PySIG Django Presentation - Feb. 22, 2007 Dave Rowell, Appropriate Solutions, Inc., Peterborough, NH drowell@appropriatesolutions.com Definition of Django From the Django site: "Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design." Supporting examples: * Simple (for a programmer) to set up and get going. * Uses and allows loosely coupled components. * Encourages well-formed urls. * MVC-ish design separates data, business logic and appearance: Model (data design), View (business logic), Template (presentation). Why I like Django Good use of Python. Except for the templates, the components you work with are all Python code. The framework is high-level with lots of useful components, but it's also flexible with hooks to get in and do whatever you need to do. However, more and more I find that when I need to do something, someone's already done it and left me well-designed tools to do the same. What Appropriate Solutions uses Django for * Site to display current and historical credit exchange rates. It was my first Django app and also complex enough to make Django's automatic admin interface uncomfortable. I think I'd like to come back to this app after more experience and see if I can make it fit better. This app required writing several largish SQL queries. * An internal hour-tracking application (in development). * Low-cost e-commerice web sites. A good fit for Django. I actually found myself removing code and files as I learned to use the built-in Django tools. As our web store app becomes more complicated, we may consider converting to Satchmo, a Django-based e-commerce project with more complicated features (www.satchmoproject.com). Django features From "Django for Non-Programmers" (link below): * Administrative interface (for adding/deleting/modifying items in the database) * Database connectivity (several supported databases – PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle in the works - no SQL needed) * Authentication and authorization (users, groups, and permissions) * URL configuration (for making simple, clean URLs) * Internationalization (makes localization easy) * Feed syndication (RSS/Atom) * Comments on any type of object (both anonymous comments, which Django calls “free comments” and comments that require registration) * Flat pages (simple HTML content stored in the database and passed into a template) Also (from my programmer perspective): * Builds your database for you from your model classes (models.py) * Development web server that works as you modify code and provides debug information * Supports scalable hosting (Apache with ModPython, lighttpd) * Many content caching options * Projects can consist of several pluggable applications * Generic views that handle common data models (category/item, date archive) * Extensible template language The basic Django app components settings.py - general control over environment and what's included in your web project models.py - defines your data model - from this Django will build a complete DB schema urls.py - regular expressions that map URLs to views views.py - Python programs that build the data context of a web page and choose the template to display it templates – html page templates with {{ variables }} and {% block tags %} that provide display logic (loops, if-then) Django Links * Main Django site, the official Django reference, http://www.djangoproject.com/ * The Django Book, an on-line book in progress, http://www.djangobook.com/en/beta/ * James Bennet's (Django developer) enlightening blog entries on Django, http://www.b-list.org/feeds/categories/django * Django for Non-Programmers, Django web designer's (Jeff Croft, World Online) point of view, http://www2.jeffcroft.com/blog/2006/may/02/django-non-programmers/ * Django Sites List, a list of sites that use Django, http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DjangoPoweredSites
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PySIGDjango20070222
Topic revision: r1 - 2007-02-26 - TedRoche
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