Django flatpages template tag doesn't work with template inheritance

Question

I have a Django (1.6) application that inherits a base template. I would like to include one of my (currently working) flatpages into the application landing page, something that the Django docs say is possible.

Here is my template:

{% extends "path/to/base.html" %}
{% load flatpages %}
{% get_flatpages as fp %}

{% block content %}
  <h3>Flatpage inclusion</h3>
  <p>Number of flatpages: {{ fp|length }}
  <ul>
    {% for page in fp %}
      <li><a href="{{ page.url }}">{{ page.title }}</a></li>
    {% endfor %}       
  </ul> 
{% endblock content %}

This does not list any of the flatpages. However, if I remove the {% extends %} signal, so my code looks like this:

{% load flatpages %}
{% get_flatpages as fp %}

<h3>Flatpage inclusion</h3>
<p>Number of flatpages: {{ fp|length }}
<ul>
  {% for page in fp %}
    <li><a href="{{ page.url }}">{{ page.title }}</a></li>
  {% endfor %}       
</ul>

Everything works. I see the number of flatpages in my fp object (9) and my unordered list shows all the flatpage urls and titles.

This seems to me to be a bug in either how flatpages work, or how Django does template inheritance.

The base template (/path/to/base.html) doesn't have anything complex in it.

Django categorically says that this is possible:

When you load a custom tag or filter library, the tags/filters are only made available to the current template – not any parent or child templates along the template-inheritance path.

For example, if a template foo.html has {% load humanize %}, a child template (e.g., one that has {% extends "foo.html" %}) will not have access to the humanize template tags and filters. The child template is responsible for its own {% load humanize %}.

This is a feature for the sake of maintainability and sanity.

Has anyone else noticed this bug? Is it an exception for just the built-in flatpages app?

EDIT 1:

Daniels answer is correct. The example code from the Django docs doesn't show including flatpage content within a {% block %}, so I didn't expect that it needed to be done:

{% load flatpages %}
{% get_flatpages as flatpages %}
<ul>
  {% for page in flatpages %}
    <li><a href="{{ page.url }}">{{ page.title }}</a></li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>

My fault I guess. Live and learn.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '14 at 21:08

3

The problem is that your get_flatpages tag is outside any blocks from the parent template. That means it simply won't be called.

Move it into the content block and it should work.

answered Sep 25 '14 at 21:08

Daniel Roseman

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1

Hi Daniel - Thanks! This worked. Odd that the Django documentation doesn't explicitly say this, or maybe I am just being dense.... – tatlar Sep 25 '14 at 21:17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '17 at 13:10

Just to reiterate the correct solution- get_flatpages needs to be placed inside the block where it's going to be referenced. So this will work:

{% extends "index.html" %}
{% load flatpages %}

{% block footer %}
    {% get_flatpages as flatpages %}
    {% for page in flatpages %}
    ...
    {% endfor %}

And this will not work:

{% extends "index.html" %}
{% load flatpages %}
{% get_flatpages as flatpages %}

{% block footer %}        
    {% for page in flatpages %}
    ...
    {% endfor %}

And yes, Django documentation isn't very clear on that.

Django flatpages template tag doesn't work with template inheritance

2 Answers2