Django template context multiple views

Question

I'm running Idios, a profile app, and I would like to make the profiles in my app on top of idios (i.e. keep idios pip-installable, without modifying the app itself).

The problem is, the profile view is written in the idios app, using the object-oriented approach of passing context variables, and displaying that view in a template. I want the profile view to also include a list of a user's friends, managed by a separate friends app. I got a proof-of-concept by merely importing friends into Idios and updating the context with a new friend_list variable, and adding another template block to display the friends list.

So, what is the best, or most sane approach to combine both a friends list and the profile without altering the idios app? This question is basically a plea for help to really understand the MVT system in Django in a DRY way that supports reusable apps.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 30 '11 at 21:50

Thankfully, the mentioned app uses class-based views, and this is the benefit you get from using class-based views. To modify the context, you merely create a subclass of their profile view:

yourapp/views.py

from idios.views import ProfileDetailView

class MyProfileDetailView(ProfileDetailView):
    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        context = super(MyProfileDetailView, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)

        # get the list of friends and store it in a new key in `context`

        return context

Then, just redefine the urlpattern idios uses by default in your urls.py (needs to go before the idios urlpatterns are included) and point it to your subclass instead

Finally, to override the template idios uses by creating an idios/whatever_template.html file in your project's (or app's) templates directory. Copy the default template and modify at will. You don't have to actually touch the original source at all thanks to all the overrides Django makes available.

Great, both of you helped a lot, this description has a bit more detail, so I selected it, but both will suffice. I knew there was advantage to the object-oriented approach, and it was so simple I couldn't see it: class inheritance! — wrought, Dec 30 '11 at 22:58

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 30 '11 at 21:45

You should be able to do this by creating a subclass of the ProfileDetailView class from idios in an app in your project, adding in the extra context for that user’s friends. Something like this:

import idios.views

class ProfileDetailView(idios.views.ProfileDetailView):

    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        context = super(ProfileDetailView, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
        context['friends'] = get_friends(self.page_user)  # Or however it works
        return context

You can then use this subclass as a view in your project.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 30 '11 at 22:12

0

If you think you might want to include a user's friends in other views as well, a DRY way would be to create a custom template tag or filter. Then you would just have to override the template, and include your template tag/filter there.

If you only want to display the user's friends in this particular view, then I would override get_context_data as described in the other answers.

answered Dec 30 '11 at 22:12

Alasdair

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Good point, I suppose for the way the question was posed, the above solutions were sufficient. Your super-DRY method makes sense though. – wrought Dec 30 '11 at 23:00
The above way is nice because I need to create other changes to the idios profile app, and so I'll just do all of that in my own app, building sub-class views and the like. Next step (which I'll add as an issue) is to abstract the friends views even further for use across multiple apps, not just the idios profile. – wrought Dec 30 '11 at 23:02

Django template context multiple views

3 Answers3