Custom Context Processor In Django

Let's say you have a file structure like this for your Django project:

├───project
│   ├───__init__.py
│   ├───asgi.py
│   ├───settings.py
│   ├───urls.py
│   └───wsgi.py
├───.env
├───manage.py
└───db.sqlite3

1) Create a context_processors.py file in the project folder (along with settings.py):

It can be put anywhere in Django project but I think here is a good place to put.

├───project
│   ├───__init__.py
│   ├───asgi.py
│   ├───context_processors.py
│   ├───settings.py
│   ├───urls.py
│   └───wsgi.py
├───.env
├───manage.py
└───db.sqlite3

2) Create a function in context_processors.py that accepts a HttpRequest object as an argument and returns a dictionary. A context processor is just a function that accepts an HttpRequest object as an argument and returns a dictionary.

@project/context_processors.py

from blog.models import Cat, Post

def context_for_every_template(request):
    cats = Cat.objects.all()
    featured_posts = Post.objects.filter(featured=True)
    latest_posts = Post.objects.all()[:4]
    context = {
        'cats': cats,
        'featured_posts': featured_posts,
        'latest_posts': latest_posts,
    }
    return context

3) Add this to your context_processors setting in settings.py (at the bottom for security reasons):

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'config' / 'templates'],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
                'project.context_processors.context_for_every_template', # Add it here
            ],
        },
    },
]

Now you'll be able to access the 'cats', 'featured_posts' and 'latest_posts' template variables on every single django template across your whole site.