Django template conditional variable assignment - django

Question

I want to assign a variable do different values depending on if a variable exists, is this possible? My non working example might make it clearer:
{% if username %}
{% with menu_user=username %}
{% elif recent_users %}
{% with sorted_users=recent_users|dictsortreversed:"timestamp" %}
{% with menu_user=sorted_users.0.username %}
{% endif %}
{% if menu_user %}
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li>Profile</li>
<li>Products</li>
</ul>
</div>
{% endif %}
{% if recent_users %}
{% endwith %}
{% endif %}
{% endwith %}
Pseudocode of what I try to do:
if username:
menu_user = username
elif recent_users:
menu_user = sorted(recent_users)[0]['username']
if menu_user:
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li>Profile</li>
<li>Products</li>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 1

update
Then its better to customize a template tag like
#register.inclusion_tag('menu_snippet.html') # or you could use takes_context=True and fetch values from the context
def render_menu(username, recent_users):
if username:
menu_user = username
elif recent_users:
# sorted here could be replaced by min or QuerySet method, it depends
# for example:
# menu_user = min(recent_users, key=lambda u:u.timestamp).username
menu_user = sorted(recent_users)[0]['username']
return {'menu_user':menu_user}
# in template, it looks like
{% render_menu username recent_users %}
Putting the code in the view is much better. Just as your pseudocode, clean and readable.
If you still want to write template, I prefer something like
{% if username %}
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li>Profile</li>
<li>Products</li>
</ul>
</div>
{% else %}
{% if recent_users %}
{% with sorted_users=recent_users|dictsortreversed:"timestamp" %}
{% with menu_user=sorted_users.0.username %}
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li>Profile</li>
<li>Products</li>
</ul>
</div>
{% endwith %}{% endwith %}
{% endif %}
{% endif %}
Depends on your actual usage, customized template tag or the include tag are also possibly useful.

Answer 2

Template tag:
#register.assignment_tag
def alias(obj):
"""
Alias Tag
"""
return obj
Template:
{% alias sorted_users.0.username as menu_user %}

Answer 3

Create a template tag that takes username and recent_users as arguments which then outputs the menu. That way you will keep your template clean from that kind of logic.