Pinax - A platform for rapidly developing websites

a platform for rapidly developing websites James Tauber PyCon 2009

PyCon 2009

Pinax provides what many sites have in common so you can focus on what makes your site different

pi in hex

def pi(): N = 0 n, d = 0, 1 while True: xn = (120*N**2 + 151*N + 47) xd = (512*N**4 + 1024*N**3 + 712*N**2 + 194*N + 15) n = ((16 * n * xd) + (xn * d)) % (d * xd) d *= xd yield 16 * n // d N += 1

Your Site Your Site Django Python Python

why layer?

portability of higher layers

reusability of lower layers

productivity through compromise

We read Knuth so you don't have to. — Tim Peters

idea realisation

Quisition • currently has: • signup, login, password management • announcements • deck searching and sort • want to add: • user proﬁles • rating, tagging and commenting on decks • groups, friendships • membership levels • notiﬁcations • OpenID

Hot Club of France reusable apps app conventions

Potter Predictions • send invitations • connect to friends • make comments on predictions • tag prediction • mass mailout to users

Tabula Rasa reusable apps app conventions + starting point for new projects scaffolding for developing new apps

• django-friends • django-notiﬁcation • django-mailer • django-email-conﬁrmation

pianx

pinakes

pancakes

IHOP

NHØP

Django

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Let’s Build a Social Networking Site

{ n | available(“cloud<n>.com”), n < 30 } = { 14, 26, 27, 28 }

collection of reusable apps conventions for reusable apps starting point for new projects scaffolding for developing new apps + a platform for website development

Your Project Your Project Pinax Django Django Python Python

• AuthX (AuthN + AuthZ) Modern Web Infrastructure ◦ Capabilities ◦ Multifactor Auth ◦ Rate Limiting ◦ Signup ◦ OpenID ◦ OAuth ◦ External import • API Metering • Groups • Backups & Snapshots • Invites • Counters • Lists • Cloud/Cluster Management Tools • Notiﬁcations ◦ Instrumentation/Monitoring (Ganglia, Nagios) ◦ Spam ﬁltering ◦ Failover ◦ Multi-protocol routing ◦ Node addition/removal and hashing ◦ Fine-grained controls/rules ◦ Autoscaling for cloud resources • Presence • CSRF/XSS Protection • Social Activity Log (Newsfeed) • Data Retention/Archival ◦ Filtering • Deployment Tools • Social Model ◦ Multiple Devs, Staging, Prod ◦ Connectivity (uni/bidi) ◦ Data model upgrades ◦ Privacy (private, reciprocal, public) ◦ Rolling deployments ◦ Views ◦ Multiple versions (selective beta) ◦ Traversal ◦ Bucket Testing • Social Object ◦ Rollbacks ◦ Privacy, Social Scoping ◦ CDN Management ◦ Voting • Distributed File Storage ◦ Sharing • Distributed Log storage, analysis ◦ Publishing • Graphing ◦ Comments • HTTP Caching ◦ Favoriting • Input/Output Filtering ◦ Social editing • Memory Caching ◦ Permissions • Non-relational Key Stores • Tagging • Rate Limiting ◦ Combinations • Relational Storage ◦ Relatedness • Queues • User • Rate Limiting ◦ Achievements/Awards • Real-time messaging (XMPP) ◦ Activity Log • Search ◦ External User ID Mapping ◦ Ranging ◦ Permissions (see AuthX) ◦ Geo ◦ Deletion/Archival • Sharding ◦ Flagging • Smart Caching ◦ Direct Messaging ◦ dirty-table management ◦ User Cards

What seems the biggest shame to me is that everyone is currently rebuilding this stuff over and over again and rationalizing it as some sort of secret sauce competitive advantage when it’s really infrastructure - stuff that really should be standardized so you can actually get around to doing the new and interesting stuff. — Leonard Lin http://randomfoo.net/2009/01/28/infrastructure-for-modern-web-sites

Your Project the trade off: Pinax how much to ﬁx? how much to make conﬁgurable? how much to leave Django completely to site developer?

Pinax IS Django

Features in 0.5 • openid support • interest groups (called tr ibes) • email ver ification • password management • projects with basic task and issue management • site announcements • threaded discussions • a notification fr amewor k • wikis • user-to-user messaging with multiple mar kup suppor t • fr iend invitation • blogging (both inter nal and exter nal to the site) • bookmar ks • a basic twitter clone • tagging • oembed suppor t • contact impor t • gr avatar suppor t (from vCard, Google or Yahoo) • photo management

0.5 Structure • external apps • local apps • libraries • two sample projects • path hacking

External apps • all on Google Code Project Hosting • use of svn:externals • half were written independently of Pinax • avoiding “rhythm section apps” • do one thing

Libraries • batteries included • except for PIL • makes for a huge checkout

Sites Using Pinax • cloud27.com • badlist.co.uk • foodsel.com • goodlist.co.uk • trailmapping.com • www.pinaxcn.com • tuttivisti.com • www.dooplan.com • girlgamer.com • faircompanies.com • coathangr.com • drinktale.com • replyforall.com • aletale.com • corpu.com • Eldarion intranet • we20.org • NASA SMD Spacebook • earth.burningman.com • gameocracy.org • trackmytrophies.com • mftransparency.org • carposse.com • lifelist.net • sequencemed.com

0.7 Release • open micro-blogging • schedules • locations • page-cms • account and group improvements • uni-form and Section 508 • better shared templates and media • more sample projects (and complete renamed social) • virtualenv and pip • pinax is now a package

New Account App • turn OpenID on/off • turn sign up on/off • waiting list • invite only / private beta • token-based password reset • resend signup email conﬁrmation with exponential backoff • use email for login

you signed up for admin initiated each user has ﬁxed user can invite beta account number to hand out anyone admin sent code user invited you general code unique invite just go to site (type in) (email link) have code external auth username / password username signup (no password) SIGNED UP

New Group App • Don’t Repeat Yourself! • endo vs exo • membership app

Endo Approach (framework-like)

Exo Approach (library approach)

Shared Templates and Media • look up: • project • pinax new level • app • media build command • ship with famfamfam silk icons

Problems with 0.5 structure • it largely relies on external dependencies being in svn and this is increasingly not the case (although it was when Pinax started) • it makes it difﬁcult for Pinax itself to move away from svn • there is no management of dependencies between external dependencies, nor between particular projects in Pinax and their individual dependencies

virtualenv and pip • encourage externals apps to be distutils- compliant • pip for package install (at least during development) • optional “batteries included” release • virtualenv to provide isolation, remove need for path hacking and just because it kicks ass

Pinax is NOT just for social networks

site site site site site site site site site site site site Learning Social Networks Intranets e-commerce Management Pinax Django

Editions • social networking • intranet • learning management • e-commerce • clubs and associations • conference management • software project management

http://pinaxproject.com/

Pinax - A platform for rapidly developing websites

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