How to add jinja2 templating in django step by step

Step 1: Set Up Your Django Project

Assuming you have a Django project already set up, if not, you can create one using the following command:

django-admin startproject projectname

Step 2: Install Jinja2

You'll need to install Jinja2 in your Django project. You can do this using pip:

pip install jinja2

Step 3: Configure Jinja2 in Django

In your project's settings (settings.py), add the following line to configure Jinja2, add it under the TEMPLATES list without removing the existing items

    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.jinja2.Jinja2',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'environment': 'your_project_name.jinja2.environment',
        },
    }

Replace 'your_project_name' with the actual name of your Django project.

After adding your TEMPLATES should look like below:

TEMPLATES = [

    {

        "BACKEND": "django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates",

        "DIRS": [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],

        "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",

            ],

        },

    },

    {

        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.jinja2.Jinja2',

        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],

        'APP_DIRS': True,

        'OPTIONS': {

            'environment': 'your_project_name.jinja2.environment',

        },

    },

]

Step 4: Create a Jinja2 Environment

Create a file named jinja2.py in your project's main directory (where settings.py is located). In this file, define your Jinja2 environment:

import jinja2

def environment(**options):
    env = jinja2.Environment(**options)
    # Add any custom filters or extensions here if needed
    return env

Step 5: Run Your Django Application

Now you can run your Django application and test the Jinja2 templates:

python manage.py runserver

Your templates should now be using Jinja2 syntax while benefiting from Django's template rendering mechanisms.