Django partially caching a view

Question

I have a simple page with the parts:

• a list of items taken from the database
• a header.

On the header lies the usual "login form" or the name of signed-in user. For all the users the "items part" is the same, but if I cache the whole view, the different header (your own username or login form if you're not signed-in) is not shown according to the user state. How can I cache the "items" part and leave the header dynamic? Thanks.

Answer 1

Use template fragment cache. It allows you to cache only a fragment of a template with your item list:

{% load cache %}
 A header here
{% cache 500  %}
   List of items here
{% endcache %}

Answer 2

If you're using Django's cache system and version 1.3, it looks like this is very easy with template fragment caching. In fact, the version given in the docs suggests caching both parts of the page as separate fragments, keying the header to the logged-in user:

{% load cache %}

{% cache 500 header request.user.username %}
    .. header ..
{% endcache %}

{% cache 500 items %}
    .. items ..
{% endcache %}