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