How to load jinja template directly from filesystem

Here’s how: use a FileSystemLoader instead of a PackageLoader. I found examples on the web here and here. Let’s say you have a python file in the same dir as your template:

./index.py
./template.html

This index.py will find the template and render it:

#!/usr/bin/python
import jinja2

templateLoader = jinja2.FileSystemLoader(searchpath="./")
templateEnv = jinja2.Environment(loader=templateLoader)
TEMPLATE_FILE = "template.html"
template = templateEnv.get_template(TEMPLATE_FILE)
outputText = template.render()  # this is where to put args to the template renderer

print(outputText)

It turns out, the jinja2 API doc does have a section which discusses all the built-in loaders, so it’s kind of embarrassing not to have noticed that right away. But the introduction is worded such that PackageLoader seems to be the default, “simplest” method. For newcomers to python, this can lead to a wild goose chase.