how to do some backward modifying

[Jinghui Niu]

Is there a way in Mako allowing me to do some backward modifying according to some conditionals that is after where I want the modification goes?\

Here is my example:

<%def name="expand_navigationTree(parentNode)">
  % for item_tuple in parentNode:

      <li>

        ${item_tuple[0]}

  % if item_tuple[1] is not None: ## containing sub-menu
      <ul class="submenu is-hidden">
        ${expand_navigationTree(item_tuple[1])}
      </ul>
  % endif
      </li>
  % endfor
</%def>

In this example, I'd like to add a 

<span class='fa fa-caret-down' style='float: right'></span>

if the

if item_tuple[1] is not None

condition evaluates to True.

As you can see, it's very awkward. I don't know if Mako allows me to do this kind of thing? 

Many thanks.

[Jinghui Niu]

Oh, I forgot to clarify this. In the example that I gave, I'd like that <span> portion to go BEFORE the submenu, something that jQuery prepend method does. Sorry for not pointing out in my last post.

[Jonathan Vanasco]

Make just renders text/html; jquery does DOM manipulation.

You need to write another "if" statement, or render the text in another way.