All about Django

“If you want to build a web app with Python, Django is the best framework out there.” — Jacob Kaplan-Moss

What is Django?

The Django web framework is a free, open source framework that can speed up development of a web application being built in the Python programming language.

Django is pronounced “Jango,” named after the famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt — is a free, open source framework that was first publicly released in 2005. Django facilitates “rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.” The Django web framework, deployed on a web server, can help developers quickly produce a web frontend that’s feature-rich, secure and scalable.

Starting with the Django web framework is more efficient way to build a web app than starting from scratch, which requires building the backend, APIs, javascript and sitemaps. With the Django web framework, web developers can focus on creating a unique application and benefit from greater flexibility than using a web development tool.

Photo by Faisal on Unsplash

Why Django?

Due to so many features and capability to build various types of application, Django is one of the best choice for developers. starting your programming journey, python is the topmost priority for beginners as python is easy to understand, easy syntax. There are varity of languages and frameworks available in the market but choosing the best one that fulfills most of the requirements can be a tough task for the organizations. If we talk about the Python-based framework then Django is one of the popular ones for building web-based applications.

Reasons for using Django:-

1. Easy to understand: As Django is a python framework so it is as like python easy to understand. As python is very easy, simple easy to understand so this is top choice for beginners. So when it comes for python framework Django is the best choice.
2. Cross Platform: Django is a portable framework and you can run its code on any platform including PC, Mac, Windows, Linux, etc. The cross-platform nature of this framework allows developers to support all the development and production environment. Django has a layer called ORM (object-relational mapper) between the developer and the database. With the help of this layer, you can migrate the whole project to other major databases with few lines of change in the code.
3. Open Source: Django is free open source available in Github with 2k+ contributors.
4. Batteries Included: Django is popular for “all in one feature” that means a developer can find everything in Django for a full-fledged application. That “all in one” ORM, Authentication, HTML templating, session management support, URL routing, HTTP libraries, Multi-site support, i18n, template engine, forms, view layers, model layers, python compatibility, etc.

Some of the batteries that make the Django framework complete are :

Auth Package — Authentication

Admin Package — Admin Interface

Session Package — Session Management

Google Site Map Package

Postgres Package

1. Security: Now come to the main part. For an application security is the most important things and the best thing in Django the developer can build applications with faster speed and deliver without compromising security. The securith features enabled by default in this framework. It has built-in protection for some common security issues such as cross-site scripting, request forgery, clickjacking, and SQL injection. Django releases new security patches quite often and it immediately responds to the security vulnerabilities and alerts other frameworks.
2. Default Amin Panel: In Django this is one of the most interesting thing that it also provides a built in admin panel. It makes the development more faster and easier.
3. ORM (Object Relational Mapping): Basically Object-relational mapping (ORM) is a programming technique that converts data between a relational database and an object-oriented programming language. ORM creates a virtual object database that can be used from within the programming language.

Django provides fully functional ORM with a number of databases. Basically ORM is a library which helps to transfer data automatically and allows developers to interact with the databases.

8. Scalable and Reliable: Today every startup or company is concerned about the scaling of the application. What if the website hits scale and it needs to handle the heavy traffic and large volume of information? Surely you need to use the framework that can handle the huge amount of data. Well, Django is able to tackle the project of any size either it’s a small scale web application or it’s a high loaded web application.

Disadvantages of Django:

1. Multiple Request Handling: Sometimes there are multiple requests simultaneously. Django cannot handle this situation. It is made for handling one request at a time sometimes in this condition it take lot of time for processing.
2. Small Project Support: Django has lots of packages and lots of advance features. Not all of them are necessary for a smaller project. All the complicated features can put extra burden on the web application. For an example, Django needs substantial amount of time for processing because of its complex coding structure. This is completely unnecessary for a smaller project which intends not to be scaled. Consequently, small scale developers can look for other lightweight frameworks which is designed exclusively for smaller projects.
3. ORM Dependency: While Django’s ORM system is a powerful tool for accessing and performing database operations, it may lack support for certain essential features. One popular alternative in the Python ecosystem is SQLAlchemy, a versatile SQL toolkit. SQLAlchemy offers capabilities that are not present in Django’s ORM, and it is supported by many other major ORM systems.

Important topics for beginner Django developers:

1. Django Variables
2. Django Tags
3. Django if else functions
4. Django loops
5. Django Comment
6. Django Cycle
7. Django Extends
8. Django Include
9. Django Filter
10. Django URL Mapping
11. Model Forms
12. Static File Standing
13. File Handling
14. Database Connectivity
15. Database Migration
16. Django Middleware
17. Request and Response
18. Django Exceptions
19. Django Session
20. Django Cookie

Django Projects:

1. Create a blog using Django.
2. To-do app using Django.
3. Login and Logout System using Django.
4. Django chat app.
5. Contact management system.
6. Weather app.
7. Ecommerce Website. (Intermediate Level Preferred)

“An individual block of code takes moments to write, minutes or hours to debug, and can last forever without being touched again. It’s when you or someone else visits code written yesterday or ten years ago that having code written in a clear, consistent style becomes extremely useful. Understandable code frees mental bandwidth from having to puzzle out inconsistencies, making it easier to maintain and enhance projects of all sizes.”
― Daniel Roy Greenfeld, Audrey Roy Greenfeld