In my base template, I want to include a search form.
I already created it, but I\'m wondering if there is a better option than passing the form
to all
Yea, this is what template context processors are useful for. They allow you to pass a variable to all your templates without having to specify.
settings.py
TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
'django.core.context_processors.debug',
...
'some_app.context_processors.search_form',
)
context_processors.py (you place this in one of your apps, or in the main directory if you prefer)
from my_forms import MySearchForm
def search_form(request):
return {
'search_form' : MySearchForm()
}
Now you can use the {{ search_form }} in all of you templates
Why not using a custom context processor?
You could make it into a filter that returns the form, assuming it's static. It would then look something like this:
<body>
...
{% import_form_template %}
...
</body>
Or something along those lines. You can also make it so it takes arguments if you needed it to be a bit more dynamic:
{% import_form_template arg1 arg2 arg3 %}
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/custom-template-tags/#writing-custom-template-tags