loop in Django template: how to control the loop iterator? - django

Question

I'm using Django to show a list of posts. Each post has a 'is_public' field, so if one post's 'is_public' equals to False, it should not be shown to the user. Also, I want to show a fixed number of posts in one page, but this number can be changing depending on views.
I decided to crop the queryset in template as a few views are using the same template, generating it in the view means a lot of repeated codes.
If written in python, it should look like this:
i=number_of_posts_to_show_in_one_page
while i:
if qs[i].is_public == True:
#show qs[i] to the page
i--
As the django template does not support while loop and for loop seems hard to control, is there a way of achieving this? Or should I do it in another way?(One idea is to crop the qs before looping)Thanks!
Update:
I've written this template tag to pre-process the queryset:
#register.simple_tag(takes_context=True)
def pre_process_list(context,list,numbers):
#if not user.has_perm('admin'):
context['result_list']=list.filter(is_public=True, is_removed=False)[0:numbers]
#else:
#context['result_list']=list[0:numbers]
return ''
Before using for loop in the template, I'll pass the queryset to this templage tag, and use a simple for loop to show its result.
If in the future I want to show non-public posts to admins(which is not decided yet), I can write in some logic like the commented ones, and have them styled differently in the template.

Answer 1

{% for post in posts %}
{% if post.is_public %}
{{ post }}
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}
Though this would be a perfect use case for a manager.
You could write a simple manager that filters public posts.
class PublicPostManager(models.Manager):
def get_query_set(self):
return super(PublicPostManager, self).get_query_set().filter(is_public=True)
Then you would add it to your Post Class:
class Post(models.Model):
...
public = PublicPostManager()
Then you could pass post.public.all() as public_posts to your template and simplify your loop:
{% for post in public_posts %}
{{ post }}
{% endfor %}

Answer 2

#arie has a good approach with the manager, but you can easily do the same without writing a manager:
# View
posts = Post.objects.filter(is_public=True) # or use the manager
# Now, you can either limit the number of posts you send
# posts = posts[:5] (only show five in the view)
return render_to_response('foo.html',{'posts':posts})
# Template
# Or you can do the limits in your template itself:
{% for post in posts|slice:":5" %}
{{ post }}
{% endfor %}
See the slice filter on more information.
However, since this is a common operation, with django 1.3 you can use class based views to automate most of this.