django-clearplaintext

Provides Django template filters that normalize plain text while allowing explicit whitespace control.

It collapses excessive whitespace but preserves intentional formatting using escaped sequences like \n, \t, and \s.

Perfect for:

Plain text emails
Notification templates
Text exports
System messages
Markdown templates
Structured text blocks inside Django templates

What It Does

`render_to_plaintext`

A utility function that renders a Django template to a string and then applies clean_plaintext normalization to the result. It accepts the same arguments as Django's render_to_string.

`clean_plaintext`

Collapses multiple spaces into a single space
Limits consecutive blank lines to a maximum of two
Strips leading and trailing whitespace on each line
Removes empty lines at the beginning and end
Converts escaped sequences:
- \n → newline
- \t → tab
- \s → single space

This allows you to write readable Django templates while still controlling whitespace precisely.

`keep_whitespace`

Escapes real whitespace characters in a value so they survive clean_plaintext normalization:

\n → \n (literal)
\t → \t (literal)
→ \s (literal)

Use this when passing database values or dynamic content that contains meaningful whitespace into a clean_plaintext block.

Installation

pip install django-clearplaintext

Setup

Add it to your Django project:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "clearplaintext",
]

Usage

Load the template tag:

{% load clearplaintext_filters %}

`clean_plaintext` — template block formatting

Use it as a filter block to normalize whitespace in your template while keeping explicit escape sequences:

{% filter clean_plaintext %}
Hello {{ user.get_full_name }},\n

Your order has been confirmed.\n
{% for item in order.items %}
    \t- {{ item.name }} ({{ item.quantity }}x)\n
    {% if forloop.last %}\n{% endif %}
{% endfor %}

Best regards,\n
{{ company.name }}
{% endfilter %}

Output:

Hello John Smith,

Your order has been confirmed.
    - Widget (2x)
    - Gadget (1x)

Best regards,
Acme Inc.

`keep_whitespace` — preserving whitespace from dynamic values

When a variable comes from the database and already contains meaningful whitespace, pipe it through keep_whitespace before passing it into a clean_plaintext block:

{% filter clean_plaintext %}
{{ post.content|keep_whitespace }}
{% endfilter %}

This ensures that real newlines, tabs, and spaces in the value are escaped before normalization runs, so they are restored correctly in the output rather than being collapsed.

`render_to_plaintext` — rendering templates directly from Python

Use this utility function when you want to render a template and get clean plain text back in a single call, for example when sending plain-text emails from a view or task:

from clearplaintext.utils import render_to_plaintext

body = render_to_plaintext("emails/order_confirmed.txt", {"order": order}, request=request)

It accepts the same arguments as Django's render_to_string and applies clean_plaintext normalization to the result.

The template itself uses the same escaped sequences as the filter:

Hi {{ user.get_full_name }},\n\n

Your order #{{ order.id }} has been confirmed.\n
{% for item in order.items %}
    \t- {{ item.name }} ({{ item.quantity }}x)\n
    {% if forloop.last %}\n{% endif %}
{% endfor %}

Best regards,\n
{{ company.name }}

Why Use This?

Django templates often produce messy whitespace because of:

Template indentation
Conditionals and loops
Readability formatting
Multi-line template blocks

This filter lets you:

Keep templates readable
Avoid ugly output formatting
Still control exact whitespace when needed

It is especially useful for plain-text emails where formatting matters.

Design Philosophy

Minimal
No external dependencies
Focused on plain text formatting
Safe and predictable behavior
Suitable for reusable Django apps

Escaped Sequences Supported

Sequence	Result
`\n`	Newline
`\t`	Tab
`\s`	Single space

Escaped sequences are protected during normalization and restored afterward. The keep_whitespace filter converts real whitespace into these sequences so that dynamic values receive the same treatment.