Django custom template tag useful for marking navigation links with an 'active' class.

active.py

"""
Easily mark navigation links with an 'active' class in Django templates.

Usage::

   <a href="{% url 'some_view_name' %}" class="{% active request 'some_view_name' %}">Link to Somewhere</a>

"""
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django import template

register = template.Library()


@register.simple_tag
def active(request, url_name):
    """Use when adding an 'active' class to navigation links"""
    if request.path == reverse(url_name):
        return 'active'
    return None

Example Usage

This tag mirrors the syntax of the built-in {% url %} tag and likewise looks up the path for a given view name. It compares this path with the current request path. If they are equal, it returns an 'active' class.

   <a href="{% url 'some_view_name' %}"
      class="{% active request 'some_view_name' %}">Link to Somewhere</a>