Some suggestions on where to look next when building that next Django site

1. You’ve done the Django tutorial.
What next?
Andy McKay
Clearwind Consulting
@clearwind

2. build something

3. my opinions, likely wrong

4. 1. Setting up
2. Writing models
3. Middle years
4. Avoid
5. Tools

5. Part I: Setting up

6. app vs project vs...

7. past caring

8. app directory

9. (a). base templates

10. (b). context processor
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/templates/api/#writing-your-own-
context-processors

11. def context(request):
data = {}
return data

12. (c). render shortcuts
eg: http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/1022/

13. (d). site constants

14. (e) your middleware
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.1/topics/http/middleware/#writing-your-
own-middleware

15. (f) your auth. backend
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/auth/#topics-auth

16. (g) base classes

17. model base class

18. class Base(models.Model):
class Meta:
abstract = True

19. form base class

20. class Form(forms.Form):
! pass
class ModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
! pass

21. Part 2: Writing models

22. (a) fixtures

23. not just for testing

24. create data in admin

25. manage.py dumpdata

26. (b) migration

27. during development

28. reset script
http://www.agmweb.ca/blog/andy/2154/

29. drop db, create db,
syncdb, load fixtures,
start up server etc...

30. my workflow

31. 1. create app within project
2. define models
3. access admin
4. smoke test models
5. alter, run “reset”
6. access admin (back to 4 until happy)
7. enter sample data
8. dump data to fixtures
9. add fixture loading to “reset”
10. continue... write tests and retail view

32. at some point... beta?

33. South
http://south.aeracode.org/

34. Part 3: The middle years

35. (a) signals

36. great for decoupling
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/signals/
#ref-signals

37. signals.pre_save.connect(
! add_profile,
! sender=User)

38. custom signals
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/signals/#defining-and-sending-
signals

39. (b) URLs

40. always use named urls
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/urls/#url

41. urlpatterns = patterns('',
url(r'^index/$',
index_view,
name="main-view"),
...
)

42. reverse(“main-view”)

43. {% url main-view %}

44. (c) class based views
http://www.slideshare.net/simon/
classbased-views-with-django

45. def boring(request):
...
return some_html

46. class boring:
def get(request):
...
return some_html

47. Part 4: Avoid these

48. generic views
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/generic-views/

49. push logic into urls,
always need rewriting

50. custom template tags
(maybe)

51. complicated templates

52. {% div %}
{% dl %}
{% dt %}Name{% enddt %}
{% dd %}Definition{% enddd %}
{% enddl %}
{% enddiv %}

53. some of django.contrib...

54. comments

55. Part 5: Debug Tools

56. pdb
http://docs.python.org/library/pdb.html

57. pdb
http://docs.python.org/library/pdb.html
(not optional)

58. ipython
http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/

59. ipdb
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/ipdb

60. django debug toolbar
http://github.com/robhudson/django-debug-toolbar

61. command extensions
http://code.google.com/p/django-command-extensions/

66. arecibo
http://areciboapp.com
(disclaimer)

67. Fin. Questions?
Andy McKay
Clearwind Consulting
@clearwind