{% block contents %} conditional on a variable Django template inheritance

Using Django Templates & Frontend
1

I am using Django’s template inheritance from a base file called base.html.

All of my apps, except one, require that {% block contents %} {% endblock %} is present in that file, which is problematic.

I am trying to find away to make the inclusion {% block contents %} {% endblock %} conditional on a variable.

What I have so far tried in base.html:

    {% if some_variable %}
        {% block contents %} {% endblock %} 
    {% endif %}

But that doesn’t seem to work.

I have also tried:

    {% if some_variable %}
        {% with 'base_block_content.html' as path %}
             {% include path %}
        {% endwith %}
    {% endif %}

base_block_content.html being simply:

‘’’ {% block contents %} {% endblock %} ‘’’

But that doesn’t work either.

My only other option is to write a completely separate base.html for the one app, which doesn’t quite fit in with the ‘DRY’ concept.

Can anyone suggest a way of doing this?

2

Can you be a little more specific about, or provide a real example of, the issue you’re facing?

If you have a base.html that is extended by a template, that template is not required to provide data for every block in base.html.

If that template doesn’t “fit” the pattern defined in base.html more fundamentally, then yes, it is appropriate for it to extend - or ignore completely - your base.html.

3

Hi Ken, Many thanks for looking into this.

I am trying to integrate and customise django-two-factor-auth’s app, using their templates and my own base.py.

I am not sure that it will be very helpful to repeat their templates in this posting, so here is the link to the location on GitHub Templates .

Basically, in the two_factor app login.html extends from _base_focus.html which extends from _base.html.

I have simply made their _base.html extend from my base.html.
The relevant parts of my base.html are:

    {% block content %} {% endblock %}
    {% block content_wrapper %}{% endblock %}`

If I remove {% block content %} {% endblock %} the two_factor app displays correctly, but it breaks templates relating to my other apps (they are wrapped with {% block content %} {% endblock %}).

I would greatly appreciate your help with this.

Many thanks again Ken.

4

I’m still not following what the problem is here.
You can have both in your base.html. It’s not a problem if data is not supplied from the template that extends it.
(However, in looking at the code you linked to, the _base.html isn’t designed to extend a different template. You’re probably better off either completely replacing it or using it exactly as-is.)

5

Understood, many thanks Ken.

Just out of interest, is it possible to have dynamic ‘block’ tags in Django templates, as per my original question?

Thanks again.

6

Yes, you can create a custom context processor allowing you to make data available to the base template. See the docs starting at The Django template language: for Python programmers | Django documentation | Django

7

Many thanks Ken, I don’t know what we would do without you!