How can I use the variables from "views.py" in JavasScript, "<script></script>" in a Django template?
Asked Answered
D

19

314

When I render a page using the Django template renderer, I can pass in a dictionary variable containing various values to manipulate them in the page using {{ myVar }}.

Is there a way to access the same variable in JavaScript, <script></script> (perhaps using the DOM; I don't know how Django makes the variables accessible)? I want to be able to look up details using an Ajax lookup based on the values contained in the variables passed in.

Disharmony answered 18/11, 2008 at 13:52 Comment(0)
V
402

The {{variable}} is substituted directly into the HTML. Do a view source; it isn't a "variable" or anything like it. It's just rendered text.

Having said that, you can put this kind of substitution into your JavaScript.

<script type="text/javascript">
    var a = "{{someDjangoVariable}}";
</script>

This gives you "dynamic" JavaScript code.

Volitant answered 18/11, 2008 at 14:0 Comment(12)
Note though that according to this solution, this is vulnerable to injection attacksDebauchery
@Casebash: For such occasions escapejs filter exists: escapejs('<>') -> u'\\u003C\\u003E'Shute
Just to add on to this for reference: if the "someDjangoVariable" so happens to be JSON, be sure to use {{ someDjangoVariable|safe }} to remove the &quot;Vuong
Additionally make sure that the string isn't broken into multiple lines.Tyus
Does anyone know of a "gon" (github.com/gazay/gon) equivalent for Django?Burkholder
This answer only works for a simple variable, it does not work for a complex data structure. In this case, the simplest solution is to add client-side code to traverse the data structure and build a similar one in Javascript. If the complex data structure is in JSON format, another solution is to serialize it, pass a serialized JSON to the Django template in server-side code and deserialize the JSON in a javascript object in client-side code. One answer below mentions this alternative.Nazarite
Please update this to include the |escapejs filter, otherwise you can end up with variables containing quote characters in the name and such, and this can lead to XSS attacks.Methodology
So the best solution is to use var a = {{someDjangoVariable|escapejs|safe}}" then?Choplogic
what if the javascript is written in a different file?Thirsty
10 years later and Django has introduced a built in template filter just for this: docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/ref/templates/builtins/…Ronni
I have Django template for creating a button with id in html tag = name of the object id="{{ obj.name }}. Now how to refer to this id by JS? Doing this is giving me error. var c = document.getElementById({{ obj.name }});Cad
If you have double quotes or single quotes in your someDjangoVariable, it's better to do this var a = `{{someDjangoVariable|safe}}`;. Or if it's JSON content in your someDjangoVariable, it's might be best to just do var a = {{someDjangoVariable|safe}};, this way Javascript will load the JSON correctlyCorrea
E
89

Caution: Check ticket #17419 for a discussion on adding a similar tag into Django core and possible XSS vulnerabilities introduced by using this template tag with user generated data. A comment from amacneil discusses most of the concerns raised in the ticket.


I think the most flexible and handy way of doing this is to define a template filter for variables you want to use in JavaScript code. This allows you to ensure that your data is properly escaped, and you can use it with complex data structures, such as dict and list.

Here is an example of a template filter:

// myapp/templatetags/js.py

from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe
from django.template import Library

import json


register = Library()


@register.filter(is_safe=True)
def js(obj):
    return mark_safe(json.dumps(obj))

This template filters converts a variable to a JSON string. You can use it like so:

