime.datetime.now().strftime(self.format_string)
|
|
return ''
|
|
|
|
import re
|
|
def do_current_time(parser, token):
|
|
# This version uses a regular expression to parse tag contents.
|
|
try:
|
|
# Splitting by None == splitting by spaces.
|
|
tag_name, arg = token.contents.split(None, 1)
|
|
except ValueError:
|
|
raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag requires arguments" % token.contents[0]
|
|
m = re.search(r'(.*?) as (\w+)', arg)
|
|
if not m:
|
|
raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag had invalid arguments" % tag_name
|
|
format_string, var_name = m.groups()
|
|
if not (format_string[0] == format_string[-1] and format_string[0] in ('"', "'")):
|
|
raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag's argument should be in quotes" % tag_name
|
|
return CurrentTimeNode3(format_string[1:-1], var_name)
|
|
|
|
The difference here is that ``do_current_time()`` grabs the format string and
|
|
the variable name, passing both to ``CurrentTimeNode3``.
|
|
|
|
Parsing until another block tag
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
Template tags can work in tandem. For instance, the standard ``{% comment %}``
|
|
tag hides everything until ``{% endcomment %}``. To create a template tag such
|
|
as this, use ``parser.parse()`` in your compilation function.
|
|
|
|
Here's how the standard ``{% comment %}`` tag is implemented::
|
|
|
|
def do_comment(parser, token):
|
|
nodelist = parser.parse(('endcomment',))
|
|
parser.delete_first_token()
|
|
return CommentNode()
|
|
|
|
class CommentNode(template.Node):
|
|
def render(self, context):
|
|
return ''
|
|
|
|
``parser.parse()`` takes a tuple of names of block tags ''to parse until''. It
|
|
returns an instance of ``django.core.template.NodeList``, which is a list of
|
|
all ``Node`` objects that the parser encountered ''before'' it encountered
|
|
any of the tags named in the tuple.
|
|
|
|
In ``"nodelist = parser.parse(('endcomment',))"`` in the above example,
|
|
``nodelist`` is a list of all nodes between the ``{% comment %}`` and
|
|
``{% endcomment %}``, not counting ``{% comment %}`` and ``{% endcomment %}``
|
|
themselves.
|
|
|
|
After ``parser.parse()`` is called, the parser hasn't yet "consumed" the
|
|
``{% endcomment %}`` tag, so the code needs to explicitly call
|
|
``parser.delete_first_token()``.
|
|
|
|
``CommentNode.render()`` simply returns an empty string. Anything between
|
|
``{% comment %}`` and ``{% endcomment %}`` is ignored.
|
|
|
|
Parsing until another block tag, and saving contents
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
In the previous example, ``do_comment()`` discarded everything between
|
|
``{% comment %}`` and ``{% endcomment %}``. Instead of doing that, it's
|
|
possible to do something with the code between block tags.
|
|
|
|
For example, here's a custom template tag, ``{% upper %}``, that capitalizes
|
|
everything between itself and ``{% endupper %}``.
|
|
|
|
Usage::
|
|
|
|
{% upper %}This will appear in uppercase, {{ your_name }}.{% endupper %}
|
|
|
|
As in the previous example, we'll use ``parser.parse()``. But this time, we
|
|
pass the resulting ``nodelist`` to the ``Node``::
|
|
|
|
def do_upper(parser, token):
|
|
nodelist = parser.parse(('endupper',))
|
|
parser.delete_first_token()
|
|
return UpperNode(nodelist)
|
|
|
|
class UpperNode(template.Node):
|
|
def __init__(self, nodelist):
|
|
self.nodelist = nodelist
|
|
def render(self, context):
|
|
output = self.nodelist.render(context)
|
|
return output.upper()
|
|
|
|
The only new concept here is the ``self.nodelist.render(context)`` in
|
|
``UpperNode.render()``.
|
|
|
|
For more examples of complex rendering, see the source code for ``{% if %}``,
|
|
``{% for %}``, ``{% ifequal %}`` and ``{% ifchanged %}``. They live in
|
|
``django/core/template/defaulttags.py``.
|