Professional Python Frameworks: Web 2.0 Programming with Django and Turbogears (Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback]

Dana Moore (Author), Raymond Budd (Author), William Wright (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470138092 | ISBN-13: 978-0470138090 | Publication Date: October 15, 2007 | Edition: 1

As two of the leading MVC web frameworks for Python, Django and TurboGears allow you to develop and launch sites in a fraction of the time compared to traditional techniques and they provide greater stability, scalability, and management than alternatives. Packed with examples, this book will help you discover a new methodology for designing, coding, testing, and deploying rich web applications.

A team of expert authors shows you the power of MVC frameworks and the capabilities of the TurboGears and Django packages. The Django chapters show you how to automate production of common web development tasks, portal creation, and content management, so you can focus on higher-level application issues and design. The TurboGears chapters illustrate how to rapidly create modern, highly interactive Web 2.0 applications. For both frameworks, you'll create useful applications that exemplify common Web 2.0 design paradigms and their solutions. Ultimately, you'll leverage your Python skills using Django and TurboGears and go from novice to RIA expert.

What you will learn from this book

* How you can use frameworks to save you time and frustration in the development cycle
*

The elements, differences, and similarities of the TurboGears and Django frameworks
*

Advanced capabilities of both frameworks and how they easily solve issues common to web applications
*

Approaches to simplifying your client side JavaScript(r) with MochiKit, a Pythonic JavaScript library
*

How to pair TurboGears with Flash for even more possibilities

Who this book is for

This book is for Python developers who want to learn rapid Web 2.0 development techniques using frameworks and incorporating a model-view-controller architecture.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

As two of the leading MVC web frameworks for Python, Django and TurboGears allow you to develop and launch sites in a fraction of the time compared to traditional techniques and they provide greater stability, scalability, and management than alternatives. Packed with examples, this book will help you discover a new methodology for designing, coding, testing, and deploying rich web applications.

A team of expert authors shows you the power of MVC frameworks and the capabilities of the TurboGears and Django packages. The Django chapters show you how to automate production of common web development tasks, portal creation, and content management, so you can focus on higher-level application issues and design. The TurboGears chapters illustrate how to rapidly create modern, highly interactive Web 2.0 applications. For both frameworks, you'll create useful applications that exemplify common Web 2.0 design paradigms and their solutions. Ultimately, you'll leverage your Python skills using Django and TurboGears and go from novice to RIA expert.

What you will learn from this book

• How you can use frameworks to save you time and frustration in the development cycle

• The elements, differences, and similarities of the TurboGears and Django frameworks

• Advanced capabilities of both frameworks and how they easily solve issues common to web applications

• Approaches to simplifying your client side JavaScript® with MochiKit, a Pythonic JavaScript library

• How to pair TurboGears with Flash for even more possibilities

Who this book is for

This book is for Python developers who want to learn rapid Web 2.0 development techniques using frameworks and incorporating a model-view-controller architecture.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Dana Moore is a division scientist with BBN Technologies and is an acknowledged expert in the fields of peer-to-peer and collaborative computing, software agent frameworks, and assistive environments. Prior to joining BBN, Dana was chief scientist for Roku Technologies and a distinguished member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories. Dana is a popular conference speaker and a university lecturer. He has written articles for numerous computing publications and coauthored the books Peer-to-Peer: Building Secure, Scalable, and Manageable Networks; Jabber Developer’s Handbook; and Rich Internet Applications. Dana holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial design, also from the University of Maryland.

Raymond Budd is a software engineer with BBN Technologies. He has designed, developed, and supported a variety of web applications and other distributed systems in Java, Ruby, and Python. He has been published in several conference proceedings such as the Eighteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence and journals including Applied Intelligence. Additional areas of interest include knowledge representations, knowledge engineering, and distributed planning and scheduling. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh.

William Wright is a senior principal investigator with SPARTA, where he develops networking software for systems distributed across the globe. His interests include real-time embedded systems, software architecture for reuse, and software agent frameworks. A frequent conference speaker, William has also written for Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Java Developer’s Journal, and Embedded Systems Programming, among others. He coauthored the books Jabber Developer’s Handbook and Beginning Java Networking. William holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Music degree in education from Indiana University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (October 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470138092
• ISBN-13: 978-0470138090
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,850,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nearly useless for Django, November 28, 2007

By 

Wayne K. Werner (Staten Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional Python Frameworks: Web 2.0 Programming with Django and Turbogears (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I found this book to be nearly useless... the code is badly written and the depth of the material barely goes beyond the available (free) online documentation and tutorials, which are BTW, very well written.

If you're looking for information on the featured JavaScript library, Mochikit, save your time... you will find much more just by going to the website.

This is obviously a TurboGears book, the Django portion being an obvious afterthought and lacking some of the important chapters that TurboGears has. Save your money and your time by not buying this book.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very poor forDjango, October 20, 2007

By 

C. F. Jennings "cullen" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Python Frameworks: Web 2.0 Programming with Django and Turbogears (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I bought this book to learn how to write Django. It is pretty bad. Lots of the examples are incomplete and don't actually work. It shows some stuff but leaves lots unexplained. It is very incomplete - I would not recommend it.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Eh... where's the beef, Django-wise?, January 23, 2008

By 

WiltDurkey (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional Python Frameworks: Web 2.0 Programming with Django and Turbogears (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

It's kinda hard to understand what this book is supposed to achieve. I mostly bought it because there were no other books about Django available at the time and I wanted something that went beyond the online Django doc. I did not read the TG parts much, because I wasn't really interested, having tried TG before. The little I read didn't look much better than the Django half though.

Short and sweet is that it did not significantly improve my knowledge of Django. All the examples are pretty much surface-level, intro-to-simple-concepts stuff. Or fluffy examples like RSS feeds without exploring the basics in depth first. Not very insightful, but wordy nevertheless. Could I have used this to get started with Django? I could, but the online doc is way more comprehensive and a quicker read. Part of the problem is that Django and Turbogears get only 100 pages each. While 100 more pages cover a more generic discussion of Python-on-the-web coupled with some Django + TG.

Was the bar too high? Did I have a very deep knowledge of web development and Django? No, I did the online tutorial and have spent maybe a month or two coding on Django full time, with little web development background going in. I do know databases and Python very well. This book, which I had no trouble following, just didn't add much to my understanding. Not to say it is entirely without value, hence the 2 stars.

If it's not a good guide to Django, how about allowing someone, perhaps a manager, to decide between Django and TurboGears? Nope, because the authors do not really compare them. Odd, given the format of the book.

I can understand the authors not wanting to pick sides. However I did expect some comparison. What is Django good at? What is TurboGears good at? Possible comparison points: OS support, hosting availability, general maturity & stability, scalability & performance, deployment strategies (Apache, Lightty...), database support, how to extend with custom code + ORMs, Javascript libraries, depth of online docs and online community, etc... No, nothing of the sort. If anything, the "non-trivial" examples are carefully chosen _not_ to do the same things in both frameworks so that you can't compare for yourself.

Surely TG and Django are not equal and both have advantages and disadvantages? This book wasn't even able to answer that question. In the time you spend reading it you could do both the TG and Django tutorials and start answering it for yourself. Past that point, buy a book about only Django or only TG.