add request.messages attribute

[Collin Anderson]

It seems to me, similar to request.user, it would be nice to expose request.messages if the messages middleware is installed.

[Collin Anderson]

​https://github.com/django/django/pull/3937

[Tim Graham]

Did you research the decision about putting request.user where it is? I'm not sure the rationale of setting attributes on the request instead of using context processors is a good one. If this is simply an effort to avoid context processors, have you considered other alternatives like a template tag?

[Collin Anderson]

request.user has been there since day 1 ​https://github.com/django/django/commit/ed114e15106192b22ebb78ef5bf5bce72b419d13#diff-461e26928e3d218ad38c12d949a512a8R79

It's more of a proposal (yeah, maybe I should put it on the mailing list instead). I also figure we're doing that anyway behind the scenes. I've used custom attributes of request a lot myself and it's worked well. One big advantage is being able to use the same syntax in views and templates.

But yes, it's mostly to allow avoiding context_processors :) The template tag wouldn't work quite as well in this case, because it needs the request object. You would need to say {% load messages %}{% get_messages request as messages %} which I personally think is a bit verbose, but I might be open to it.

I'm also fine with holding off for now.