Sams Teach Yourself Django in 24 Hours [Paperback]

Brad Dayley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2008 | ISBN-10: 067232959X | ISBN-13: 978-0672329593 | Edition: 1

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, you will be able to build full-featured production websites using Django, the powerful web development framework based on Python.

 

Designed for experienced website developers who have at least some familiarity with the Python programming language, this book uses a straightforward, step-by-step approach. Each lesson builds on the previous ones, enabling you to learn the essentials of implementing the Django framework on a website from the ground up.

 

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Django tasks.

 

Q&As, quizzes, and exercises at the end of each lesson help you test your knowledge.

 

Notes and tips point out shortcuts and solutions.

 

Learn how to…

• Install and configure the Django web development framework
• Cleanly separate data, logic, and view layers
• Implement site interfaces with build templates and views
• Utilize templates and views to store, access, and retrieve data
• Use the Django forms library
• Define custom tags and filters to minimize coding
• Secure sites with registration, authorization, logins, and permissions
• Manage sessions and cookies
• Implement middleware for request and response handling
• Create sitemaps to inform search engines of your content
• Internationalize your site
• Optimize performance with caching
• Deploy Django in multiple configurations
• Maintain sites with Django’s administrator interface

 

Introduction 1

 

Part I:  Creating the Website Framework

Hour 1: Understanding Django 7

Hour 2: Creating Your First Website 19

Hour 3: Adding Models and Objects to Your Website 37

Hour 4: Creating the Initial Views 63

Part II: Implementing the Website Interface

Hour 5: Using Data from the Database in Views 81

Hour 6: Configuring Web Page Views 103

Hour 7: Implementing Django Templates to Create Custom Views 117

Hour 8: Using Built-in Template Tags to Enhance Views 139

Hour 9: Using Built-in Template Filters to Enhance Views 155

Hour 10: Adding Forms to Views 185

Hour 11: Using Views to Add and Update Data in the Database 209

Hour 12: Utilizing Generic Views 231

Hour 13: Advanced View Configurations 269

Part III: Implementing a Full-Featured Website

Hour 14: Managing Site Users 295

Hour 15: Adding Website Security 313

Hour 16: Managing Sessions and Cookies 333

Hour 17: Customizing Models in the Admin Interface 347

Hour 18: Customizing the Admin Interface 365

Part IV:  Implementing Advanced Website Components

Hour 19: Implementing Middleware 383

Hour 20: Internationalization and Localization 407

Hour 21: Creating Sitemaps 423

Hour 22: Implementing Multiple Websites 437

Hour 23: Configuring Caching 451

Hour 24: Deploying Django 465

Appendixes

Appendix A: Django Resources 477

Appendix B: Django Form Field Objects 481

Appendix C: Formatting Dates and Times 491

 

Index 493

 

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brad Dayley is a senior software engineer in Novell’s Product Development Group. He has 16 years of experience in designing, developing, and implementing software from the kernel level through web development. He is the author of several books on server and network management as well as programming languages. When he is not developing software or writing books, he can be found biking, hiking, and/or Jeeping somewhere in the remote regions of the western United States with his wife, DaNae, and four sons.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

I have been working with the Django framework for about a year and a half, and I love it. Every so often you run into ideas that make absolute, complete sense, and Django is one of those. The folks at Django seem to be bent on making it the most elegant web framework available, and so far they are doing a great job.

This was a tough book to write. The Django framework is simple to implement, but you can accomplish so much with it. The format of this book is Teach Yourself in 24 Hours. The idea is that after spending 24 hours with this book and a Django installation, you should have a pretty good idea of how to use Django to build a full-featured production website.

Throughout this book, I use a fictitious website project called iFriends to illustrate the building blocks of a Django-powered website. The book has several "Try It Yourself" sections that take you through specific tasks of building the iFriends website. Actually do the "Try It Yourself" sections. They will help everything else make a lot more sense. They build on each other, so if you skip one, future "Try It Yourself" sections may not work properly.

When you have finished the "Try It Yourself" sections, you will have a mostly functional website. You should easily have enough skills by then that you could tweak and finish the website on your own in only a few hours if you wanted to. There just wasn't enough room in the book to finish every component. I felt it was much more important to cover the topics that I did.

I do have one disclaimer: There is absolutely no CSS code in my HTML template examples. I would much rather have used CSS code to format my HTML templates than the classic HTML tags (some of them deprecated) that I used. I chose not to include CSS for two important reasons. The first reason is room. Adding CSS files to all the examples would have taken quite a bit more room, which I didn't have. The second reason is that this book is designed for Python programmers as well as HTML programmers. Using CSS for someone who is not as familiar with it could provide a distraction. This book is about learning to implement the Django framework. CSS programming techniques belong in a different book.

When designing the content for this book, I tried to come up with the most relevant way to present the Django framework that will actually help programmers develop websites that are pertinent to real-world needs. I know that a few components and concepts have been left out. I welcome your comments and any suggestions on things that you feel need to be added to this book. If I get a chance, I will try to incorporate them into future revisions of the book. You can email any queries or suggestions to [e-mail].

I hope you enjoy the Django framework as much as I have and that the concepts in this book prove useful to you.

