Checking Login Status

Checking Login Status

The navbar should show different links depending on whether the user is logged in or not. Django makes this easy with user.is_authenticated.

In Templates

<!-- templates/base_layout.html -->
<nav>
    <a href="{% url 'articles:list' %}">Articles</a>
    {% if user.is_authenticated %}
        <a href="{% url 'articles:create' %}">New Article</a>
        <span>Welcome, {{ user.username }}</span>
        <form method="POST" action="{% url 'accounts:logout' %}" style="display:inline">
            {% csrf_token %}
            <button type="submit">Logout</button>
        </form>
    {% else %}
        <a href="{% url 'accounts:login' %}">Login</a>
        <a href="{% url 'accounts:signup' %}">Sign Up</a>
    {% endif %}
</nav>

In Views

def my_view(request):
    if request.user.is_authenticated:
        # User is logged in
        print(request.user.username)
    else:
        # Anonymous user
        print('Not logged in')

Key Properties

Property	Logged In	Anonymous
is_authenticated	True	False
username	Their username	Empty string
is_anonymous	False	True

Key Takeaways

• user.is_authenticated returns True if logged in, False if anonymous
• Use {% if user.is_authenticated %} in templates for conditional rendering
• Django automatically passes user to all templates via the context processor
• Show different nav links based on auth status for good UX