Use of variables in Django template {% block %} tags

Question

The main question is how can I programatically choose what block to put some content in. The following is working in a different project, but in a fresh project this does not work for some reason. I'm using the same (default) template context processors on the same machine for both projects.

I have a base template that goes something like this

...
{% block Title %}<h1>Whoo</h1>{% endblock %}

{% block Content %}<p>Hi there</p>{% endblock %}
...

And an extending template like this

{% extends "base.html" %}
...
{% block myblock.name %} <p> {{ myblock.content }} </p> {% endblock %}

<p> {{ myblock.name }} </br> {{ myblock.content }} </p>
...

And rendering as such

myblock = { 'name': 'Title', 'content': 'stuff' }
return render_to_response( 'extended.html', {'myblock': myblock}, context_instance=RequestContext(request) )

I expect to get, and get on the first project:

...
<p> stuff <p>
<p>Hi there</p>
<p> Title </br> stuff </p>
...

But on the second project I get

...
<h1>Whoo</h1>
<p>Hi there</p>
<p> Title </br> stuff </p>
...

So on the second project, the myblock dict is passed and processed by the template but it seems that the myblock.name in {% block myblock.name %} is interpreted as a literal and not a variable. Any ideas on how to force Django to evaluate a variable inside a {% block %} tag?

Works for me as in your first example. Are you sure the code is the same in both projects? — j0ker
– j0ker, Commented Nov 9, 2012 at 22:03

arie · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-09 22:19:33Z

2

You should take another look at the documentation about template inheritance.

... the block tag defines [...] blocks that child templates can fill in. All the block tag does is to tell the template engine that a child template may override those portions of the template.

But you don't assign a variable to a block directly in a view as you are trying to do.

And {% block myblock.name %} looks strange too.

To receive the result you are expecting I'd say the template should rather look like this

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block Title %}<p>{{ myblock.content }}</p>{% endblock %}

Assuming you are using a recent version of Django you could even simplify things using the render shortcut in your view:

return render(request, 'extended.html', {'name': 'Title', 'content': 'stuff'})

Which would lead to a template like this:

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block Title %}<p>{{ content }}</p>{% endblock %}

edited Nov 9, 2012 at 22:19

answered Nov 9, 2012 at 22:09

arie

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1 Comment

kalhartt Over a year ago

I want to avoid hardcoding the block that my content will be put into so that if i have five different blocks I can choose which block to use for what content from inside the view function.

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