Django: How can I identify the calling view from a template?

Question

Short version:

Is there a simple, built-in way to identify the calling view in a Django template, without passing extra context variables?

Long (original) version:

One of my Django apps has several different views, each with its own named URL pattern, that all render the same template. There's a very small amount of template code that needs to change depending on the called view, too small to be worth the overhead of setting up separate templates for each view, so ideally I need to find a way to identify the calling view in the template.

I've tried setting up the views to pass in extra context variables (e.g. "view_name") to identify the calling view, and I've also tried using {% ifequal request.path "/some/path/" %} comparisons, but neither of these solutions seems particularly elegant. Is there a better way to identify the calling view from the template? Is there a way to access to the view's name, or the name of the URL pattern?

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Update 1: Regarding the comment that this is simply a case of me misunderstanding MVC, I understand MVC, but Django's not really an MVC framework. I believe the way my app is set up is consistent with Django's take on MVC: the views describe which data is presented, and the templates describe how the data is presented. It just happens that I have a number of views that prepare different data, but that all use the same template because the data is presented the same way for all the views. I'm just looking for a simple way to identify the calling view from the template, if this exists.

Update 2: Thanks for all the answers. I think the question is being overthought -- as mentioned in my original question, I've already considered and tried all of the suggested solutions -- so I've distilled it down to a "short version" now at the top of the question. And right now it seems that if someone were to simply post "No", it'd be the most correct answer :)

Update 3: Carl Meyer posted "No" :) Thanks again, everyone.

Answer 1

Since Django 1.5, the url_name is accessible using:

request.resolver_match.url_name

Before that, you can use a Middleware for that :

from django.core.urlresolvers import resolve

class ViewNameMiddleware(object):  
    def process_view(self, request, view_func, view_args, view_kwargs):
        url_name = resolve(request.path).url_name
        request.url_name = url_name

Then adding this in MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, and in templates I have this:

{% if request.url_name == "url_name" %} ... {% endif %}

considering a RequestContext(request) is always passed to the render function. I prefer using url_name for urls, but one can use resolve().app_name and resolve().func.name, but this doesn't work with decorators - the decorator function name is returned instead.

Answer 2

No, and it would be a bad idea. To directly refer to a view function name from the template introduces overly tight coupling between the view layer and the template layer.

A much better solution here is Django's template inheritance system. Define a common parent template, with a block for the (small) area that needs to change in each view's version. Then define each view's template to extend from the parent and define that block appropriately.

Answer 3

If your naming is consistent in your urls.py and views.py, which it should be, then this will return the view name:

{{ request.resolver_match.url_name }}

Be sure to apply some context to it when you call it in the template. For example, I use it here to remove the delete button from my detail view, but in my update view the delete button will still appear!

{% if request.resolver_match.url_name != 'employee_detail' %}

Answer 4

Since Django 1.5 you can access an instance of ResolverMatch through request.resolver_match.

The ResolverMatch gives you the resolved url name, namespace, etc.

Answer 5

one simple solution is :

def view1(req):
   viewname = "view1"
   and pass this viewname to the template context   

def view2(req):
   viewname = "view2"
   and pass this viewname to the template context   

in template access the viewname as

{{viewname}} 

and also you can use this in comparisons.

Answer 6

I'm working on this for a help-page system where I wanted each view to correspond to a help-page in my cms with a default page shown if no help page was defined for that view. I stumbled upon this blog where they use a template context processor and some python inspect magic to deduce the view name and populate the context with it.

Answer 7

This sounds like the perfect example of a generic view that you can set up.

See the following resources:

• Django Book - Chapter 11: Generic Views
• Django Docs -Tutorial: Chapter 4
• Django Docs - Generic Views

These links should help you simplify your views and your templates accordingly.

Answer 8

If you're using Class Based Views, you most likely have a view variable you can access.

You can use several methods from that to determine which view has been called or which template is being rendered.

e.g.

{% if view.template_name == 'foo.html' %}
# do something
{% else %}
# other thing
{% endif %}

Another option is to take out the piece of the template where you need something to change and make it into a snippet and then use {% include 'my_snippet.html' with button_type = 'bold' %} in your templates, sending arbitrary values to the snippet so it can determine what to show / how to style itself.

Answer 9

Most generic views — if not all — inherits the ContextMixin which adds a view context variable that points to the View instance.

Answer 10

Why not trying setting up a session cookie, then read the cookie from your template.

on your views set cookies

def view1(request):
 ...
#set cookie
 request.session["param"]="view1"

def view2(request):
  request.session["param"]="view2"


then in your ONE template check something like..

{% ifequal request.session.param "view1" %}
   ... do stuff related to view1
{% endifequal %}

{% ifequal request.session.param "view2" %}
  ... do stuff related to "view2"
{% endifequal %}

Gath