Python Django: The Simple Web Application Framework for Your Next Big Project
Django! Can the advantages of using this framework be exhausted? It’s seriously in doubt, as we will soon see.
Creating a good-looking, fast website is one of the most important tasks for a business in this day and age. High scalability, ease of creation, Dynamism, etc., are also some targeted factors considered important in creating a website. The Django framework comes in handy for meeting all these targets. With Django, a website capable of scaling for millions, even billions of users with good design can be easily and speedily set up. Whether it’s booking engines, shopping sites, content management systems, financial platforms, etc., Python Django is suitable for any project. Another wonderful thing about Django is that it is superbly cost-effective given that APIs in Django require less developer time than other frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, PHP, or .Net!
Django uses the model view controller (MVC) architectural pattern. It extensively uses Python to create settings, data models, and files. Django addresses the challenges of intense newsroom deadlines and rigorous requirements of highly experienced web developers. It emphasizes the principle of non-repetition, quick development, and reusability of components in addition to being able to leverage other Python skills.
Since Django is written with Python, it’s also easy to learn, just like Python. Developers just coming into the framework arena can easily learn Django, especially with some basic knowledge of Python already acquired.
Popular Websites Using Python Django
Companies, Organizations, and even Governments (Yes, government. You read that right!) have used Django to build a lot of things. Most of the successful tech companies today, especially those with large user base that keeps swelling each day, are choosing Django. Here we take a look at some of them and what they did with Django.
Currently, Instagram is acknowledged as the largest online photo-sharing app. It has over a billion users all over the world. Instagram currently features the world’s largest deployment of the Django web framework, which is written entirely in Python, according to its engineering team. It uses Python Django on its backend.
Youtube
Just as Instagram is the largest photo-sharing app, YouTube stands at the apex when it comes to video sharing. YouTube was first built with PHP but has moved some of its backend services to Python Django due to the need to implement new features and growth in audience population. The audience growth is still on, and new features are still required and made available with Python Django.
Google has nearly 4 billion users all over the world. Google founders decided to “use Python Django “wherever they can” and only use others “where they must” Google’s large traffic, connecting apps and computing needs are effectively and efficiently handled with Python Django. Putting it directly, Python Django is the power behind Google, the world’s most popular and most used search engine.
Nasa
Earlier, something was mentioned governments also use Python Django. Now, here is a popular example of such. The Aeronautics and Space Administration website of the US also features Python Django in handling its views and traffic as users explore pictures, news, and current space exploration on the website.
Facebook is the biggest online community in the whole world. Python is used in handling a large part of the numerous posts, status, and picture uploads shared on the platform.
Netflix
All over the world, Netflix is known for movie streaming, downloads, and TV production. The analytics that recommends shows and movies for users of Netflix is developed with Python Django. Currently, Netflix has over 195 million subscribers all over the world, and again, thanks to Python Django, this large audience base is effectively handled.
The NY Times and The Washington Post
These two aren’t the only popular news media that use Python Django but are just selected as random samples. Python Django is very crucial for their scalability and handling of the massive data amount generated by their audience daily.
Spotify
Spotify provides digital music services. It gives users access to millions of songs, allowing them to access their music library anywhere. Spotify developers chose Django because it allows them to get a full range of Python features and make the most of it. Also, it provides fast backend and machine learning options. Spotify currently has over 320 million users all over the world.
Mozilla
Mozilla is one of the most popular web browsers all over the world. Queries received by Mozilla over its API monthly runs into hundreds of millions. This made them move to Python Django from PHP+CakePHP. Now, all the add-ons for the Mozilla browser and their support websites are powered by Django.
Django and Python
Django and Python are quite interwoven and shared some common similar feature terms in their descriptions, but from the information related to them so far, it’s obvious the two aren’t the same.
While Python is a high-level, open-source, dynamic, interpreted, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language used for machine learning, artificial intelligence, desktop apps, etc., Django is a Python framework for server development and full-stack applications. Prewritten bits of code can be used to build apps in Django, while in Python, a website can be built from scratch using libraries like the Flask Microframework or the Werkzeug library for low level HTTP functions . However, a significant advantage that learning Python offers is the ability it gives to use Django.
Django Features and Uses
The features and uses of Django aren’t really separable. Here we have them;
- Rapid Development
The primary intention behind the design of Django is to make a framework that takes less time in building web applications. This aim was perfectly achieved as project implementation in Django is quite fast and less time-consuming. There is no need for an external backend to develop a functional website. No need for extra files for each task. No need to create separate server files to design the database and connect the same while also making another file for transferring data to and from the server. Django takes care of all this.
- Full Fledged Python Web-Framework
To a large extent, Python can be identified as the major reason people actually start learning Django. It’s a tool capable of solving all kinds of problems in any sort of operation. From web development to machine learning and whatever you have in between.
Also, it’s quite simple and easy to use.
Some basic knowledge of Python is required before a developer can work with Django. There’s a possibility of learning Django without knowing Python, actually, but that will be a sort of tight squeeze. Why go down the difficult road when you can have it easy? Learning Python is a basic requirement that’s needed to ease the Django journey.
