template_tricks.md

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template tricks

Testing template rendering

Test the rendering of a template.py template

    def renderTemplate(templatename,*args,**kw):
        '''quick way to test a template.py template'''            
        import template
        if not "." in templatename:
            templatename = templatename + ".tmpl"            
            obj = template.Template(open(templatename).read())
        return obj(*args,**kw)

    print renderTemplate("homepage", now=time.ctime())

If your template takes a dict or a storage, then you can just set global values and let those get passed in:

    username = "User"        
    lastvisit = "yesterday"        
    print renderTemplate("results", store=web.Storage(globals()))

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Using the Prototype Javascript library

If you are using a Javascript library, such as Prototype, that binds $ so that it can provide shorthand Javascript functions like $, $A, $F and $H, then you'll need to do a few things to make it work:

1. Provide additional keyword args, as shown below, in your template function declaration, so that when template.py can pass-through the Prototype dollar-sign syntax.

    $def with (arg1, arg2, ELT="$", F="$F", H="$H", A="$A")
   

   Note that since $ is special, we are providing $ELT as a replacement Javascript function name.

2. Leave a space after your usage of $ELT et al. so that template.py will not try to funcall it when it sees the parentheses.

    var cmd = $F ('command');
   

   $ELT ('result').value = originalRequest.responseText;

   Javascript is fine with the space between the function name and arguments, and if you forget the space, you'll get this error from template.py:

    'str' object is not callable
   

3. Alternatively if you're only using the $ functions a few times, you can just add a $; before the $ and the templator will render it correctly:

    myElement = $$('elementID');
   

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