django-navhelper

What it is and what it does

django-navhelper is a small Django template tag library that solves the common problem of highlighting the active navigation item in a menu. It provides two template tags—navactive and renavactive—that return an 'active' CSS class (or a custom class you configure) when the current request matches a given view name or URL pattern. You load the tags in your template and wrap them around menu links to automatically style the active item.

The package has no runtime dependencies beyond Django itself, making it lightweight to install. It requires Django 4.2 and Python 3.10 according to its documentation. However, the project is abandoned—the last commit was 2023-06-19. While it has no known security vulnerabilities, there is no active maintenance, so compatibility with newer Django or Python releases is not guaranteed.

Use it for:

• Highlight the current page in a site navigation menu without writing custom template logic in each template.
• Add active styling to breadcrumb navigation based on the current request URL pattern.
• Style multi-level navigation menus where you need to mark parent items as active when viewing child pages.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Provides Django template tags to automatically add active CSS classes to navigation menu items based on the current request URL.

Yes, if you are locked into Django 4.2 and Python 3.10 and need a simple, lightweight way to mark active navigation items. The MIT license is permissive, install friction is low, and there are no known vulnerabilities. However, the package is abandoned with no recent maintenance, so do not expect updates for newer Django or Python versions. Consider it only for stable, long-lived projects on those specific versions, or evaluate actively maintained alternatives if you anticipate upgrading.

Install

django-navhelper on PyPI

pip install django-navhelper

uv add django-navhelper

poetry add django-navhelper

Installing django-navhelper

Before you install

Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. However, the package is abandoned—last commit was 2023-06-19. It targets Django 4.2 and Python 3.10 specifically; compatibility with newer versions is unverified.

License in practice

MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, requiring only attribution and inclusion of the license text.

Quickstart

pip install django-navhelper==1.0.0

# In Django settings.py, add to INSTALLED_APPS:
# 'geelweb.django.navhelper'

# In template:
{% load navactive %}
<a href="{% url 'view_name' %}" class="{% navactive 'view_name' %}">Menu Entry</a>

Requires Django 4.2 and Python 3.10 as stated in the package documentation.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works with Django versions newer than 4.2 or Python versions newer than 3.10.
• Current state of the GitHub repository and whether it accepts pull requests or maintenance contributions.

Package facts

Evidence: django_navhelper-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: django, menu, navigation

Tags

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