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210 lines
8.9 KiB
210 lines
8.9 KiB
.. _faq-general: |
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FAQ: General |
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============ |
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Why does this project exist? |
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---------------------------- |
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Django grew from a very practical need: World Online, a newspaper Web |
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operation, is responsible for building intensive Web applications on journalism |
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deadlines. In the fast-paced newsroom, World Online often has only a matter of |
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hours to take a complicated Web application from concept to public launch. |
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At the same time, the World Online Web developers have consistently been |
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perfectionists when it comes to following best practices of Web development. |
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In fall 2003, the World Online developers (Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison) |
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ditched PHP and began using Python to develop its Web sites. As they built |
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intensive, richly interactive sites such as Lawrence.com, they began to extract |
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a generic Web development framework that let them build Web applications more |
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and more quickly. They tweaked this framework constantly, adding improvements |
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over two years. |
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In summer 2005, World Online decided to open-source the resulting software, |
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Django. Django would not be possible without a whole host of open-source |
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projects -- `Apache`_, `Python`_, and `PostgreSQL`_ to name a few -- and we're |
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thrilled to be able to give something back to the open-source community. |
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.. _Apache: http://httpd.apache.org/ |
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.. _Python: http://www.python.org/ |
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.. _PostgreSQL: http://www.postgresql.org/ |
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What does "Django" mean, and how do you pronounce it? |
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----------------------------------------------------- |
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Django is named after `Django Reinhardt`_, a gypsy jazz guitarist from the 1930s |
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to early 1950s. To this day, he's considered one of the best guitarists of all time. |
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Listen to his music. You'll like it. |
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Django is pronounced **JANG**-oh. Rhymes with FANG-oh. The "D" is silent. |
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We've also recorded an `audio clip of the pronunciation`_. |
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.. _Django Reinhardt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt |
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.. _audio clip of the pronunciation: http://red-bean.com/~adrian/django_pronunciation.mp3 |
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Is Django stable? |
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----------------- |
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Yes. World Online has been using Django for more than three years. Sites built |
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on Django have weathered traffic spikes of over one million hits an hour and a |
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number of Slashdottings. Yes, it's quite stable. |
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Does Django scale? |
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------------------ |
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Yes. Compared to development time, hardware is cheap, and so Django is |
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designed to take advantage of as much hardware as you can throw at it. |
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Django uses a "shared-nothing" architecture, which means you can add hardware |
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at any level -- database servers, caching servers or Web/application servers. |
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The framework cleanly separates components such as its database layer and |
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application layer. And it ships with a simple-yet-powerful |
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:ref:`cache framework <topics-cache>`. |
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Who's behind this? |
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------------------ |
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Django was originally developed at World Online, the Web department of a |
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newspaper in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. Django's now run by an international team of |
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volunteers; you can read all about them over at the :ref:`list of committers |
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<internals-committers>`> |
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Which sites use Django? |
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----------------------- |
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The Django wiki features a consistently growing `list of Django-powered sites`_. |
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Feel free to add your Django-powered site to the list. |
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.. _list of Django-powered sites: http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DjangoPoweredSites |
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.. _mtv: |
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Django appears to be a MVC framework, but you call the Controller the "view", and the View the "template". How come you don't use the standard names? |
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Well, the standard names are debatable. |
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In our interpretation of MVC, the "view" describes the data that gets presented |
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to the user. It's not necessarily *how* the data *looks*, but *which* data is |
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presented. The view describes *which data you see*, not *how you see it.* It's |
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a subtle distinction. |
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So, in our case, a "view" is the Python callback function for a particular URL, |
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because that callback function describes which data is presented. |
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Furthermore, it's sensible to separate content from presentation -- which is |
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where templates come in. In Django, a "view" describes which data is presented, |
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but a view normally delegates to a template, which describes *how* the data is |
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presented. |
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Where does the "controller" fit in, then? In Django's case, it's probably the |
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framework itself: the machinery that sends a request to the appropriate view, |
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according to the Django URL configuration. |
