Inside the Drakkar the making of Mobile Vikings by Gert, Ingo & Jef

Mobile Vikings facts Mobile operator since Feb 1, 2009 Started with 1000 users and has grown since 2500 invitation requests 6350 total lines of Python code Total usage of 27,05 GiB used last month

Mobile operator since Feb 1, 2009

Started with 1000 users and has grown since

2500 invitation requests

6350 total lines of Python code

Total usage of 27,05 GiB used last month

Overview Technology Website Backend

Technology

Website

Backend

Technology stack Django 1.0 Apache 2 MySQL 5 Server

Django 1.0

Apache 2

MySQL 5

Server

Django What? Web framework encouraging DRY-principle Python Model-Template-View (MVC-like) Focus on reusability More info: djangoproject.com

What?

Web framework encouraging DRY-principle

Python

Model-Template-View (MVC-like)

Focus on reusability

More info: djangoproject.com

Server One virtualized machine Plenty of room for scaling Debian

One virtualized machine

Plenty of room for scaling

Debian

Website philosophy Everything via the web Become a customer Get your SIM card Top-ups (PayPal, …) Realtime call history Important information (SIM number, PUK, credit balance, SMS alerts)

Become a customer

Get your SIM card

Top-ups (PayPal, …)

Realtime call history

Important information (SIM number, PUK, credit balance, SMS alerts)

Website philosophy (2) Feedback == important! We strive to create a better user experience… … so give us your feedback! [email_address]

We strive to create a better user experience…

… so give us your feedback!

[email_address]

Backend Connection to BASE SIM management Bundles Top-ups Helpdesk SMS alerts (upcoming feature)

Connection to BASE

SIM management

Bundles

Top-ups

Helpdesk

SMS alerts (upcoming feature)

Django and Mobile Vikings Allows us to create reliable, complex yet maintainable web applications and sites in no time Pretty URL’s (E.g. /myviking/credit/) Makes use of Python, which is more explicit; this gives clarity. Existing code has an easy learning curve. Powerful templating system with inheritance Built-in support for internationalization

Allows us to create reliable, complex yet maintainable web applications and sites in no time

Pretty URL’s (E.g. /myviking/credit/)

Makes use of Python, which is more explicit; this gives clarity. Existing code has an easy learning curve.

Powerful templating system with inheritance

Built-in support for internationalization

Django and Mobile Vikings (2) Django helped us to cope with constantly changing situations (many new features, data model changes, complete rewrites of parts) Abstraction to external API’s E.g. support for multiple SMS gateways Easy and fast deployment Supports iterative development Clean, but readable code

Django helped us to cope with constantly changing situations (many new features, data model changes, complete rewrites of parts)

Abstraction to external API’s

E.g. support for multiple SMS gateways

Easy and fast deployment

Supports iterative development

Clean, but readable code

Clean code Models define: Database tables Object-Relational Mapper HTML forms (including basic validation) a part of the REST API Our SIM model:

Models define:

Database tables

Object-Relational Mapper

HTML forms (including basic validation)

a part of the REST API

Made with Django mobilevikings.com glowe.org gloweme.com …

mobilevikings.com

glowe.org

gloweme.com

…

Questions?