Improve context processor documentation

[Scot Hacker]

The answer to the common question "How do I make variables globally available to my templates?" is "context processors," which are covered at ​http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/templates_python/ . But a new developer looking for an answer to this question will never find it in the docs by searching for "global" or "global variables." The documentation is there, but very difficult to find by searching on terms related to the problem. No new developer will know to search for "context processors."

Once the right section of the documentation is found, under the cryptic title "Subclassing Context: RequestContext," implementing the code samples on that page will only yield exception errors like "global name 'RequestContext' is not defined." Which means absolutely nothing (in terms of the fix) to the new Django developer. The code samples on that page should state that you need to:

from django.template import RequestContext

To promote Django acceptance, make learning the system less painful. Be specific, come up with a tagging system for the documentation to lead new developers to the right spot in the docs, and provide complete implementation details everywhere.

[Jacob]

Probably the best approach would be an entry in the FAQ -- context processors aren't just about global variables. But changing the section title might be a good idea, too.

[Jeff Anderson]

Added entry to the FAQ

[Jeff Anderson]

I'm no writer, but here's a FAQ entry.

[Gary Wilson]

Instead of a FAQ entry, I think we should instead improve the context processor documentation to better explain how and why to use them. The current section:

​http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/templates/api/#writing-your-own-context-processors

...doesn't really say much.

I would even say that this new/revised context processor documentation should go in its own file, as the template api documentation is already very long.

[Jacob]

(In [10303]) A whole lotta documentation fixes: Fixes #8704, #8826, #8980, #9243, #9343, #9529,

[anonymous]

Interesting, I was having this exact problem and the google search came up with this article, which solved the problem. The search was for: global name 'RequestContext' is not defined