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If you're hungry for acronyms, you might say that Django is a "MTV" framework |
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-- that is, "model", "template", and "view." That breakdown makes much more |
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sense. |
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At the end of the day, of course, it comes down to getting stuff done. And, |
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regardless of how things are named, Django gets stuff done in a way that's most |
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logical to us. |
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<Framework X> does <feature Y> -- why doesn't Django? |
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We're well aware that there are other awesome Web frameworks out there, and |
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we're not averse to borrowing ideas where appropriate. However, Django was |
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developed precisely because we were unhappy with the status quo, so please be |
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aware that "because <Framework X> does it" is not going to be sufficient reason |
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to add a given feature to Django. |
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Why did you write all of Django from scratch, instead of using other Python libraries? |
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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When Django was originally written a couple of years ago, Adrian and Simon |
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spent quite a bit of time exploring the various Python Web frameworks |
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available. |
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In our opinion, none of them were completely up to snuff. |
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We're picky. You might even call us perfectionists. (With deadlines.) |
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Over time, we stumbled across open-source libraries that did things we'd |
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already implemented. It was reassuring to see other people solving similar |
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problems in similar ways, but it was too late to integrate outside code: We'd |
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already written, tested and implemented our own framework bits in several |
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production settings -- and our own code met our needs delightfully. |
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In most cases, however, we found that existing frameworks/tools inevitably had |
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some sort of fundamental, fatal flaw that made us squeamish. No tool fit our |
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philosophies 100%. |
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Like we said: We're picky. |
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We've documented our philosophies on the |
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:ref:`design philosophies page <misc-design-philosophies>`. |
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Do you have any of those nifty "screencast" things? |
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--------------------------------------------------- |
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You can bet your bottom they're on the way. But, since we're still hammering |
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out a few points, we want to make sure they reflect the final state of things |
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at Django 1.0, not some intermediary step. In other words, we don't want to |
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spend a lot of energy creating screencasts yet, because Django APIs will shift. |
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Is Django a content-management-system (CMS)? |
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-------------------------------------------- |
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No, Django is not a CMS, or any sort of "turnkey product" in and of itself. |
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It's a Web framework; it's a programming tool that lets you build Web sites. |
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For example, it doesn't make much sense to compare Django to something like |
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Drupal_, because Django is something you use to *create* things like Drupal. |
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Of course, Django's automatic admin site is fantastic and timesaving -- but |
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the admin site is one module of Django the framework. Furthermore, although |
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Django has special conveniences for building "CMS-y" apps, that doesn't mean |
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it's not just as appropriate for building "non-CMS-y" apps (whatever that |
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means!). |
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.. _Drupal: http://drupal.org/ |
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When will you release Django 1.0? |
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--------------------------------- |
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See our `version one roadmap`_ for the detailed timeline. We're aiming for |
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September 2, 2008. |
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.. _version one roadmap: http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/VersionOneRoadmap |
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How can I download the Django documentation to read it offline? |
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--------------------------------------------------------------- |
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The Django docs are available in the ``docs`` directory of each Django tarball |
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release. These docs are in ReST (ReStructured Text) format, and each text file |
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corresponds to a Web page on the official Django site. |
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Because the documentation is `stored in revision control`_, you can browse |
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documentation changes just like you can browse code changes. |
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Technically, the docs on Django's site are generated from the latest development |
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versions of those ReST documents, so the docs on the Django site may offer more |
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information than the docs that come with the latest Django release. |
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.. _stored in revision control: http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/django/trunk/docs |
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Where can I find Django developers for hire? |
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-------------------------------------------- |
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Consult our `developers for hire page`_ for a list of Django developers who |
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would be happy to help you. |
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You might also be interested in posting a job to http://djangogigs.com/ . |
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If you want to find Django-capable people in your local area, try |
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http://djangopeople.net/ . |
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.. _developers for hire page: http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DevelopersForHire
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