How do I DRY up common text in a Django template? - django

Question

I have some static text that needs to show up at 2 locations within a template.
For example:
<div>
{% if something %}
This is a static text
{% else %}
Something else happened
{% endif %}
</div>
... more html
<span>
{% if something %}
This is a static text
{% else %}
Something else happend
{% endif %}
</span>
I can do the above by duplicating the above text at 2 different locations in my template file(as shown above).
I could also create a model which will store the text(This is DRY but cost a call to the DB for a simple task)
I'm thinking of using include template but that's probably not the best way to achieve my goal.
What's the best way to do it?

Answer 1

Definitely use Inclusion Tags:
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/custom-template-tags/#inclusion-tags
The tag file would either be something super simple like just the text "This is a static text" or the entire block:
{% if something %}
This is a static text
{% else %}
Something else happened
{% endif %}
"something" can be passed as a variable to the template tag so you can use that entire block in a variable way.

Answer 2

I use the django internationalization to do that. So in my apps/template I just write the key, and in the .po files is the value of the keys.
{% load i18n %}
<div>
{% if something %}
{% trans "static" %}
{% else %}
{% trans "something else" %}
{% endif %}
</div>
And in my .po file:
msgid "static"
msgstr "This is a static text"
msgid "something else"
msgstr "Something else happened
Besides useful for multi-language, it's much easier for copy writing just in case you want to change it in the future because you can just look unto one file instead of browsing several templates.

Answer 3

There are several ways, but it probably depends on what the text is and how often it will be used. It's hard to recommend a specific choice without full details
Create a custom template tag (this one makes the most sense based on how you've described your problem above).
Create a base template which has the text in it at the correct location and then inherit off of it for your "2 locations"
Put the static piece of text in a settings file and pass it to the template renderer via Context (probably not the best idea, but depending on what you're doing it could be a possibility)

Answer 4

You could use flatblocks : http://github.com/zerok/django-flatblocks
or chunks : http://code.google.com/p/django-chunks/
Those may be overkill for your problem, since they store your snippets in the database, but they add the benefit of making it possible to edit them via the admin.
{% load chunks %}
<div>
{% if something %}
{% chunk "something" %}
{% else %}
{% chunk "something_else" %}
{% endif %}
</div>
There are lots of forks or similar projects, for example:
http://bitbucket.org/hakanw/django-better-chunks/
http://github.com/bartTC/django-generic-flatblocks

Answer 5

I have a file like Java properties that I use for all of my resource strings. I just serve up the one that I want. Keeping these in one place also makes translating easy.
Ex.:
welcome_msg="hello user!"
thank_you="thank you"
goodbye_msg="goodbye, " + thank_you

Answer 6

If the included text gets bigger, use an 'include' tag.
{% include "myapp/helptext.html" %}
GrtzG