Is it possible to use Jinja only in some templates in a Django project?

It is possible to use Jinja2 in some templates while keeping others using the Django default template engine in the same Django project. However, you cannot directly mix Jinja2 and Django templates within the same template file because they have different syntax and engines. Here's how you can configure your project to use both:

Configuring Jinja2 in Django

Install Jinja2: Ensure Jinja2 is installed in your project. You can install it using pip:

bash

pip install jinja2
Create a Jinja2 Setup File: In your project directory, create a file named jinja2.py. This file will configure the Jinja2 environment.
Populate jinja2.py: Add the following code to jinja2.py to set up the Jinja2 environment:

python

from django.templatetags.static import static from django.urls import reverse from jinja2 import Environment from django.contrib.humanize.templatetags.humanize import apnumber, intcomma, intword, naturalday, naturaltime, ordinal def environment(**options): env = Environment(**options) env.globals.update({ 'static': static, 'url': reverse, }) env.filters.update({ 'apnumber': apnumber, 'intcomma': intcomma, 'intword': intword, 'naturalday': naturalday, 'naturaltime': naturaltime, 'ordinal': ordinal, }) return env
Update settings.py: In your settings.py, add the Jinja2 backend to the TEMPLATES configuration:

python

TEMPLATES = [ { 'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates', 'DIRS': [], 'APP_DIRS': True, 'OPTIONS': { 'context_processors': [ # Your context processors here ], }, }, { 'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.jinja2.Jinja2', 'DIRS': [], 'APP_DIRS': True, 'OPTIONS': { 'environment': 'your_project.jinja2.environment', }, }, ]

Using Both Template Engines

Django Templates: Use .html files for Django templates. These will be rendered by the Django template engine.
Jinja2 Templates: You can either use .jinja2 or .html files for Jinja2 templates. To differentiate, you can configure Django to look for Jinja2 templates in specific directories or use a different file extension.

However, you cannot mix Jinja2 and Django template syntax within the same file. If you need to use both in the same template, consider using a wrapper template that includes parts rendered by each engine separately.

Example Directory Structure

To keep things organized, you might structure your project like this:

text

my_project/
├── my_project/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── jinja2.py
│   ├── settings.py
│   └── ...
├── my_app/
│   ├── templates/
│   │   ├── django_templates/
│   │   │   └── index.html
│   │   └── jinja_templates/
│   │       └── base.jinja2
│   └── ...
└── manage.py

In this setup, Django templates are stored in django_templates/, and Jinja2 templates are stored in jinja_templates/. Ensure that your DIRS and APP_DIRS settings correctly point to these directories.

Conclusion

While you can use both Jinja2 and Django templates in the same project, you need to manage them separately and ensure that each template is rendered by the correct engine. This approach allows for a gradual transition or coexistence of both template engines within your project.