CherryPy sigue devolviendo páginas en blanco o con los valores que devuelvo en los controladores. Reescribí una versión de django y jinja2 que funcionó, aparentemente esta no, que es casi idéntica a la mencionada anteriormente.

Hice algunos pprint en el bit de herramienta que llena el request.body con html analizado pero no lo genera cuando se establece pass en el controlador. Si devuelvo un {'usuario': Verdadero} en el controlador que se muestra en forma de un simple "Usuario".

con algunos ejemplos en línea y el código de SickBeard llegué a lo siguiente:

controlador:

class RootController(object):
    @cherrypy.expose
    @cherrypy.tools.render(template="page/home.html")
    def index(self):
        pass

herramienta:

class CheetahTool(cherrypy.Tool):
    def __init__(self):
        cherrypy.Tool.__init__(self, 'on_start_resource',
                               self._render,
                               priority=30)

    def _render(self, template=None, debug=False):
        if cherrypy.response.status > 399:
            return

        # retrieve the data returned by the handler
        data = cherrypy.response.body or {}
        template = cherrypy.engine.publish("lookup-template", template).pop()

        if template and isinstance(data, dict):
            for k,v in data:
                template.__setattr__(k, v)

            # dump the template using the dictionary
            if debug:
                try:
                    cherrypy.response.body = unicode(template).encode('utf-8', 'xmlcharrefreplace')
                except Exception as e:
                    from pprint import pprint
                    pprint(e.message)
            else:
                cherrypy.response.body = template.respond()

enchufar:

class PageTemplate(Template):
    """
    Thank you SickBeard
    """
    def __init__(self, base_dir, template, *args, **KWs):
        KWs['file'] = os.path.join(base_dir, template)
        super(PageTemplate, self).__init__(*args, **KWs)
        application = cherrypy.tree.apps['']
        config = application.config 
        self.sbRoot = base_dir
        self.sbHttpPort = config['global']['server.socket_port']
        self.sbHttpsPort = self.sbHttpPort
        self.sbHttpsEnabled = False
        if cherrypy.request.headers['Host'][0] == '[':
            self.sbHost = re.match("^\[.*\]", cherrypy.request.headers['Host'], re.X|re.M|re.S).group(0)
        else:
            self.sbHost = re.match("^[^:]+", cherrypy.request.headers['Host'], re.X|re.M|re.S).group(0)

        if "X-Forwarded-Host" in cherrypy.request.headers:
            self.sbHost = cherrypy.request.headers['X-Forwarded-Host']
        if "X-Forwarded-Port" in cherrypy.request.headers:
            self.sbHttpPort = cherrypy.request.headers['X-Forwarded-Port']
            self.sbHttpsPort = self.sbHttpPort
        if "X-Forwarded-Proto" in cherrypy.request.headers:
            self.sbHttpsEnabled = True if cherrypy.request.headers['X-Forwarded-Proto'] == 'https' else False

        self.sbPID = str(aquapi.PID)
        self.menu = [
            { 'title': 'Home',            'key': 'home'           },
            { 'title': 'Users',           'key': 'users'          },
            { 'title': 'Config',          'key': 'config'         },
        ]

    def render(self):
        return unicode(self).encode('utf-8', 'xmlcharrefreplace')


class CheetahTemplatePlugin(plugins.SimplePlugin):
    def __init__(self, bus, base_dir=None, base_cache_dir=None, 
                 collection_size=50, encoding='utf-8'):
        plugins.SimplePlugin.__init__(self, bus)
        self.base_dir = base_dir
        self.base_cache_dir = base_cache_dir or tempfile.gettempdir()
        self.encoding = encoding
        self.collection_size = collection_size

    def start(self):
        self.bus.log('Setting up Cheetah resources')
        self.bus.subscribe("lookup-template", self.get_template)

    def stop(self):
        self.bus.log('Freeing up Cheetah resources')
        self.bus.unsubscribe("lookup-template", self.get_template)
        self.lookup = None

    def get_template(self, name):
        """
        Returns Cheetah's template by name.
        """
        return PageTemplate(self.base_dir, name)

en eso:

        # Template engine tool
        from aquapi.web.tools.template import CheetahTool
        cherrypy.tools.render = CheetahTool()

        # Tool to load the logged in user or redirect
        # the client to the login page
        from aquapi.web.tools.user import UserTool
        cherrypy.tools.user = UserTool()


        from aquapi.web.controllers import RootController 
        webapp = RootController()

        # Let's mount the application so that CherryPy can serve it
        app = cherrypy.tree.mount(webapp, '/', os.path.join(self.base_dir, "app.cfg"))

        # Template engine plugin
        from aquapi.web.plugin.template import CheetahTemplatePlugin
        engine.cheetah = CheetahTemplatePlugin(engine, 
                                        os.path.join(self.base_dir, 'aquapi/web/templates'),
                                        os.path.join(self.base_dir, 'cache'))
        engine.cheetah.subscribe()