Comments on: Call me anal, but I really like Django templates

By: Kenny Meyer

Kenny Meyer — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:44:07 +0000

I think Django templates’ syntax is much cleaner and readable than PHP syntax is. It may not be so flexible like PHP templates, but Django template’s syntax was designed for Designers (non-programmers), providing just simple logical stuff like for-loops, if-else-conditionals, and some other stuff.
But you can easily extend the syntax (!!) or replace the template engine completely by a more flexible one.
Now tell me if PHP can do that. ;)

Smile and laugh :)

By: Stii

Stii — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:53:48 +0000

No, that is true. However, PHP has to have .php unless you’ve setup your web server to parse other file extensions as PHP. In Django it doesn’t matter, but it is common practice, no?

Really, it doesn’t matter, but it is one of those small things that amuse my small mind ;)

By: Henrique

Henrique — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:44:52 +0000

Sorry, but you’re somewhat confused. Django doesn’t enforce any extension for template names – in fact, the template name and extension won’t influence anything at all as the result is just a big string to HttpResponse.

Your templates can end in .html, .xml, .pony, doesn’t matter. It’s just a file with placeholders.

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:52:14 +0000

Mmm ok, seems like your comment system just ate my PHP code block between “type” and “every time”. :)

?php echo htmlspecialchars($myvar); ? (leaving the brackets off this time)

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:50:17 +0000

Personally the file extensions don’t bother me too much but I have to say that having to use straight PHP templating is just too messy for me. I would much rather use {{ myvar }} and have autoescaping turned on than having to type every time.

In App Engine I use Django templates all the time and in PHP I use Calypso. It integrates very nicely with Zend Framework.

By: Stii

Stii — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:40:21 +0000

LOL, see what I mean?!

Yes, you’re right, its not technically correct, but if you consider what it is supposed to do (i.e. render HTML) it makes more sense.

I have and yes, it is quite lacking compared to other Python template systems. Then again, for good reason.

By: Walter

Walter — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:20:06 +0000

For me the .html extension is actually technically incorrect: it does not, in fact, contain (only) HTML and therefore invalidates (normally safe) assumptions associated with the extension.

Still, this really isn’t big enough of an issue to feel strongly about it either way. :)

Have you compared Django’s templating system with others? Not that I can speak from experience, but I’ve heard that it’s quite lacking in comparison.

By: Stii

Stii — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:14:54 +0000

you said it! i’ll do just that…

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:12:41 +0000

You need a beer and weekend buddy!