Python Web Development with Django (Developer's Library) (Paperback)

by Jeff Forcier (Author), Paul Bissex (Author), Wesley Chun (Author)
Key Phrases: app engine, content management system, django application, Advanced Django Programming, Simple Custom, Python Web (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Using the simple, robust, Python-based Django framework, you can build powerful Web solutions with remarkably few lines of code. In Python Web Development with Django®, three experienced Django and Python developers cover all the techniques, tools, and concepts you need to make the most of Django 1.0, including all the major features of the new release.

 

The authors teach Django through in-depth explanations, plus provide extensive sample code supported with images and line-by-line explanations. You’ll discover how Django leverages Python’s development speed and flexibility to help you solve a wide spectrum of Web development problems and learn Django best practices covered nowhere else. You’ll build your first Django application in just minutes and deepen your real-world skills through start-to-finish application projects including

• Simple Web log (blog)
• Online photo gallery
• Simple content management system
• Ajax-powered live blogger
• Online source code sharing/syntax highlighting tool
• How to run your Django applications on the Google App Engine

 

This complete guide starts by introducing Python, Django, and Web development concepts, then dives into the Django framework, providing a deep understanding of its major components (models, views, templates), and how they come together to form complete Web applications. After a discussion of four independent working Django applications, coverage turns to advanced topics, such as caching, extending the template system, syndication, admin customization, and testing. Valuable reference appendices cover using the command-line, installing and configuring Django, development tools, exploring existing Django applications, the Google App Engine, and how to get more involved with the Django community.

 

 

Introduction 1

 

Part I: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Practical Python for Django 7

Chapter 2: Django for the Impatient: Building a Blog 57

Chapter 3: Starting Out 77

 

Part II: Django in Depth

Chapter 4: Defining and Using Models 89

Chapter 5: URLs, HTTP Mechanisms, and Views 117

Chapter 6: Templates and Form Processing 135

 

Part III: Django Applications by Example

Chapter 7: Photo Gallery 159

Chapter 8: Content Management System 181

Chapter 9: Liveblog 205

Chapter 10: Pastebin 221

 

Part IV: Advanced Django Techniques and Features

Chapter 11: Advanced Django Programming 235

Chapter 12: Advanced Django Deployment 261

 

Part V: Appendices

Appendix A: Command Line Basics 285

Appendix B: Installing and Running Django 295

Appendix C: Tools for Practical Django Development 313

Appendix D: Finding, Evaluating, and Using Django Applications 321

Appendix E: Django on the Google App Engine 325

Appendix F: Getting Involved in the Django Project 337

 

Index 339

Colophon 375

About the Author

Jeffrey E. Forcier currently works as a systems administrator and backend Web developer at Digital Pulp, Inc., a New York-based interactive agency and Web development company. He has 7 years experience in Web development with PHP and Python, including professional and personal use of the Django framework since its public release in 2005. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.

 

Paul Bissex has worked as a graphic designer, writer, teacher, babysitter, and software developer. He was an early adopter of Django and is the creator and maintainer of dpaste.com, the Django community pastebin site. From September to June, he can be found at the Hallmark Institute of Photography (hallmark.edu), teaching Web development and using Python and Django to build everything from attendance systems to housing databases to image processing utilities. His writings on technology have appeared in Wired, Salon.com, and the Chicago Tribune. Since 1996, he has served as a conference host for The Well (well.com), which Wired magazine called “the world’s most influential online community,” and currently hosts the Web conference there. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with his wife Kathleen.

 

Wesley J. Chun is author of Prentice Hall’s bestseller, Core Python Programming (corepython.com), its video training course, Python Fundamentals (LiveLessons DVD), and coauthor of Python Web Development with Django (withdjango.com). In addition to being a senior software architect, he runs CyberWeb (cyberwebconsulting.com), a consulting business specializing in Python software engineering and technical training. He has more than 25 years of programming, teaching, and writing experience, including more than a decade of Python. While at Yahoo!, he helped create Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! People Search using Python. He holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Music from the University of California.

 

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Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (November 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132356139
• ISBN-13: 978-0132356138
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,478 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Information on Django, December 9, 2008

By	C. Young "C. Young" (West Jordan, UT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've read four books on Django now, as well as the documentation on the Django website. Some of the information in the other books is now outdated since Django 1.0 was released, but this book does not suffer from that problem.

I liked this book because it was short and to the point, is up-to-date, and clarified some of the documentation on the Django website.