- High Scalability
When we mention scalability, we are talking about the level or scope where our technology gets to implement. Scalability means to have modular components which decoupled and can be replaced if they are determined to be bottlenecks of the application. It also implies the ability to progressively scale from a low number of users to a high number of users. With scalability, new users/employees can easily catch up with the application. Scalability also involves having long-term support for things such as bug fixes or security patches.
One of the major concerns of people aiming to build applications is scalability. Even though an application may start small, there’s the possibility of it growing larger in size as time goes on, and not being ready for this growth may lead to a need for a rewrite. Therefore, there is a need to pick a scalable framework to avoid this kind of trouble as the app use grows.
With Django, the Scalability issue is easily put to bed, and the big apps have proven this with a large number of users worldwide that use Django.
There are two types of scaling, and they are vertical and horizontal scaling.
In Vertical scaling, an application is scaled by upgrading the machine it’s running on and hoping it will be able to process the number of requests being received by the application. Some limitations can be encountered at some points of using the vertical scaling approach. Some of the restrictions are: difficulty in creating an auto-scale infrastructure, the application cannot be downgraded or upgraded while it’s running, and it is less efficient and costs more.
Horizontal scaling means scaling by spawning more machines to serve the application side by the side of each other. It’s splitting the workload of requests received by a single machine onto numerous ones. For example, instead of a single machine receiving 1500 requests, 10 machines might be set to receive 150 requests each. This is quite preferable, better, and beneficial, as more machines can be added as fit needs, and scaling of the application can go on without a hitch as the application user base grows.
Django is quite great when it comes to horizontal scaling.
Some tools for scaling in Django are; Digital Ocean spaces, Azure Blog Storage, Google Cloud storage, etc.
- Security
It’s a generally accepted fact that when it comes to security, Django is quite superb. Backend developers can testify to this. Django covers loopholes (such as cross-site scripting, clickjacking, CRFL injection, Encrypted connection, SQL injection, and cross-site request forgery) by default. It provides a secure way of managing usernames and passwords. Part of what accounts for Django’s security is the fact that the writing of Django code is done from scratch.
- Ease of Usage
This is made possible because Django uses the Python programming language, which is now the most chosen language by developers joining the coding train in recent years. It offers better code readability, and this puts developers who are beginners at great ease. Also, the fact that Django is free, open-source, and maintained by a large community of users adds to its ease of usage.
- Time and crowd -tested
Part of what a developer looks forward to when learning new technologies is its ability to withstand the dynamic changes happening from time to time in the tech world. Django has been the framework in the front row of responding to new vulnerabilities and issues. The latest release focuses on boundary features and edge case issues.
Also, Django has been around for more than 13 years now and is still very popular (many thanks to the Python factor), with the number of developers choosing it for web development growing astronomically by the day. This growing patronage is a good prove of Django’s task accomplishment capability and stable characteristic.
- Great documentation for real-world application
Compared to other open-source technology frameworks, Django offers the best documentation for its framework to develop different kinds of real-world applications. For any developer, better documentation is like a well-established library. At the time Django came around, most of the other frameworks use an alphabetical list of modules and all the methods and attributes. This is good for quick reference but not so good for someone who just got into the framework arena -another area where Django stands out. Django developers are doing quite a great job maintaining their documentation quality.
- The Django Community
One of the best aspects of the Python world is the community, which is also true of Django. Governed by the DSF (Django Software Foundation,) all Django events have a code of conduct. The community is quite supportive and is a good channel to share and connect. Lots of good groups are also flourishing there. Like the Python community, the Django community contributes numerous utilities and packages for the wider world.
Search Engine Optimization has to do with adding a website to the search engine to appear at the top search results.
Quite often, it seems optimization of SEO, and the developer’s jobs are at cross purposes. This is so because the algorithms used by search engines don’t really cooperate much with the web developer. Websites are created in human-understandable form but have to be added to the server in URL form for best recognition by the search engine. Python’s Django makes this problem go away by advocating the use of human-readable URLs, which is of immense help in search engine site rankings.
- Versatility
Django is capable of working with any client-side framework and can also deliver content in almost any format. These formats include RSS feeds, XML, HTML, JSON, etc. it can be used to build any type of website, be it news sites, social networking sites, content management sites, etc. Just name it, and Django is capable of it.
- DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principles
Django concentrates much on getting the most out of every code line, spending less time on stuff like code re-orientations or debugging, etc. this is where the DRY principle comes in. DRY code means all data uses change simultaneously rather than a need to be replicated, and its fundamental reason to the use of variables and functions in all programming.
Apart from all mentioned so far, Django can also simplify form creation, collection, and processing. It includes a robust administrative site and a robust authentication and permission system for security purposes.
Django…. The future
Thinking of Python for a project automatically means thinking Django. With the fast growth in the number of Python users all over the world and the caliber of organizations and companies choosing it for their projects, it’s obvious the future of the Django frameworks is very bright, and it can only grow larger. This, therefore, makes Django the smart choice framework. The benefits are just too numerous, too good, too appealing, to ignore.
Originally published at http://beapython.dev on November 22, 2020.
