The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right [Paperback]

Adrian Holovaty (Author), Jacob Kaplan-Moss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2009 | ISBN-10: 143021936X | ISBN-13: 978-1430219361 | Edition: 2

This latest edition of The Definitive Guide to Django is updated for Django 1.1, and, with the forward–compatibility guarantee that Django now provides, should serve as the ultimate tutorial and reference for this popular framework for years to come.

Django, the Python–based equivalent to Ruby’s Rails web development framework, is one of the hottest topics in web development today. Lead developer Jacob Kaplan–Moss and Django creator Adrian Holovaty show you how they use this framework to create award–winning web sites by guiding you through the creation of a web application reminiscent of ChicagoCrime.org.

The Definitive Guide to Django is broken into three parts, with the first introducing Django fundamentals such as installation and configuration, and creating the components that together power a Django–driven web site. The second part delves into the more sophisticated features of Django, including outputting non–HTML content such as RSS feeds and PDFs, caching, and user management. The appendixes serve as a detailed reference to Django’s many configuration options and commands.

What you’ll learn

• The first half of this book explains in depth how to build web applications using Django including the basics of dynamic web pages, the Django templating system interacting with databases, and web forms.
• The second half of this book discusses higher-level concepts such as caching, security, and how to deploy Django.
• The appendixes form a reference for the commands and configurations available in Django.

Who this book is for

Anyone who wants to use the powerful Django framework to build dynamic web sites quickly and easily.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Django
2. Getting Started
3. Views and URLconfs
4. Templates
5. Models
6. The Django Admin Site
7. Forms
8. Advanced Views and URLconfs
9. Advanced Templates
10. Advanced Models
11. Generic Views
12. Deploying Django
13. Generating Non-HTML Content
14. Sessions, Users, and Registration
15. Caching
16. django.contrib
17. Middleware
18. Integrating with Legacy Databases and Applications
19. Internationalization
20. Security

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Adrian Holovaty, a web developer and journalist, is one of the creators and core developers of Django. He works at WashingtonPost.com, where he builds database web applications and does "journalism as computer programming." Previously, he was lead developer for World Online in Lawrence, Kansas, where Django was created. When not working on Django improvements, Adrian hacks on side projects for the public good, such as ChicagoCrime.org, which won the 2005 Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism. He lives in Chicago and maintains a weblog at www.Holovaty.com.

Jacob Kaplan-Moss is one of the lead developers of Django. At his day job, he's the lead developer for the Lawrence Journal-World, a locally owned newspaper in Lawrence, Kansas, where Django was developed. At the Journal-World, Jacob hacks on a number of sites including lawrence.com, LJWorld.com, and KUsports.com, and he is continually embarrassed by the multitude of media awards those sites win. In his spare time—what little of it there is—he fancies himself a chef.

Product Details

• Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 2 edition (July 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143021936X
• ISBN-13: 978-1430219361
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you had to limit yourself to one Django book... February 23, 2010

By Shawn Milochik

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been working with Django full-time for the past nine months. Just from my day-to-day work, I've learned most of what's in this book (with major help from the official Django documentation and the mailing list), but I'd just been using this book as a reference. I finally took the time in the past week to read this book cover-to-cover, and it's fantastic. It really filled in the gaps in my knowledge, and gave me a deeper understanding of what's going on in the background when I use the Django features I touch every day.

If I had read this book six or eight months ago, it would have saved me a lot of time, and I would have written more reusable code. I say "six or eight" months instead of "since the beginning" because I really felt like I was able to get the most out of this book because I intimately understood the framework. If I had never used Django before reading this it would still have been fantastic, but to really get the full benefit I would have had to read it again once I had more Django under my belt.

If you're brand-new to Django, I recommend this learning path:

1. Do the official tutorial first as the bare-minimum.

2. If you have projects in mind, do them! If not, get James Bennett's Practical Django Projects, Second Edition (Expert's Voice in Web Development) in which he walks you through creating and enhancing fully-functional Django applications using the best practices of the community.

3. With that Django experience, read this book cover-to-cover. You'll be able to do pretty much anything you want with Django at that point.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice reference, but not as good as the web version for learning Django March 27, 2010

By Jamie R. Wilson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I wanted to give this book more stars, but I just can't. As a reference book for Django developers, it's excellent. As a beginner's guide to learning Django, it fails because Apress didn't make a sufficient effort to ensure that the book made it to bookstores without show-stopping errors and/or omissions in the book's source code. For a somewhat experienced Django developer, the errors are simple and easy to identify and fix. For a person using this book to learn Django for the first time, it's a show-stopper because it means a lot of wasted time and confusion over code that isn't working when the problem isn't the student but a failure by the teacher.

Most people know that there is a free web-based version of this book. Personally, I like having a physical copy of the book open next to my computer when I need to reference something. However, a person learning Django for the first time is going to have to use the web site anyway to get the correct source code that should already be in a book with a price tag of $44.99. And, the web site has the added benefit of having additional tips and suggestions from other members of the Django community that may be useful for a newcomer to the framework.

Another gripe I have with the book is that a substantial amount of time and space is dedicated to walking you through specific ways of doing things only to later tell you that you just wasted your time learning how not to do it because there is a better, simpler, and faster way. I understand the importance of learning why things work a certain way, but it's frustrating for me to spend time wrapping my brain around a concept only to later be told that I spent that mental energy trying to remember something I don't need to know. If the authors want to take the approach of showing the hard way first, they should at least let the reader know that it is important to understand what is going on but not to spend too much time trying to remember it because there is a better, preferred way of doing it.

Django newbies: I recommend using the web site to learn Django, then consider purchasing this book as a reference.
Django developers: This is a great reference book and will prove to be useful. Just don't pay the cover price for it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reference book May 7, 2012

By Paul D. Hartley

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Despite the django team doing everything in their power to make sure that online tutorials are so out of date that they cannot be used, this book is reasonably up-to-date and quite useful as a reference book when learning django.

I found the tutorial at the main django web site a useful start, but it did not cover practical details like using static files (i.e. images, css files and js files). The book covers their usage and provides other required information to get a practical web site up and running.

Usually I find online examples and tutorials better than trying to look up syntax in a book, but due to the changes to django 1.4 from earlier versions this proved difficult which is where the book was an advantage.

For the record, I bought the kindle version to be read on my pc (it cannot be read on the Kindle devlice - as is the case with most technical books.)