simple views and contexts for django

gistfile1.py

from render import render

def some_context(request):
  return {…}


def some_different_context(request):
  return {…}

@render("template.html")
def viewname(request):
   return [
     some_context(request),
     some_different_context(request)
     ]

render.py

from collections import Mapping
from functools import reduce

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.template import RequestContext


def merge(dicts):
    """Merge an iterable of dictionaries into one dictionary

    If python was actually cool:

    def merge(dicts):
       return reduce((lambda acc, d: acc.update(d) or acc), dicts, {})

    """
    d = {}
    for d_ in dicts:
        d.update(d_)
    return d


def render(template):
    """render is a variant on django-annoying's view decorating function.

    render knows about template context dictionaries, and iterables of dictionaries
    (that are merged with merge above).

    the template name is passed to render. If a view returns an django HTTP 
    response object then that is returned in its place. 
    """
    def decorator(view):
        def wrapper(request, *args, **kwargs):
            res = view(request, *args, **kwargs)

            if isinstance(res, HttpResponse):
                return res
            elif not isinstance(res, Mapping):
                context = merge(res)
            else:
                context = res

            return render_to_response(template, context, RequestContext(request))
        return wrapper
    return decorator