How to create HTML with Python

Python Help
1

How to create HTML with Python

There are several hundert ways how you could create HTML with the
programming language Python.

Somehow I have the feeling, that I have not found the most simple way up to now.

My context: The cursor is blinking inside a Python file in my favorite IDE.

I want to create a string containing HTML.

Sending the string over the network or writing it to a file is not part of the
current question.

I like f-strings:

name = 'Peter'
html = f'<div>Hello {name}!</div>'

BUT: Above code breaks if “name” contains unsafe characters which need to be escaped like & and <.

I like format_html() of Django:

name = 'Peter'
html = format_html('<div>Hello {name}!</div>', name=name)

The great thing about it: If name = 'Peter & Mary' then the & would get escaped correctly.

And if I use this:

name = format_html('<b>{}</b>', 'Peter & Mary')
html = format_html('<div>Hello {name}!</div>', name=name)

the real magic happens: The & gets escaped, but the <b> stays a html tag.

So what is so cool about f-strings which I don’t get with format_html()?

  • f-strings can access attributes. This works: f’… {my_object.my_attribute} …’
  • f-strings automatically have the local and global variables. With format_html() I would need to do format_html('... {my_local} ', locals())

Since up to now I use Django, I could use a Django Template:

from django.template import Template, Context
template = Template('Hello {{name}}!')
context = Context(dict(name='Peter & Mary'))
html = template.render(context)

Or shorter

from django.template import Template, Context
html = Template('Hello {{name}}!').render(Context(dict(name='Peter & Mary')))

The vision:

name = 'Peter & Mary`
html = h'Hello {name}!'

This would be great: If I could use h' and get all the f-string magic (access to local variables and obj.attr) and conditional_escape support.

1 Like