How can i pass data to django layouts (like 'base.html') without having to provide it through every view?
Use a context processor, which is made exactly for that purpose. Create a file context_processors.py
in one of your app directories, then in the file define a function that return a dictionary of variables to insert in every template context, something like this:
def add_variable_to_context(request): return { 'testme': 'Hello world!' }
Enable your context processor in the settings (django>=1.8):
TEMPLATES = [ { 'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates', 'DIRS': [root('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', 'yourapp.context_processors.add_variable_to_context', ], }, },]
Then in every template you can write
{{ testme }}
And it will render as
Hello world!
More info in the Django documentation
If you need this data in (almost) every template, then it makes sense to use a context processor. From the django docs:
The context_processors option is a list of callables – called context processors – that take a request object as their argument and return a dictionary of items to be merged into the context.