Django 1.8 BASE_DIR template issue

Question

I'm new to Django and have encountered an error that really has me stumped. I'm just putting together a basic site and using the tutorial as a bit of a guide, but I've run into an issue regarding templates. I created a templates directory in the same directory as manage.py, created an admin directory within templates, and copied / pasted base_site.html within the admin directory as per the tutorial. I then changed a few of the headers, saved everything, restarted the server, and... nothing. No errors but no changes. It's as if I had done nothing. I've tried the various fixes suggested on here but none seem to work. It's as if the templates directory is not being found so the app is using the default. Here are the basics that I have right now:

Directory structure: Project>App, templates>admin>base_site.html, manage.py, etc.

In my settings.py:

import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

and

TEMPLATES = [
{
    'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
    'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
    'APP_DIRS': True,
    'OPTIONS': {
        'context_processors': [
            'django.template.context_processors.debug',
            'django.template.context_processors.request',
            'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
            'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
        ],
    },
},

]

and in base_site.html:

<h1 id="site-name"><a href="{% url 'admin:index' %}">{{ site_header|default:_('THIS IS WHAT I CHANGED') }}</a></h1>

I'm really hoping someone can point me in the right direction here.

Answer 1

This line:

{{ site_header|default:_('THIS IS WHAT I CHANGED') }} 

is evaluating site_header and if found False , will output default. site_header is a variable defined in AdminSite class. There is no reason from what you describe for site_header to be False , so site_header will be displayed, not the text you changed.

See Default filter description:

DEFAULT

If value evaluates to False, uses the given default. Otherwise, uses the value.

For example:

{{ value|default:"nothing" }} If value is "" (the empty string), the output will be nothing.

Here: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/templates/builtins/#default

There are ways to change site_header , you can create a custom model based on AdminClass and then define site_header for this new instance. This means defining a new url as well.

Or you can set site_header:

django.contrib.admin.AdminSite.site_header = "New Header"