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Add Django templates

Last modified: 09 December 2022

Available only in PyCharm Professional: download to try or compare editions

PyCharm makes it possible to create and render templates written in one of the supported template languages:

It is important to note that one can edit templates without actually installing the template languages. However, in order to create or render templates, and navigate between views and templates, the corresponding template language should be properly installed.

Create a template for a view

Suppose you reference an index.html template file that doesn't yet exist.

  1. index.html is marked as an unresolved reference:

    Template not found

    Press Alt+Enter or click Intention bulb and choose to create the missing template:

    Create a template

    Create Template dialog appears, showing the read-only template name (Template path field), and a list of possible template locations (Templates root field):

    Creating the index.html file

  2. Select the template directory, where the new template will be created.

    The Templates root field provides a list of possible locations for the new template. This list includes the template directories specified in the Project Structure page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S plus all templates folders located inside of app directories, if any.

  3. Click OK.

    An empty .html file is created in the specified location

Before making use of a certain template language, configure it in the Template Languages section of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S and ensure that file types of any existing templates are properly recognized.

Configure a template language for a project

  1. Open the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S and go to Languages & Frameworks | Template Languages.

  2. From the Template language list, select the specific template language to be used in the project.

  3. In the Template file types area, specify the types of files, where template tags will be recognized.

    Note that in HTML, XHTML, and XML files templates are always recognized.

    Use Add and Remove buttons to make up the desired list of file types.

When creating a Django application, you can immediately specify a folder where templates will be stored.

Define template directories

  1. Open the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S, expand the Project node, and click the Project Structure page.

  2. Choose the directory to be marked as a template root.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Click Templates Templates on the toolbar of the Content roots pane.

    • Choose Templates on the directory's context menu.

You can also mark folders as template directories directly in the Project tool window:

Mark a folder as a template directory

  1. In the Project tool window, right-click the desired directory.

  2. From the context menu, choose Mark Directory As | Template Folder.

    This results in adding the marked directory to the list of template directories in the Project Structure page.

note

By default, the directory that has been defined as the template folder on project creation, is marked as Template. If a directory is specified in the DIRS parameter of the TEMPLATES setting in the settings.py file, then, on the first project opening, it is automatically marked as a template root.

You can make Django skip some folders (disable Django language substitution), if you mark them as resources.

After you create Django templates, you can use PyCharm to debug them.

Set a breakpoint

  • Add a breakpoint to the template file. To do that, open the file templates/poll/index.html and click the gutter:

    Breakpoint

Launch a run/debug configuration

  • Launch the selected run/debug configuration in the debug mode by clicking Start the debugger.

    The name of the run/debug configuration in the drop-down, the Start the debugger button, and the Debug tool window are marked with a dot, which means that the run/debug configuration is active:

    Debugging a Django template: launch debug configuration

The PyCharm window appears. You can see that the breakpoint has been hit, and the Debug tool window contains the current values of the variables:

Breakpoint hit

See also

Debugging