TemplateResponse subclass with extra goodies

shortcuts.py

from django.template.response import TemplateResponse

class show(TemplateResponse):
    """
    TemplateResponse subclass with extra goodies. It is intended to be used
    as a better replacement of `django.shortcuts.render`.
    """

    def resolve_template(self, template):
        """
        Accepts only path-to-template (unlike TemplateResponse method).

        For ajax requests it tries a template in 'ajax' subfolder first.
        E.g. if request is ajax then

            show(request, 'myapp/index.html')

        will try 'myapp/ajax/index.html' first and fallback to 'myapp/index.html'
        if ajax template is not found.
        """
        assert isinstance(template, basestring)
        if self._request.is_ajax():
            if '/' in template:
                path, name = template.rsplit('/', 1)
                ajax_template = "/".join((path, 'ajax', name))
            else:
                ajax_template = "ajax/"+template
            template = [ajax_template, template]
        return super(show, self).resolve_template(template)

    def with_template(self, template):
        """
        Sets self.template_name to `template` and returns self,
        so instead of this::

            def foo(request):
                return TemplateResponse(request, 'foo.html')

            def bar(request):
                response = foo(request)
                response.template_name = 'bar.html'
                return response

        it is possible to write this::

            def foo(request):
                return show(request, 'foo.html')

            def bar(request):
                return foo(request).with_template('bar.html')

        """
        self.template_name = template
        return self

    def with_context(self, context):
        """
        Updates self.context_data with `context` and returns self,
        so instead of this::

            def foo(request):
                return TemplateResponse(request, 'foo.html')

            def bar(request):
                response = foo(request)
                response.context_data['bar'] = 'bar'
                return response

        it is possible to write this::

            def foo(request):
                return show(request, 'foo.html')

            def bar(request):
                return foo(request).with_context(bar='bar')

        """
        self.context_data = self.context_data or {}
        self.context_data.update(context)
        return self