global name 'request' is not defined

Question

When using the example "views.py without functions.py", it is working fine and session is being checked alright, so it returns the username.

But, when using the second example, with the functions.py, is showing me the following error

NameError at /login/

global name 'request' is not defined

views.py without functions.py

def main(request):
    c = {}
    c.update(csrf(request))

    if request.session.get('username'):
        susername = request.session['username']
    else:
        susername = ""

    return render_to_response("login/login.html",{'username': susername},context_instance=RequestContext(request))

views.py with functions.py

def main(request):
    c = {}
    c.update(csrf(request))

    susername = loggedin()


    return render_to_response("login/login.html",{'username': susername},context_instance=RequestContext(request))

functions.py

from django.template import RequestContext

def loggedin():
    if request.session.get('username'):
        susername = request.session['username']
    else:
        susername = ""

    return susername

Why is second one not working and how can I solve it?

Thanks

Solution 1

What you are writing is a template context processor, and you should write it like this:

def loggedin(request):
    return {'username': request.session.get('username','')}

Save it in a file, and add it to TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS in your settings.py after the 'django.core.context_processors.request', line.

If you named the file as someapp/processors.py, then you'll add 'somapp.processors.loggedin', to the tuple.

Then, as long as you are returning an instance of RequestContext, you'll have {{ username }} in your templates.

Solution 2

Think about it. Request is not passed as an argument, therefore it is unknown in the scope of the loggedin() function.

You can simply pass the request like

susername = loggedin(request)

Or, in this case, just pass what you need to check.

susername = loggedin(request.session)

And change the function to

def loggedin(session):
    return session['username'] if session.get('username') else ''

Comments

[karthikr]

+1 While this is a good approach, I think the OP is trying out a simple tutorial, in which he just forgot to send the request object as a parameter.

[Achrome]

Fixed. Thanks @Alasdair

[Alasdair]

return session.get('username', '') would be better, but at least the code will work now.

[zurfyx]

+1 Wow, this what better than what I was looking for. Actually, I wondered if that would be possible in Python.