// myapp/templates/example.html

{% load js %}

<script type="text/javascript">
    var someVar = {{ some_var | js }};
</script>
Effeminate answered 28/8, 2014 at 0:14 Comment(9)
That is nice because it allows copying only some Django template input variables to Javascript and server-side code does not need to know which data structures must be used by Javascript and hence converted to JSON before rendering the Django template. Either use this or always copy all Django variables to Javascript.Nazarite
But note: #23752656Sabra
Nice. Is that the same as just using docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/templates/builtins/#safe though?Libby
@JorgeOrpinel No, it is not same. safe only marks value as safe, without proper conversion and escaping.Effeminate
How do you then display the variable in the django template?Joejoeann
Please can anyone tell me how would you access that variable in an external JavaScript file ? but a secure way.Judyjudye
@YaroslavAdmin, isn't it a problem that this solutions requires one to always keep the javascript in the template file? Most of the projects I've seen keeps the javascript in a separate js-folder. I tried you solution and it doesn't work with the js in a separate folder.Odont
@Sandi back when I posted it it was common to have a widget in separate JS file and initialize it in the page source code. So let's say you declare function myWidget(config) { /* implementation */ } in JS file and than you use it on some pages using myWidget({{ pythonConfig | js }}). But you can not use it in JS files (as you noticed), so it has its limitations.Effeminate
Don't use this, it's vulnerable to XSS (script injection). For instance an attacker could inject </script> into the data, thus breaking out of the current script and injecting arbitrary HTML (including starting a new script with <script>).Sprague
C
80

A solution that worked for me was using the hidden input field in the template

<input type="hidden" id="myVar" name="variable" value="{{ variable }}">

Then getting the value in JavaScript this way,

var myVar = document.getElementById("myVar").value;
Cheese answered 13/12, 2011 at 1:15 Comment(6)
be wary though. depending on how you use the variable/form, the user could put in whatever they want.Zebe
you may also want to set your input field to readonly (see this link w3schools.com/tags/att_input_readonly.asp)Fearfully
If it's something that won't alter a database or won't be sent to a database query this would be fine. @ZebeBayadere
Guys... users can do what they want anyways. Browsers make it so easy nowadays with a fully featured DOM inspector and debugging tools. Moral of the story: do ALL you data validation on the server.Enure
Please can anyone tell me how would you access that variable in an external JavaScript file ?Judyjudye
Ahtisham, you get it by doing what bosco- did: var myVar = document.getElementById("myVar").value;. This will work if the javascript is executed on the same page as the hidden input element.Odont
R
57

As of Django 2.1, a new built-in template tag has been introduced specifically for this use case: json_script().

The new tag will safely serialize template values and will protect against XSS.

Django documentation excerpt:

Safely outputs a Python object as JSON, wrapped in a tag, ready for use with JavaScript.

Ronni answered 19/1, 2019 at 19:53 Comment(0)
C
23

The new documentation says use {{ mydata|json_script:"mydata" }} to prevent code injection.

A good example is given here:

{{ mydata|json_script:"mydata" }}
<script>
    const mydata = JSON.parse(document.getElementById('mydata').textContent);
</script>
Colfin answered 14/12, 2020 at 9:19 Comment(2)
Best answer in 2021 overall. Jon Saks provided the same however didn't include actual code in the answer, only links to docs (links break, change, move....)Benzophenone
Excellent, thnxGros
E
20

There is a nice easy way implemented from Django 2.1+ using a built in template tag json_script. A quick example would be:

Declare your variable in your template:

{{ variable|json_script:'name' }}

And then call the variable in your <script> JavaScript code:

var js_variable = JSON.parse(document.getElementById('name').textContent);

It is possible that for more complex variables like 'User' you may get an error like "Object of type User is not JSON serializable" using Django's built in serializer. In this case you could make use of the Django Rest Framework to allow for more complex variables.

Epi answered 20/7, 2020 at 7:33 Comment(1)
This actually works without any complicated 3rd party script.Cordiform
D
13

For a JavaScript object stored in a Django field as text, which needs to again become a JavaScript object dynamically inserted into on-page script, you need to use both escapejs and JSON.parse():

var CropOpts = JSON.parse("{{ profile.last_crop_coords|escapejs }}");

Django's escapejs handles the quoting properly, and JSON.parse() converts the string back into a JS object.

Dredge answered 7/3, 2017 at 19:25 Comment(1)
This should actually be the answer. This works perfectly without any weired manual quote escaping.Hegyera
W
10

Here is what I'm doing very easily: I modified my base.html file for my template and put that at the bottom:

{% if DJdata %}
    <script type="text/javascript">
        (function () {window.DJdata = {{DJdata|safe}};})();
    </script>
{% endif %}

Then when I want to use a variable in the JavaScript files, I create a DJdata dictionary and I add it to the context by JSON content: context['DJdata'] = json.dumps(DJdata)

Whitson answered 13/3, 2015 at 12:31 Comment(1)
Don't use this, it's vulnerable to script injection (XSS).Sprague
T
9

For a dictionary, you're best off encoding to JSON first. You can use simplejson.dumps() or if you want to convert from a data model in App Engine, you could use encode() from the GQLEncoder library.