If you only want to buy one book on Django, this would be the best one to get; in my opinion.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A reasonable introduction to Django, December 22, 2008

By	Kelly P. Vincent (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We are a Python shop at work and have recently started developing in Django. So I picked this book up as a total beginner to Django, but an experienced Python programmer. I feel that the book would be more or less the same even for someone totally new to Python, because Django is definitely a different kind of beast.

Overall, this book was okay to good. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could. It is definitely targeted at beginners to Django (and possibly Python). As a Django beginner, I first ran through the tutorial on the Django website, because it is very thorough and good. I definitely recommend that as a starting place regardless of which book you end up buying. Then I cracked open this book. The first chapter is a 50-page introduction to Python, so I skipped that. Chapter 2 is a tutorial in which you build a simple blog. So by the time I had finished that chapter, I had built two different Django sites but not really read anything about the language or framework or theory thereof. I think this is a good thing, and this chapter is well-placed. Chapter 3 introduces Django. It covers dynamic web sites, communication, data storage, presentation, separating the layers (MVC), general django architecture, and "core philosophies of Django". It is a decent introduction, though I read through it quickly so I could get to the next three chapters.

The next three chapters make up the Django in Depth section and are the bread-and-butter of the book. The first chapter covers models, the second URLs/HTTP/views, and the third templates and form processing. For me, these were the chapters I was most looking forward to, where I would learn everything I needed to know to get started really understanding. And they let me down a bit. Each one was good in what it covered, but the problem was that it left out quite a bit. The part on the models themselves was pretty good and covered the necessities. But the part on querying was a little sparse. They left much for the reader to go to the documentation and find out. (But what's the point of the book, then?) I did think it was nice that they mentioned fixtures, as I had trouble finding that information online when I needed to set one up for work. The chapter on views was decent, but seemed to leave out too much detail. The section covering views specifically was short. Finally, the template/forms chapter again left the reader to find out critical details in the online documentation. First, the template section was short. Second, the forms section seemed long enough, but I just found that it wasn't that helpful when I was really creating forms for work.

The next four chapters are tutorials in which you build various applications. I haven't gone through these yet, but they look pretty good. I think Django is one of those things that is best learned in a very hands-on fashion. Perhaps some of the weaknesses of the previous three chapters are made up for here; but I doubt it, and if so feel that information should have still been included in the earlier chapters. (The book is fairly slim and could definitely be expanded.) Chapter 11 covers advanced Django programming, including customizing the admin, using syndication, generating downloadable files, enhancing Django's ORM with custom managers, and extending the template system. The chapter seems decent enough, although I haven't had to do any of these things yet. Likewise, with Chapter 12 covering advanced Django deployment, I haven't had to deploy anything yet so I only know that the chapter seems to cover some useful information.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not an easy beginner book., January 21, 2009

By	S. Taylor "Distressed Real Estate? www.ibuyev... (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Coming from a PHP background, I decided to take on a more serious development language for my future web projects. I picked Python and Django.

This book covers basic Python first. So it's not necessary to learn Python from a dedicated book. The primer in this book is adequate. And the online documentation is great to fill in the spaces as needed.

The thing I like most about the book is that it covers a tremendous amount of ground. The example projects use advanced functions and structures that other books avoid, and the coding structures can be complex and deep. DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) is a core philosophy in Python and in Django. These authors do a great job keeping the code DRY. And that often means building elegant, but hard to understand code.

The thing I don't like about the book is related to what I think makes it so good. It's damn complex at times.

Often while trying to work through some code examples and reproduce the results, I find that I don't understand the structure of something. I'll end up spending 10 minutes or a few hours consulting the online docs learning the new functions and trying to understand some structure that is outlined in the book.

The book isn't very long for all the content that's packed inside. And that's mostly due to the fact that the authors have left out explanations for a lot of what is going on behind the scenes in their more complex bits of code.

Django is a pretty deeply nested framework (in my limited experience). When you call on an object, it might be a subclass of a subclass of another subclass that inherited from two other classes, one of which is a subclass of another. So, to really understand what an object is like can be complicated. The same goes for functions.

Django is similar in the way an application uses a lot of different files through multiple imports to pull together even the simplest of views.

If you are coming from working with Python or C or Perl or something else where you spend a lot of time on the command line and OOP is second nature to you, this book will probably be easy to work through. If you are just using PHP or ASP, get ready for a major learning curve. And maybe just consider looking at the other Django books instead.

One other benefit to this book over others is that it's relatively new and incorporates some of the bigger changes that were made in version 1.0 of Django. This can save you some time trying to figure out why the code examples don't work if you use the older books with the newer release of Django.