= Using Vim with Django =

This page is intended to be used as a collection of hints for using the Vim editor with Django.

== [http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1318 SnippetsEmu] ==

The [http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1318 SnippetsEmu] plugin for Vim allows one to define abbreviations which can be expanded into larger blocks of text.  The abbreviations can also contain place markers which can be 'jumped to' in a similar manner to the macros defined in TextMate on OS X.

One can add specific abbreviations for models or templates based on file contents.  Adding the following line to your ~/.vim/ftplugin/python.vim file (create it if you don't have it) will allow you to define abbreviations just for models:
{{{
if getline(1) =~ 'from django.core import meta'
    "Your abbreviations here
endif
}}}

The following is a collection of Django specific abbreviations for use with the plugin (using the default start and end tags: '<' and '>'):

Models:

{{{
Iabbr addmodel class <>(meta.Model):<CR><><CR><CR>def __repr__(self):<CR>return "%s" % (<>,)<CR><CR>class META:<CR>admin = meta.Admin()<CR><CR>
Iabbr mcf meta.CharField(maxlength=<>)<CR><>
Iabbr mff meta.FileField(upload_to=<>)<CR><>
Iabbr mfpf meta.FilePathField(path=<>, match=<".*">, recursive=<False>)<CR><>
Iabbr mfloat meta.FloatField(max_digits=<>, decimal_places=<>)<CR><>
Iabbr mfk meta.ForeignKey(<>, edit_inline=<False>)<CR><>
Iabbr m2m meta.ManyToManyField(<>)<CR><>
Iabbr o2o meta.OneToOneField(<>)<CR><>
}}}

Templates:

Templates should be used with different tag delimiters as they will no doubt contain (X)HTML which will confuse the plugin.  Assuming start and end tags are '@':

{{{
Iabbr fore {% for @entry@ in @list@ %}<CR>{{ @entry@.@@ }}<CR>@@{% endfor %}<CR>@@
}}}

== XML.vim ==

The [http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=301 xml.vim] plugin is really useful for editing XML and HTML files.  It makes tag completion easy and allows you to bounce between start and end tags.

== Syntax for templates == 

This is a simple addition to let Vim deal with Django template syntax:

Create the file:
{{{$VIM/vimfiles/after/syntax/html.vim}}}
with the following content:

{{{
syn region  djangotagmarkers start="{{" end="}}"
syn region  djangovariablemarkers start="{%" end="%}"
command! -nargs=+ HiLink hi def link <args>
HiLink djangotagmarkers PreProc
HiLink djangovariablemarkers PreProc
delcommand HiLink
}}}