Defining "global variable" in Django templates

Question

I'm doing something like:

{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% url myapp.views.dashboard object as object_url %}
{% block sidebar %}
... {{ object_url }} ...
{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
... {{ object_url }} ...
{% endblock %}

Django documentation says url templatetag can define a variable in context, but I don't get any value for object_url in the following blocks.

If I put the url templatetag at the beginning of each block, it works, but I don't want to "repeat myself".

Anyone knows a better solution?

Answer 1

If the URL is view specific, you could pass the URL from your view. If the URL needs to be truly global in your templates, you could put it in a context processor:

def object_url(request):
    return {'object_url': reverse('myapp.views.dashboard')}

Answer 2

Well, this is kind of abusive of template inheritance, but you could use {{block.super}} to put object_url into your blocks.

In other words, in your mid-level template do:

{% block sidebar %}{{ object_url }}{% endblock %}
{% block content %}{{ object_url }}{% endblock %}

And then in your block templates use:

{% block sidebar %}
... {{ block.super }}...
{% endblock %}

It's not a great idea because it prevents you from putting anything besides {{ object_url }} into your block... but it works. Just don't tell anyone you got it from me!

Answer 3

In every inherited template any code outside blocks redefinitions is not executed. So in your example you have to call {% url %} tag inside each block or use context processor for setting "global" variable.