how to render django template from code instead of file on Google App Engine

Question

I am writing a Google App Engine webapp that renders some html to a Django template. I want to either render the template using either a file or just some json thats very similar to that in file. Is it possible to use Django to render this to a file that is read in and stored in database? The oldAPI.HTML is just an old version of api.html but with some small changes. Rendering Django to the api-html file works fine.

I understand that you can't store files on GAE, how can i dynamically use Django to render to HTML stored in memory?

path = ""
oldAPI = APIVersion().get_by_key_name(version)
if oldAPI is None:
    path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "api.html")
template_values = {
            'responseDict': responseDict,
            }
        if path:
            self.response.out.write(template.render(path, template_values))
        else:
            self.response.out.write(template.render(oldAPI.html,template_values))

You can store files in the blobstore http://stackoverflow.com/questions/81451/upload-files-in-google-app-engine — , Mar 18 '13 at 08:50
Yes, but then i'll have to make a Template from the read file. How? — bogen, Mar 18 '13 at 08:58

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '13 at 21:45

In order to render a template 'in memory', there are a few things you'll need to do:

App Engine Setup

First of all, you'll need to ensure that everything is set up correctly for Django. There's a lot of information on the Third-party libraries page, but I'll include it here for your benefit.

In main.py, or (whatever your script handler is), you'll need to add the following lines:

import os
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'

from google.appengine.dist import use_library
use_library('django', '1.2') # Change to a different version as you like

Don't forget to include django in your app.yaml:

libraries:
    - name: django
      version: "1.2"

Code Setup

Second of all, you'll need to create a Template object, as denoted in the Google App Engine template documentation. For example:

from google.appengine.ext.webapp import template

# Your code...
template_string = "Hello World"
my_template = template.Template(template_string)

# `context` is optional, but will be useful!
# `context` is what will contain any variables, etc. you use in the template
rendered_output = template.render(context)

# Now, do what you like with `rendered_output`!

When i try this i get the error: AssertionError: settings has not been configured in this thread. Is there some kind of setting i need to enable as well? — bogen, Mar 20 '13 at 10:07
You may need to create a simple `settings.py` file in the same folder as `app.yaml`. [This article](https://developers.google.com/appengine/articles/django) has an example `settings.py` file you can use. I recognize the article is out of date, but *that* information should still be relevant. — NT3RP, Mar 20 '13 at 15:31

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '13 at 13:00

2

You can instantiate a template from text in Django with just template.Template(my_text).

answered Mar 15 '13 at 13:00

Daniel Roseman

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I'm getting AssertionError: settings has not been configured in this thread when i try to instantiate temlate from text. Tried with the html and template.Template("hello world") – bogen Mar 15 '13 at 13:05
Maybe just try to use StringIO? – Dmytro Sadovnychyi Mar 15 '13 at 15:52
Whats the syntax for using that? – bogen Mar 18 '13 at 08:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 18 '13 at 16:13

Unfortunately, there's no (builtin) way to do so, but you can get inspired from the function google.appengine.ext.webapp.template._load_user_django (GAE with Python 2.5) or google.appengine.ext.webapp.template._load_internal_django (GAE with Python 2.7) and write your very own wrapper overriding settings and rendering like GAE source does.

how to render django template from code instead of file on Google App Engine

3 Answers3

App Engine Setup

Code Setup