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Day 3 of 5
⏱ ~60 minutes
Django in 5 Days — Day 3

Templates

Build HTML pages with Django's template language. Inheritance with extends/blocks, reusable includes, and built-in filters.

Template Inheritance

Don't repeat your navbar and footer on every page. Define a base template once and extend it everywhere.

templates/base.html



  {% block title %}My Blog{% endblock %}


  

  

    {% block content %}
    {% endblock %}
  


  {% include 'partials/footer.html' %}



  Finished this lesson?
templates/blog/post_list.html
{% extends 'base.html' %}

{% block title %}Blog Posts{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
  
All Posts

  {% for post in posts %}
    

      
{{ post.title }}

      
{{ post.created_at|date:"M d, Y" }}

      
{{ post.body|truncatewords:30 }}

    

  {% empty %}
    
No posts yet.

  {% endfor %}
{% endblock %}
Common Template Filters
{{ value|upper }}           → UPPERCASE
{{ value|lower }}           → lowercase
{{ date|date:"M d, Y" }}    → Jan 01, 2026
{{ body|truncatewords:30 }} → first 30 words...
{{ body|truncatechars:100 }} → first 100 chars...
{{ body|linebreaks }}        → 
 tags from newlines
{{ value|default:"N/A" }}   → fallback if falsy
💡
The {% url 'view_name' %} tag generates URLs from named views. Never hardcode URLs in templates. If you change the URL pattern, the template still works because it looks up by name.
📝 Day 3 Exercise
Build the Blog Templates
  1. C
  2. r
  3. e
  4. a
  5. t
  6. e
  8. b
  9. a
  10. s
  11. e
  12. .
  13. h
  14. t
  15. m
  16. l
  18. w
  19. i
  20. t
  21. h
  23. n
  24. a
  25. v
  27. a
  28. n
  29. d
  31. f
  32. o
  33. o
  34. t
  35. e
  36. r
  38. b
  39. l
  40. o
  41. c
  42. k
  43. s
  44. .
  46. C
  47. r
  48. e
  49. a
  50. t
  51. e
  53. p
  54. o
  55. s
  56. t
  57. _
  58. l
  59. i
  60. s
  61. t
  62. .
  63. h
  64. t
  65. m
  66. l
  68. a
  69. n
  70. d
  72. p
  73. o
  74. s
  75. t
  76. _
  77. d
  78. e
  79. t
  80. a
  81. i
  82. l
  83. .
  84. h
  85. t
  86. m
  87. l
  89. t
  90. h
  91. a
  92. t
  94. e
  95. x
  96. t
  97. e
  98. n
  99. d
  101. i
  102. t
  103. .
  105. A
  106. d
  107. d
  109. p
  110. a
  111. g
  112. i
  113. n
  114. a
  115. t
  116. i
  117. o
  118. n
  120. t
  121. o
  123. t
  124. h
  125. e
  127. l
  128. i
  129. s
  130. t
  132. v
  133. i
  134. e
  135. w
  137. u
  138. s
  139. i
  140. n
  141. g
  143. D
  144. j
  145. a
  146. n
  147. g
  148. o
  149. '
  150. s
  152. P
  153. a
  154. g
  155. i
  156. n
  157. a
  158. t
  159. o
  160. r
  161. .

Day 3 Summary

  • {% extends 'base.html' %} + {% block content %}{% endblock %} = DRY templates.
  • {% url 'name' %} generates URLs. Never hardcode. {% include 'partial.html' %} inserts snippets.
  • Filters transform values: |date, |truncatewords, |upper, |default.
  • {% for item in list %}{% empty %}{% endfor %} — the empty block handles empty lists gracefully.
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Day 2: Views and URLs
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Day 4: REST API with DRF
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