Trictrac answered 20/11, 2008 at 8:19 Comment(1)
Note that 'simplejson' became 'json' as of django 1.7, I believe.Trimolecular
T
7

Note, that if you want to pass a variable to an external .js script then you need to precede your script tag with another script tag that declares a global variable.

<script type="text/javascript">
    var myVar = "{{ myVar }}"
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="{% static "scripts/my_script.js" %}"></script>

data is defined in the view as usual in the get_context_data

def get_context_data(self, *args, **kwargs):
    context['myVar'] = True
    return context
Travertine answered 16/10, 2018 at 3:57 Comment(2)
The part to declare a variable globally was actually helpful.Biskra
if you render data into js variables from templates like above then must render into same page (make them global) and other code goes to separate js file. On server side must valid data because user can change from browser.Cabriolet
I
6

I was facing a similar issue and an answer suggested by S.Lott worked for me.

<script type="text/javascript">
   var a = "{{someDjangoVariable}}"
</script>

However, I would like to point out a major implementation limitation here. If you are planning to put your javascript code in different file and include that file in your template. This won't work.

This works only when you main template and JavaScript code is in same file. Probably Django team can address this limitation.

Izzy answered 7/10, 2015 at 17:3 Comment(4)
How can we overcome this?Skirl
To overcome this, you can place global Javascript variables like the example shown just before you include the static Javascript file. Your static Javascript file will have access to all of the global variables that way.Gymnastics
Don't use this, it's vulnerable to script injection (XSS).Sprague
They can valid data on server side.Cabriolet
C
5

I've been struggling with this too. On the surface it seems that the above solutions should work. However, the Django architecture requires that each HTML file has its own rendered variables (that is, {{contact}} is rendered to contact.html, while {{posts}} goes to, e.g., index.html and so on). On the other hand, <script> tags appear after the {%endblock%} in base.html from which contact.html and index.html inherit. This basically means that any solution including

<script type="text/javascript">
    var myVar = "{{ myVar }}"
</script>

is bound to fail, because the variable and the script cannot coexist in the same file.

The simple solution I eventually came up with, and worked for me, was to simply wrap the variable with a tag with id and later refer to it in the JavaScript file, like so:

// index.html
<div id="myvar">{{ myVar }}</div>

and then:

// somecode.js
var someVar = document.getElementById("myvar").innerHTML;

And just include <script src="static/js/somecode.js"></script> in base.html as usual. Of course this is only about getting the content. Regarding security, just follow the other answers.

Collectivize answered 9/11, 2018 at 23:8 Comment(2)
You probably want to use .textContent instead of .innerHTML, because otherwise entities that get HTML-encoded will be part of the JS variable too. But even then it might not be reproduced 1:1 (I'm not sure).Sprague
A clarification. I use a similar way to capture field values in variables (using IDs dynamically created in the form), and it's working (but for only ONE formset row). What I am not able to get around to, is to capture values from all the rows of formset fields, which are being populated manually (i.e. in an html table using for loop). As you will visualize the variables of only the last formset row is passed to the variables, and the values before that are overwritten with the latter values as the for loop progresses through the formset rows. Is there a way around to this?Katheryn
P
5

I have found we can pass Django variables to JavaScript functions like this:

<button type="button" onclick="myJavascriptFunction('{{ my_django_variable }}')"></button>
<script>
    myJavascriptFunction(djangoVariable){
       alert(djangoVariable);
    }
</script>
Penstemon answered 17/7, 2020 at 12:25 Comment(0)
T
4

I use this way in Django 2.1 and it works for me. And this way is secure (reference):

Django side:

def age(request):
    mydata = {'age':12}
    return render(request, 'test.html', context={"mydata_json": json.dumps(mydata)})

HTML side:

