Django templates - can I set a variable to be used in a parent template?

Question

I have a parent template that contains a generic navigation menu. I want to be able to add class="selected" to the appropriate menu option.

I want to be able to set a variable in a child template, for example:

{% set menu = "products" %}

and do:

{%ifequal menu "products" %}class="selected"{% endifequal %}

I don't want to set a value in the View because I would have to add this to all my view methods, and I dont want to repeat the entire menu html in each child page because if the menu changes I only want to change the HTML in one place.

Am I approaching this from a “non-Django” mind-set?

Any help would be really appreciated. thanks.

Answer 1

for the record, it is considered a bad practice... but you can do this

{% with "products" as menu %}
    {{ menu }}
{% endwith %}

Since that doesn't actually solve your specific problem here is a possible application...

<div class='menu'>
    {% block menuitems %}
        <a class='{% ifequal menu 'products' %}selected{% endifequal %}' href='/whereever/'>products</a>
        ...
    {% endblock %}
</div>

and in the child template

{% block menuitems %}
    {% with 'products' as menu %}
        {{ block.super }}
    {% endwith %}
{% endblock %}

Answer 2

The context you pass within you view is also available in the templates you're extending. Adding a 'menu_class': 'selected' in the context, you could set

<div id="menu" class="{{ menu_class }}">

in the base template.

Another way around would be

<div id="menu" class="mymenu {% block menu_attrib %}{% endblock %}">

which then is extendible in your child template by

{% block menu_attrib %}selected{% endblock %}