Question

I have a method like so:

def index(self):
    title = "test"
    return render("index.html", title=title)

Where render is a function that automatically renders the given template file with the rest of the variables passed in as it’s context. In this case, I’m passing title in as a variable in the context. This is a little redundant for me. Is there any way I can automatically pick up all variables defined in the index method and pass them all as part of the context to Mako?

Answer 1

Use the technique given below:

def render(template, **vars):
    # In practice this would render a template
    print(vars)

def index():
    title = 'A title'
    subject = 'A subject'
    render("index.html", **locals())

if __name__ == '__main__':
    index()

When you run the above script, it prints

{'subject': 'A subject', 'title': 'A title'}

showing that the vars dictionary could be used as a template context, exactly as if you had made the call like this:

render("index.html", title='A title', subject='A subject')

If you use locals(), it will pass local variables defined in the body of the index() function as well as any parameters passed to index() – such as self for a method.