Is there a list of default template variables in django?

Question

I noticed that the django templates already have certain variables passed to it without you having to send any data. For instance, the 'user' variable can be called without sending any 'user' data to the template when rendering.

Is there somewhere where I can find a list of these 'default variables'?

Answer 1

The TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS setting contains the following values by default (in Django 1.6):

"django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth",
"django.core.context_processors.debug",
"django.core.context_processors.i18n",
"django.core.context_processors.media",
"django.core.context_processors.static",
"django.core.context_processors.tz",
"django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages"

The above is a list of context processors. A context processor is a function which can add more variables to the context which is passed to each template.

For example, the variable user is added by "django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth".

Answer 2

Django comes with a special Context class, django.template.RequestContext, that acts slightly differently than the normal django.template.Context. The first difference is that it takes an HttpRequest as its first argument. Go through the docs for more clearer Idea.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/ref/templates/api/#subclassing-context-requestcontext

Answer 3

Now in Django 4.1, the default context processors and template variables are listed at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/templates/api/#context-processors

Just for a quick reference:

Context Processor	variables
django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth	user perms
django.template.context_processors.debug	debug sql_queries
django.template.context_processors.i18n	LANGUAGES LANGUAGE_BIDI LANGUAGE_CODE
django.template.context_processors.media	MEDIA_URL
django.template.context_processors.static	STATIC_URL
django.template.context_processors.csrf	csrf_token
django.template.context_processors.request	request
django.template.context_processors.tz	TIME_ZONE
django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages	messages DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS