Question

What I need is to automatically call a function (callback function) inside one or more views, get its result and pass it to the template.

Here’s a simplified example:

utils.py:

def getSContent():  
    return 'some dynamic data'

views.py:

def myFirstView(request):
    ...py code...

    sData = getSContent() <== this line
    return render_to_response('template.html',
                               {'sData': sData, <== this line 
                               ...
                               },
                               contenxt_instance = RequestContext(request))

def mySecondView(request):
    ...py code...

    sData = getSContent() <== this line
    return render_to_response('template.html',
                               {'sData': sData, <== this line 
                               ...
                               },
                               contenxt_instance = RequestContext(request))

..and so on.

sData = getSContent() and {'sData': sData} are repeated inside all these view functions.

• Is there any shortcut for this?
• Can I somehow bind this function to
  specific views of my app without having to specify it (the marked
  lines) all the time?
• Can a decorator do this job?

Keep in mind that I need to catch the function’s return and pass it further to the template.

Answer 1

You can use TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS setting for this

It’s a list of callables (functions). Each function receives request as an argument and should return a dict, in your case – return {'sData': getSContent()}