Customer Reviews

Beginning Django Ecommerce (Expert's Voice in Web Development)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Though I haven't yet completed this book, I like the author's writing style and the information he presents. I also like that fact that he has you write code by yourself instead of just suggesting 3rd party plug-ins to accomplish a particular task (unlike some other Django books). Though the title would suggest this book is only about E-Commerce, it isn't. It is a great introduction to Django and covers everything someone new to Django would need to know to get started.

I bought two Django books published by Apress at about the same time. The first one, Practical Django Projects - 2nd Edition, is a good book, but it has some errors in it, and the author has been unresponsive in addressing them, so they are not included in the books errata on Apress's website. Another negative is that the source code that is supposed to be included with the book wasn't for several months, and though it is now, it is incomplete.

This book also has some errors in it, but the author has been very responsive in commenting on them and getting them out to Apress's errata page so that people new to Django won't be frustrated and unable to move past them. This kind of dedication is very important and appreciated. The book is good on its own, but with the added support of the author, it is a great title.

This is a good book for getting practical application examples using Django. The Django/Python community is lacking more literature like this (IMHO). Where developers talk less about the inner workings/libraries of Django/Python and more about how to use it in a practical project.

This book covers more than just Django, but also discusses the ancillary technologies used when developing a website/web-application (like css, javascript, etc).

If you are new to Django and need something more than an intro to the framework/platform, this would be a good purchase. You might want to skip a few chapters if you have a background in Django (this is a "beginning" book not "pro"), as the book takes you from the very start. Excellent resource for web developers wanting to get started with Django.

I would recommend this book. Well written and good examples. I have been using django for over 2 years and it helped me
learn some of the functionality within django that I was confused about. As far as an ecommerce site, this book makes it a lot easier than trying to use Satchmo.

Pros: Fairly readable introduction to ecommerce for programmers who already know django, python, HTML, XML, CSS, and SQL. A complete online ecommerce application for a musical instrument store is developed in stages and the reader may follow along by typing the code or pasting from an ebook. A completed version of the application is downloadable from the publisher's book home page. Shows how to implement online credit card payments.

Cons: Excessive use of first and third person. Instructions to the reader are hard to follow, mainly because they are embedded in the textual material when they should have been sectioned out and numbered. Introductory and reference material is mostly limited to what the author feels in necessary to explain his application. Author assumes the reader already has a background in server side programming.

Following along by keyboarding the code is extremely difficult and readers who do so will likely spend a lot of time debugging typos. Some of the instructions to the reader, always given in unnumbered plain paragraph form, are nearly indecipherable and/or easy to overlook.

All of the code is provided so there are really no programming exercises for the reader.

Summary: Good introduction to ecommerce with django but not a beginner's introduction to django. Not really appropriate for django newbies.

I have a fair number of Django books. Not all of them get my recommendation. This is not only great for ecommerce but also for covering Django topics not well-covered elsewhere: deployment, testing, and optimization. I haven't seen any other source that does a reasonable job with setting up ngenix (for static content) with Apache (for dynamic content), not that that is wholly a Django topic. I think a beginner couple use this as an intro book in Django and do quite reasonably at picking up the platform. Highly recommended.

This book illustrates how to create an ecommerce web application from beginning to end. It fills in the gaps that some of the other Django books are missing, such as unit testing. After completing this book, you will be at the intermediate level, which is good enough to develop most applications. This book also proves you can create real world applications with Django and reveals the beauty of this lightweight, yet powerful, framework.

The author's writing style is easy to follow and insightful.

I like this author's writing style and his coverage of a broad range of topics that are useful when developing a Django application. In particular, I found his description of how to setup nginix and apache to be very helpful. He also writes with a sense of humor, which is quite refreshing.

I strongly recommend going through some tutorials on python before starting this book, as it will help a lot. I came from a C# background myself, so I ran into a few tough spots while working my way through the book (mostly because of misunderstandings on my part). I also would have liked for the AJAX portions to have been larger, but that is more personal preference than a beef with the book.

If you use django buy this book. Very well written with real examples. I have all of the django books and this is my overall favorite.

I've just started this book and already the author has given several instructions on what to do, assuming the reader knows how. For such a long book you'd think there would be more instructions, but you'd be surprised by how many times just in the first few chapters you're told to do something with very loose instructions on HOW.

FYI, if I'm reading a book with BEGINNERS in the title, maybe you should tell me HOW to setup the MySql database, don't just give me what you typed into your command shell on a "Unix variant" machine. That does me no good.

So now I'm stuck and I have to go online to find instructions on how to create a MySql database and how to setup users and permissions. THANKS $40 BOOK!

But this gives me an idea for a book titled, "How To Omit Information In Beginner Books For Guaranteed Misery".

Jokes aside, if the book is starting with such holes, I'm scared for the rest of the book.