Back
Jun 25, 2011

Ajax blocks in Django

Quite often we have to write paginated or filtered blocks of information on page. For example, list of similar houses. It's rendered on server first, and later pagination is done with ajax.

In order to make, I used following setup:

  • inclusion tag, that generates context for tag
  • view, that parses request params and them launches the same tag to create context

So in order to edit one such block, we have to edit three files (apart from template) - tag, view, url.

I got annoyed by this and decided to create a decorator that would automate this process.

With this decorator, you just have to write one function that creates context. Tag and view are generated and registered automatically. Url params like ?obj_id=1 are declared in decorator and are processed automatically.

'''
This module introduces viewtag concept:
funcions that act both as template tags and as views.
Example usage:
First in urls (once):
    url(r'^viewtag/([-\w]+)/$', 'viewtags.view', name='viewtag'),
and
   viewtags.autodiscover()
Then in app/viewtags.py:
    from placeforpeople.viewtags import viewtag, model_arg
    @viewtag('viewtag_test.html', [model_arg('obj', Object)]) # you can use querysets too
    def test_viewtag(request, obj, page=0):
        return {
            'obj': obj,
            'page': page,
        }
Later in templates:
    {% vt:test_viewtag campaign %}
or
    $.get('{% url viewtag "test_viewtag" %}', {page: 2, object: 5}, function(data) {
        $('body').append(data);
    });
'''
import inspect
from django import template
from django.template.loader import get_template
from django.http import Http404
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.utils.importlib import import_module
from django.conf import settings


register = template.Library()
template.builtins.append(register)

_viewtags_registry = {}


def viewtag(template, args=[]):
    def decorator(func):
        _register_tag(func, template)
        _viewtags_registry[func.__name__] = (func, template, args)

        return func
    return decorator


def view(request, viewtag_name):
    try:
        func, template_, arg_processors = _viewtags_registry[viewtag_name]
    except KeyError:
        raise Http404()

    argnames = inspect.getargspec(func).args
    kwargs = {}
    for argname in argnames:
        if argname in request.REQUEST and argname != 'request':
            kwargs[argname] = request.REQUEST[argname]
    for proc in arg_processors:
        kwargs = proc(request, kwargs)

    return render_to_response(template_, func(request, **kwargs), template.RequestContext(request))


def model_arg(key, qs_or_model):
    from django.db import models

    if isinstance(qs_or_model, models.base.ModelBase):
        qs = qs_or_model._default_manager.all()
    else:
        qs = qs_or_model

    def processor(request, kwargs):
        id = request.REQUEST.get(key) or request.REQUEST.get(key + '_id')
        if not id is None:
            kwargs[key] = qs.get(id=id)
        return kwargs
    return processor


def autodiscover():
    for app in settings.INSTALLED_APPS:
        try:
            import_module('%s.viewtags' % app)
        except ImportError:
            pass


def _register_tag(func, template):
    def tag(parser, token):
        parts = token.split_contents()
        args, kwargs = [], []
        for part in parts[1:]:
            if '=' in part:
                kwargs.append(part.split('=', 1))
            else:
                args.append(part)

        return TempNode(func, template, args, dict(kwargs))
    register.tag('vt:' + func.__name__, tag)


class TempNode(template.Node):
    def __init__(self, func, template_, args, kwargs):
        self.func = func
        self.template = get_template(template_)
        self.args = [template.Variable(arg) for arg in args]
        self.kwargs = dict([(k, template.Variable(v)) for (k,v) in kwargs.items()])

    def render(self, context):
        args = [context['request']] + [arg.resolve(context) for arg in self.args]
        kwargs = dict([
            (key, val.resolve(context)) for (key, val) in self.kwargs.items()
        ])
        context.update(self.func(*args, **kwargs))
        res = self.template.render(context)
        context.pop()
        return res

Subscribe for the news and updates

More thoughts
Apr 18, 2023Technology
TDD guide for busy people, with example

This quick introduction to TDD is meant to show the implementation of this practice with a real-life example.

Dec 8, 2022Technology
How to create a route finder on an SVG map

In one of our recent projects, we had an interesting case: the whole application was built around an interactive map for a fairly large shopping mall, and the main goal of the system was to plot the closest route to a user-selected destination.

May 26, 2017Technology
Tutorial: Django User Registration and Authentication

In this beginners friends article I'll explain how to make authentication with Google account on your Django site and how to make authentication for you REST API.

Mar 12, 2017Technology
Creating a chat with Django Channels

Nowadays, when every second large company has developed its own instant messenger, in the era of iMessages, Slack, Hipchat, Messager, Google Allo, Zulip and others, I will tell you how to keep up with the trend and write your own chat, using django-channels 0.17.3, django 1.10.x, python 3.5.x.

Mar 2, 2017Technology
API versioning with django rest framework?

We often handling API server updates including backwards-incompatible changes when upgrading web applications. At the same time we update the client part, therefore, we did not experience any particular difficulties.

Dec 11, 2016Technology
Auto WebSocket Reconnection with RxJS (with Example)

In this RxJS tutorial article, we will focus on restoring the websocket connection when using RxJS library.