Question

How do I pass a function to a template in the extra_context. Thanks.

Update:
The idea is that in the template I could turn around and pass that function as a parameter to a filter.

Answer 1

Any reason you can’t just pass in the function reference?

def my_func():
    # ...

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^foo/$', direct_to_template, {
        'template': 'foo.html', 
        'filter_func': my_func,
    }),
)

Edit: Rats, that won’t work with generic views:

If a value in the dictionary is callable, the generic view will call it just before rendering the template.

You could probably get around this by sticking your function in a dictionary, though it’s not very pretty:

def my_func():
    # ...

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^foo/$', direct_to_template, {
        'template': 'foo.html', 
        'filter_funcs': { 'my_func': my_func },
    }),
)

I have to say that almost every time I start trying to make generic views do anything slightly out of the ordinary, I tend to waste a fair amount of time before just writing a four-line custom view that does what I need.