get request.session from a model method in django - django

Question

Hay, is it possible to a get a request.session value from a model method in django?
MEGA UPDATE
Here is my model
class GameDiscussion(models.Model):
game = models.ForeignKey(Game)
message = models.TextField()
reply_to = models.ForeignKey('self', related_name='replies', null=True, blank=True)
created_on = models.DateTimeField(blank=True, auto_now_add=True)
userUpVotes = models.ManyToManyField(User, blank=True, related_name='threadUpVotes')
userDownVotes = models.ManyToManyField(User, blank=True, related_name='threadDownVotes')
votes = models.IntegerField()
def html(self):
DiscussionTemplate = loader.get_template("inclusions/discussionTemplate")
return DiscussionTemplate.render(Context({
'discussion': self,
'replies': [reply.html() for reply in self.replies.all().order_by('-votes')]
}))
def _find_users_who_have_voted(self):
user_list = []
for user in self.userDownVotes.all():
user_list.append(user.id)
for user in self.userUpVotes.all():
user_list.append(user.id)
return user_list
users_voted = property(_find_users_who_have_voted)
and my view is called like this
<ul>
{% for discussion in discussions %}
{{ discussion.html }}
{% endfor %}
</ul>
and the template
<li>
<small>
({{ discussion.votes }} votes)
{% if user_id not in discussion.users_voted %}
user not in list!
{% endif %}
</small>
<strong>{{ discussion.message }}</strong>
{% if replies %}
<ul>
{% for reply in replies %}
{{ reply }}
{% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endif %}
the value 'user_voted' returns a list of user ids who has voted on this discussion.
I want to see if the request.session['user'].id value is inside this list

Answer 1

Why don't you use Django's render_to_string inside a view, which would have request happily available to it, and avoid model method altogether?
UPDATE: after skimming your mega update, you should look into Django's inclusion tags and use the data from the model to fill a template, not use a model to render the template. Keep your model and your template separate - Django is an MVT / MCV framework for good reason :)

Answer 2

you can access the current user, and so their session using threadlocals middleware
http://code.arcs.org.au/gitorious/django/django-andsome/blobs/ee8447e3dad2da9383ff701ec640b44cd50d2b0a/middleware/threadlocals.py
but keep in mind:
http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/CookBookThreadlocalsAndUser
There might be better solutions to your problem. Maybe you'd like to elaborate why you need request.session on model level?
UPDATE:
since you explicitly call some method - probably from a view - why don't you just put the request.user as parameter to your html method?
models.py:
def html(self, user):
your code...
views.py:
yourmodel.html(request.user)
UPDATE to your MEGA UPDATE:
This is exactly what {% include %} is for:
in your first template do this:
{% for discussion in discussions %}
{% include "discussion.html" }}
{% endfor %}
and the second template has request.user.id in its namespace:
{% if request.session.user.id not in discussion.users_voted %}
user not in list!
{% endif %}