The Django templating engine is a built-in utility of Django, a Python-based web development framework. It’s been designed to separate the actual Python code from the design, making it easier for any designer to change the appearance without diving into the core functionality of the application.
To use the Django templating engine, you first need to set up a Django project. The ‘django-admin startproject’ command is used to create a new Django project. Once your project is in place, it’s time to start using the templating engine.
Begin by setting up a Django application inside your Django project using the ‘python manage.py startapp’ command. Then, go to the ‘settings.py’ file of your project and in the ‘INSTALLED\_APPS’ section, add the name of your app (Django.org).
Inside your app folder, create a new folder named ‘templates’ which is the standard folder Django looks for to find templates. Inside the ‘templates’ folder, you can make HTML files that will serve as templates for your website.
To load a template, use the following recipe according to Django’s documentation:
```
from django.template import loader
template = loader.get_template(‘myapp/index.html’)
```
Here, ‘myapp/index.html’ is the template file you’ve created inside ‘templates’ folder. To render a template with context (dynamic data), use the following:
```
from django.shortcuts import render
def my_view(request):
# View code here…
return render(request, ‘myapp/index.html’, {
‘data’: data,
})
```
In the Django templates, you can use some special syntax for dynamic parts. You can use double curly braces to output variables. For example, if you pass a variable named ‘title’ to the template, you can display it inside the HTML using: “{{ title }}”.
You can also use basic logic in templates with Django template tags. For instance, you can iterate over a list (“{% for item in list }”) or check some condition (“{ if condition %}”) among others (Django.org).
Remember to load the url tag at the beginning of each template where you use it (‘{% load url from future %}’) (stackoverflow.com).
One of the key advantages of Django’s templating engine is the concept of inheritance. A base template with common elements can be created and other templates can choose to extend the base template and only define the blocks that are different (tutorial.djangogirls.org).
These examples are the basic ways to use the templating engine and should provide a solid foundation for your Django projects. For further reference, kindly refer to Django’s official documentation at docs.djangoproject.com.
Sources:
- Django’s official documentation (docs.djangoproject.com)
- Django Girls Tutorial (tutorial.djangogirls.org)
- StackOverflow community (stackoverflow.com)
