This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

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

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 13 Ratings

Not an easy beginner book. - 2009-01-22
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Concise and well written django book - 2009-06-18
Reviewer Rating:
I've found this book to be a very good source of information both for programmers with some Django experience as well as for those who are Django beginners. In the spirit of Django, this book includes in addition to Django specific stuff some good advice for web development in general.
The examples are very well documented and unlike some other programming books the explanations are thorough and easy to understand.
There is also an introduction to Python which I was happy I didn't skip although I'm not a Python novice since it is so well written.
All in all, if you are a Django novice or you already have some experience with Django you'll find this well written book very useful.

A good entry level Django book - 2009-06-10
Reviewer Rating:
I got turned on to Django after reading an OReily book on Google App Engine. I ordered this book, and another to get more of a feeling for Django development.

I really like this book. It gives a fair "heads up" on Python at the start, but you really need to know the Python language prior to tackling Django, so I would strongly recommend first picking up a good book on Python and getting familiar with the language first.

That being said, the book covers an entry level feel of Django version 1. The author takes you through all the basics, and I felt that the book was worth the money I spent ( I tend to purchase books from Amazon resellers as you often get books for WAY cheaper ).

This is not what I would consider an Advanced or even Intermediary book on Django. But, as I said earlier, to "get" it, you need to know Python. You also should be comfortable with some other web frameworks. It will make absorbing the information easier.

When it comes to Django books available, I consider this one of the better ones that I have seen thus far. Could it be better? There are some things I would like to have seen, but this is the case with anything. The bottom line is, did I learn from it. The answer is, Yes.

Good introduction to Django. - 2009-05-11
Reviewer Rating:
This book is quite a good introduction to Python/Django web development, but not necessarily an in-depth one. It was, however, more than enough to sway my decision of what web framework to learn over to Django from Rails.

The first section, which is an introduction to Python, is good enough that even though I'm not a total stranger to Python I found some good insights and information on the language itself.

The second section, which is an overview of the framework in general, was not quite so good. Granted, I'm not much of a web developer, which is why I read this book, but I felt a little bit uncertain about the "how" details of the framework. This section could have easily been significantly longer and more detailed with no complaints from me.

The third section, which is a group of tutorials/sample projects for various things you'd use a web framework for, was pretty good again. The sample projects are by no means feature/polish complete, but are more than enough to make a good start at any of the respective types of sites represented.

In all, the book gets 4 stars because the first and last sections, while very good, don't completely make up for the failings of the middle section. A few more pages for each of the main topics would have gone a long way for people like me who like to know how things work, without making the book excessively long.

Could be better. - 2009-09-16
Reviewer Rating:
I found this book pretty ok, although there are some typos, some of the descriptions could be better .... and some of the code (using generic templates) actually doesn't work without additional preparation with Django 1.1, I find. Plus, I mean, the tone of the book isn't as sophisticated or pragmatic as I'd like ... I'm new to web programming, but found this book a bit ... classroomy ... if you know what I mean.
I ended up fiddling with some of the examples to test for caveats that I'd like to have seen discussed alongside the examples, such as how nested url files are interpreted.

[...].

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