creating my own context processor in django

According to the django docs you can use render as a shortcut instead of render_to_response with the context_instance argument:

Alternatively, use the render() shortcut which is the same as a call to render_to_response() with a context_instance argument that forces the use of a RequestContext.

Let's say you have a file structure like this:

YourDjangoProject
├───project
│   ├───__init__.py
│   ├───asgi.py
│   ├───settings.py
│   ├───urls.py
│   └───wsgi.py
├───.env
├───manage.py
└───db.sqlite3

1) Anywhere, create a context_processors.py file

I'll create one in the project folder (with settings.py):

YourDjangoProject
└───project
    ├───...
    └───context_processors.py

2) Create a function in context_processors.py that accepts a HttpRequest object as an argument and returns a dictionary

A context processor is just a function that accepts an HttpRequest object as an argument and returns a dictionary.

Like this:

# project/context_processors.py

def site_email(request):
    return {'site_email': '[email protected]'}

3) Add this to your context_processors setting in settings.py (at the bottom for security reasons)

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'config' / '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',
                'project.context_processors.site_email',  # <- New context processor here
            ],
        },
    },
]

Now you'll be able to access the 'site_email' template variable on every single django template across your whole site.

Happy coding!

The context processor you have written should work. The problem is in your view.

Are you positive that your view is being rendered with RequestContext?

For example:

def test_view(request):
    return render_to_response('template.html')

The view above will not use the context processors listed in TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS. Make sure you are supplying a RequestContext like so:

def test_view(request):
    return render_to_response('template.html', context_instance=RequestContext(request))