<script type='text/javascript'>
    const mydata = {{ mydata_json|safe }};
    console.log(mydata)
</script>
Tumbleweed answered 16/4, 2020 at 17:51 Comment(2)
I think you misunderstood the reference article that you gave. It is clearly showing that using 'json.dumps' and ' | safe' together is also a vulnerable way. Read the paragraph below "Another Vulnerable Way" headline.Sluggard
where is it paragraph "Another Vulnerable Way" ?Tumbleweed
S
1

There were two things that worked for me inside JavaScript:

'{{context_variable|escapejs }}'

And other:

In views.py:

from json import dumps as jdumps

def func(request):
    context={'message': jdumps('hello there')}
    return render(request,'index.html',context)

And in the HTML content:

{{ message|safe }}
Spaceship answered 29/3, 2020 at 17:21 Comment(1)
excellent, it seems like |escapejs makes the difference.Gros
Z
1

You can use the variables from views.py in JavaScript, <script></script> in Django Templates.

For example, if you pass the dictionary with persons having a list of dictionaries from views.py to Django Templates as shown below:

# "views.py"

from django.shortcuts import render

def test(request, id=None, slug=None):
    persons = [
        {'name':'John', 'age':36},
        {'name':'David','age':24}
    ]
    return render(request, 'index.html', {"persons":persons})

Then, you can use the variables in JavaScript, <script></script> in Django Templates as shown below:

# "index.html"

<script>
{% for person in persons %}
    console.log("{{ person.name }} {{ person.age}}");
{% endfor %}
</script>

Then, these results are displayed on console:

John 36
David 24

Be careful, if you use a JavaScript's variable and for loop, unexpected results are displayed on console:

# "index.html"

<script>
let js_persons = "{{ persons }}"
for (let i = 0; i < js_persons.length; i++) {
    console.log(js_persons[i]);
}
</script>

Of course, you can use comment tag in JavaScript, <script></script> in Django Templates as shown below:

# "index.html"

<script>
{% for person in persons %}
    {% comment %} 
    console.log("{{ person.name }} {{ person.age}}"); 
    {% endcomment %}
{% endfor %}
</script>
# "index.html"

<script>
{% comment %}
{% for person in persons %}
    console.log("{{ person.name }} {{ person.age}}"); 
{% endfor %}
{% endcomment %}
</script>
# "index.html"

{% comment %}
<script>
{% for person in persons %}
    console.log("{{ person.name }} {{ person.age}}"); 
{% endfor %}
</script>
{% endcomment %}
Zubkoff answered 15/5, 2023 at 12:22 Comment(0)
B
0

You can assemble the entire script where your array variable is declared in a string, as follows,

File views.py

    aaa = [41, 56, 25, 48, 72, 34, 12]
    prueba = "<script>var data2 =["
    for a in aaa:
        aa = str(a)
        prueba = prueba + "'" + aa + "',"
    prueba = prueba + "];</script>"

That will generate a string as follows

prueba = "<script>var data2 =['41','56','25','48','72','34','12'];</script>"

After having this string, you must send it to the template.

File views.py

return render(request, 'example.html', {"prueba": prueba})

In the template, you receive it and interpret it in a literary way as HTML code, just before the JavaScript code where you need it, for example

Template

{{ prueba|safe  }}

And below that is the rest of your code. Keep in mind that the variable to use in the example is data2.

<script>
  console.log(data2);
</script>

That way, you will keep the type of data, which in this case is an arrangement.

Blanks answered 12/8, 2019 at 18:58 Comment(1)
Use this only if you're sure that aaa will only contain numbers, otherwise XSS (script injection) is possible.Sprague
H
0

There are various answers pointing to json_script. Contrary to what one might think, that's not a one-size-fits-all solution.

For example, when we want to pass to JavaScript dynamic variables generated inside a for loop, it's best to use something like data-attributes.

See it in more detail here.

Huntley answered 22/10, 2022 at 15:44 Comment(0)
K
0

If you want to send a variable directly to a function by passing it as a parameter, then try this

<input type="text" onkeyup="somefunction('{{ YOUR_VARIABLE }}')">

As from previous answers, the security can be improved upon.

Karlmarxstadt answered 18/1, 2023 at 5:11 Comment(0)

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