Django Class Views

from django.template.loader import get_template
from django.template import RequestContext
from django import http

class BaseView(object):
    """
    BaseView provides a class that is instantiated and then
    called like a function.

    __init__ called without arguments.
    You must just override the __call__ method.
    """
    def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
        obj = super(BaseView, cls).__new__(cls)
        return obj(*args, **kwargs)
    
    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        pass

class View(BaseView):
    """
    View provides a basic django view _class_

    It is instantiated for each request, and it is provided to
    the template's context as the 'view' varable.

    __call__ sets the following:
        self.request
        self.response
        self.context = {}

    view.update() is called first.  It may do a redirect, additional
    checks, or setup information for the template renderer.

    If view.render() is defined, it will be run to generate the output.
    If its return value is a string (or unicode), self.response.content
    will be set to this value.  Otherwise its return value will be
    returned directly, possibly allowing other Django processors to do
    their magic.

    If view.render() is not defined, we assume it will be rendered
    with a template, so we define a context dictionary, then call
    self.render_template.

    The context dictionary contains:
        'view' : self,
        'request' : self.request,
        'response' : self.response,
    plus anything defined in self.context is merged into the dictionary,
    possibly overriding the above variables.

    Override render_template(template_name, context_dictionary) to
    use an alternate template rendering mechanism.
    """
    template = None
    context = None

    def redirect(self, url):
        self.response = http.HttpResponseRedirect(url)

    def update(self):
        pass

    def __call__(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        self.request = request
        self.response = http.HttpResponse()
        self.update()
        if self.response.status_code in (301, 302):
            return self.response
        if hasattr(self, "render"):
            res = self.render()
            if isinstance(res, basestring):
                self.response.content = res
                return self.response
            return res
        elif self.template:
            template = self.template
            context = {
                'view' : self,
                'request' : self.request,
                'response' : self.response,
            }
            extra = getattr(self, 'context', None)
            if extra:
                context.extend(extra)
            r = self.response
            r.content = self.render_template(template, context)
            return r
        else:
            if not self.response.content:
                self.response.content = 'No Template nor Render Method'
            return self.response

    def render_template(self, template, context):
        """
        Given a template (either a filename to lookup, or an object
        with a render() method), lookup the template if necessary, then
        wrap the context in a RequestContext and call
        template.render(context)
        """
        if isinstance(template, basestring):
            template = get_template(template)
        return template.render(RequestContext(self.request, context))


### example view
class testview(View):
    template = "testview.html"

    def update(self):
        self.age = 29
        self.context["nose"] = "normal sized"
        self.response["X-Crazy"] = "Maybe"
        if self.request.GET.get('next'):
            self.redirect(self.request.GET['next'])

    def name(self):
        return "Robert"

class testview2(View):
   template = "testview.html"
   def render(self):
      return "No template will be used here automatically"

### testview.html:
Hello {{ view.name }}!  You are {{ view.age }} years old.
You have a {{ nose }} nose.