Who Should Read This Book

This book should be read by anyone who is developing or even considering developing websites. The Django framework saves web developers a lot of time and headaches. This book is designed for website developers who have at least some familiarity with the Python programming language. Don't worry if you are not very familiar with Python. You should be able to pick up on what is going on with a few visits to http://www.python.org.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into four parts that help you quickly navigate the Django framework so that you will have the knowledge necessary to leverage the framework to build production websites. I tried to design the book to start slowly so that you will be able to build a good foundation for the Django framework. Then, as the hours (chapters) progress, the book delves deeper into different aspects of the Django framework.

• Part I, "Creating the Website Framework," covers the basics of installing, configuring, and using the Django framework to build basic websites. You are introduced to the model, template, and view concepts that Django uses to implement websites.

• Part II, "Implementing the Website Interface," covers building templates and views to build web pages. You will learn how to use templates and views to store, access, and retrieve data that is stored in the website's database.

• Part III, "Implementing a Full-Featured Website," covers adding authentication, cookie handling, and other features necessary to implement a full production website. You will learn how to create users and groups and how to assign permissions to specific data.

• Part IV, "Implementing Advanced Website Components," covers some of the advanced features of the Django framework that you will likely want to implement in production websites. You will learn how to implement middleware to enable advanced request and response handlers. You will also learn how to implement localized strings to add multiple-language capability to the website, implement caching to improve website performance, and deploy a Django website.

How to Use This Book

The Teach Yourself in 24 Hours series has several unique elements that will help you as you are trying to learn the Django framework. Throughout the book, I use the following elements to draw attention to specific concepts:

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Tip - This element provides information about slightly off-topic tangents that may be beneficial to you but that are not necessarily directly related to the current section.

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Caution - This element provides information that is directly related to the current section but that does not necessarily flow with the text. It discusses what is happening in the background or points that you may not easily pick up on but that are important.

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Caution - This element notes important things that you need to know before proceeding through the book. It is important to read these sections to avoid problems with your website.

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The "Try It Yourself" sections are designed to take you through the steps of actually performing the tasks that you have been reading about. Do not skip these sections. They usually provide additional information about the topic and are a great chance to practice the concepts.

At the end of each hour, you will find the following sections that are designed to help you solidify what you have read:

• The "Q&A" section poses questions and gives answers on concepts that are related to the hour but that fall outside what is covered in the book.

• The "Quiz" section provides questions and answers about the topics covered in each hour.

• The "Exercises" section lists activities that you can do to practice what you have learned during the hour. These exercises are a great way to strike out on your own a bit and get more confident with Django.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (March 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067232959X
• ISBN-13: 978-0672329593
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,686,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Other reviews are too critical April 22, 2008

By C. Young VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have this book and have read most of it, and I think the 1 star reviews here are overly critical and not really deserved.

Yes, the book has some mistakes in it, but most computer books do. I think this book gives you enough instruction that if a code snippet does have an error in it, you can easily identify what it is and fix it yourself. Also, most code snippets are listed more than once, and if I remember correctly, errors present in one code snippet were not present in the others.

I originally learned Django from the Django project's website, but it lacks in a lot of areas. Some features of the framework are covered really well, and others aren't.

When The Django Book came out, I bought it, read it, and gave it a really good review, but the truth is that is suffers from the same lack of consistent focus that the Django website does; some things are covered well and others are lightly touched upon.

I think that is where this book comes in. For me anyway, it filled in some of the missing pieces and clarified some aspects of Django that had been a bit hazy for me before.

None of the other documentation or currently published books provide you with a complete view of Django, and neither does this one. It does, however, provide pieces to the puzzle that the other documentation doesn't. Therefore, I would not write it off as some reviewers have. It does provide value.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good if you can handle the sample code errors June 7, 2008

By Michael McKee TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

First off, there are a number of code errors in this book. Look at some other reviews of Sam's 24 Hours or 24 Days books and you will find that this is common. Apparently one of the reasons that these books are so inexpensive is that the publisher doesn't spend money on technical reviews. I knew that when I got this book so was not disappointed. I have just enough coding experience that I am able to catch obvious mistakes and not get bogged down by the sample code. I can see why someone who is less experienced might find the book unacceptable. To be fair, the book description does mention that it is for people with some Python background, who should be able to spot mistakes in the text.

On the plus side this book actually does a good job of offering Django basics in a logical and straightforward manner. It is a well thought out and paced tutorial and currently the only one available.

I find the Definitive Guide to be more of a reference book than a training one. If you are already an experienced programmer then skip the Sam's volume. If, like me, you have some background but need a step-by-step primer then this book is pretty good. The not yet released Django Projects book might be better but this is what's here now and it has given me enough of a background that I can understand the more advanced material of the Definitive Guide to Django.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of the title April 17, 2008

By Teo Choong Ping

Format:Paperback

This is indeed a good beginner Django book and no doubt will teach you Django in the short 24 hours. However do note that you will not be an expert in Django, but enough to get started and get things going. The real stuff in the online reference anyway. :-)

I did find the chapter on Model lacking and seems incomplete -- hence the 4 stars. But this could be because Django API is still growing, as reflected by the online API.

In short this book delivers the promise of learning Django in 24 hours.