gistfile1.py

from django import template

register = template.Library()


class FormatTimeNode(template.Node):
    def __init__(self, date_to_be_formatted, format_string):
        self.date_to_be_formatted = template.Variable(date_to_be_formatted)
        self.format_string = format_string

    def render(self, context):
        try:
            actual_date = self.date_to_be_formatted.resolve(context)
            return actual_date.strftime(self.format_string)
        except template.VariableDoesNotExist:
            return ''

def do_format_time(parser, token):
    try:
        tag_name, date_to_be_formatted, format_string = token.contents.split()
    except ValueError:
        raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag requires exactly two arguments" % token.contents.split()[0]
    if not (format_string[0] == format_string[-1] and format_string[0] in ('"', "'")):
        raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag's argument should be in quotes" % tag_name
    return FormatTimeNode(date_to_be_formatted, format_string[1:-1])
    
register.tag('format_time', do_format_time)