env.base.mako

<%inherit file="./layout.mako"/>
<%! from datetime import datetime %>

<%def name="title()">
  <% color = "#222244" if datetime.now().hour > 19 else "#444477" %>
  <span style="color:${color}">title message</span>
</%def>

<%def name="message(content)">
  <p>this is message: ${content}</p>
</%def>

<div class="box" style="padding-left:30px; padding-right:30px;">
  <%include file="./env.template.mako" args="env=self"/>
</div>

env.template.mako

<%page args="env"/>
<h1>${env.title()}</h1>

this is template page

<ul>
  <li>one</li>
  <li>two</li>
  <li>three</li>
</ul>

${env.message("<this sentence passed by template side.>")}

layout.mako

<!-- start of header @layout -->
<div class="header">
  header
</div>
<!-- end of header @layout -->

${next.body()}
<!-- start of footer @layout -->
</div class="footer">
  footer
</div>
<!-- end of footer @layout -->

sample_caller.py

# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-

"""
file structure::

.
|-- sample_caller.py
`-- templates
    `-- caller
        |-- env.base.mako
        |-- env.template.mako
        `-- layout.mako
"""

import contextlib

@contextlib.contextmanager
def section(message):
    print("## {}".format(message))
    print("```")
    yield
    print("```")

from mako.lookup import TemplateLookup
lookup = TemplateLookup(directories=["./templates/caller"])

with section("env template -> base template"):
    result = (lookup.get_template("env.base.mako").render())
    ## cleanup
    import re
    empty_lines_rx = re.compile("\n{2,}", re.MULTILINE)
    print(empty_lines_rx.sub("\n", result))

env template -> base template

<!-- start of header @layout -->
<div class="header">
  header
</div>
<!-- end of header @layout -->
<div class="box" style="padding-left:30px; padding-right:30px;">

<h1>

  <span style="color:#444477">title message</span>
</h1>
this is template page
<ul>
  <li>one</li>
  <li>two</li>
  <li>three</li>
</ul>
  <p>this is message: <this sentence passed by template side.></p>
</div>
<!-- start of footer @layout -->
</div class="footer">
  footer
</div>
<!-- end of footer @layout -->