How to not redefine url for static files in flask everytime

Question

My app has a lot of routes that use the same set of static files.

I have to define them for every route like this:

css_reset = url_for("static", filename="reset.css")
css_main = url_for("static", filename="main.css")
css_fonts = url_for("static", filename="fonts.css")

js_jquery = url_for("static", filename="jquery-1.7.2.min.js")
js_main = url_for("static", filename="main.js")

And then, when I render a template it looks like this:

return render_template("person.html",
                       css_main=css_main,
                       css_reset=css_reset,
                       css_fonts=css_fonts,
                       js_jquery=js_jquery,
                       js_main=js_main)

I'm new to flask and python and I think that what I'm doing is a bit ridiculous. Can I define them in one place and then just use in my templates, without copying and pasting in every route definition?

Simon Sapin · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-30 08:41:59Z

17

Instead of passing these variables to your templates every time you can register them as globals in Jinja:

app.jinja_env.globals.update(
    css_reset=url_for("static", filename="reset.css"),
    css_main=url_for("static", filename="main.css"),
    ...
)

Or, better yet, register a helper function:

app.jinja_env.globals['static'] = (
    lambda filename: url_for('static', filename=filename))

And then in your templates:

<link ref=stylesheet href="{{ static('main.css') }}">

answered Jul 30, 2012 at 8:41

Simon Sapin

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codecool · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-30 09:37:40Z

12

The simplest way is to use Flask-Assets extension.

    from flask.ext.assets import Environment, Bundle
    assets = Environment(app)
    css_all = Bundle('reset.css','main.css','fonts.css')
    assets.register('css_all',css_all)

In template:

    {% assets %}
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ ASSET_URL }}">
    {% endassets %}

You can also compress css and js files for production by using certain options of this extension.

Since you need to use these files in many templates, define them in a base.html template and in every template extend that base.html. You don not have to write them again and again.

edited Jul 30, 2012 at 9:37

answered Jul 30, 2012 at 9:25

codecool

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Comments

Arsh Singh · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-29 14:03:02Z

-1

You don't need to do that, url_for is for generating urls (so that when you change the structure of a url, you don't need to change it a dozen times). You can just use a fixed path to your static files directly in your templates instead. Just put your static files in /static folder and use it in your template :

<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ YOUR_SITE_URL_HERE+'/static/main.css' }}">

Instead of replacing YOUR_SITE_URL with your site's url directly, you might want to define a variable in your config.py and use it in your template : {{ config['SITE_URL']+'/static/main.css' }}

answered Jul 29, 2012 at 14:03

Arsh Singh

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3 Comments

codecool Over a year ago

Why would you do all that when simply writing this href="{{ url_for('static',filename='main.css')}}" would suffice?

codecool Over a year ago

Its premature optimisation at best. It should not matter much.

Lyndsy Simon Over a year ago

It's possible the same site could be served from multiple URLs for one. For another, what if the path upon which you're hosting static files changes - for instance, you move them to Amazon S3? I agree with both Simon Sapin and codecool above; use Flask-Assets, or define a Jinja helper, depending on where your assets are hosted.

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