Basic Django templates

September 7, 2014

Instead of using Python to create all the HTML, Django can load and render templates

In settings.py specify the location of the templates, e.g.
TEMPLATE_DIRS = [
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘templates’),
]
Create the folder within the projects folder,
i.e. <dev root>/Projects/DjangoTest/templates
In the ../templates folder, create a new file, say testtemplate.html, and create a very basic html page, e.g.
<html>
<body>
<p>Test template</p>
</body>
</html>
Create a view to test the template, in the views.py
from django.template.loader import get_template
from django.template import Context

def templateDemo(request):
template = get_template(‘testtemplate.html’)
html = template.render(Context({}))
return HttpResponse(html)
Set up the url, in the urls.py:
url(r’^templatedemo/’, templateDemo),
In the same file, import the view
from DjangoTest.views import templateDemo
Test it out – point your browser to http://localhost:8000/templatedemo/
You should see a page with “Test template” and nothing else
Now we’ll put some variable data in.
1. In the template file (testtemplate.html), add the following line:
  <p>And the answer is: {{answer}}</p>
2. Change views.py, line to:
  html = template.render(Context({‘answer’: 25}))
3. Refresh the browser window. You should now see:
  Test template
  And the answer is: 25

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