python - How to use jinja2 as a templating engine in Django 1.8

Question

I have been looking on how to use jinja2 in django 1.8, but there is no complete source for using django with jinja2. I was wondering if you guys knew the process for using jinja2 in django. I have looked through the the official documentation and I have looked at the following question: How to setup django 1.8 to use jinja2?

but none of them clearly explain how to use jinja2 in an put-togther manner. I just started using django and don't know all the lingo in the docs. I would really appreciate the help.

Answer 1

Frist you have to install jinja2:

$ pip install Jinja2

Then modify your TEMPLATES list in the settings.py to contain the jinja2 BACKEND :

TEMPLATES = [

    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.jinja2.Jinja2',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates/jinja2')],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {'environment': 'myproject.jinja2.Environment',}, 
    },
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
        'context_processors': [
            'django.template.context_processors.debug',
            'django.template.context_processors.request',
            'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
            'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
           ],
        },
    },
]

where templates/jinja2 is the directory with your jinja2 template files.

And in your views.py file:

from __future__ import absolute_import  # Python 2 only
from jinja2 import Environment
from django.contrib.staticfiles.storage import staticfiles_storage
from django.urls import reverse

def environment(**options):
    env = Environment(**options)
    env.globals.update({
       'static': staticfiles_storage.url,
       'url': reverse,
    })
    return env

This makes static and url available in your Jinja2 templates.

P.S. For more details see this article.