Want to know more about Django and how it can ease your way to web developments?

Why Django?

You should totally check Django. It is written in Python and Python is amazing, clean, easy to learn, and one of the most taught programming languages. Python is also a popular choice for:

• Industrial Light & Magic (Star Wars visual effects)

• Game development

• Services like Pinterest, Instagram, The Guardian and more

Without a doubt, the tech market is overflowed with frameworks, but Django is a good place to start as it has the nicest documentation and tutorials in software development. Now, for the main attraction – the advantages and disadvantages of using Django.

Advantages of Django

Here are the most important reasons why to use Django for custom websites. We think these reasons apply equally well to the startup projects and for business gurus.

#1 – It’s a Python Language

As we mentioned above, Django is written in Python. The Python language is truly simple to learn and seems as it was created for newbies. Let’s see one example, just the classic code that newbies write when learning a new language:

In Python:

print "I love Python!"

In Java:

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

       System.out.println("I love Java!");

    }

}

As you probably notice, Python’s allows managing more in fewer lines comparing to Java. Simplicity is the main key.

#2 – Django and Python are Core Solutions in:

• Internet of Things

• Blue chip companies

• IT giants (NASA, Google and more)

• FinTech companies in Silicon Valley

Do you know what this means? Learning the language and its popular framework should guarantee you a full employment or, for example, give a possibility to create your own product as an outsourcing company.

#3 – Batteries included

Django aims to follow Python’s “batteries included” philosophy. It means Django provides a wide range of features and functionalities including:

• Magical ORM;

• Multi-site and multi-language support;

• MVC (Model/View/Control) layout;

• RSS and Atom feeds;

• AJAX support;

• Free API;

• URL routing;

• Easy Database Migrations;

• Session handling;

• HTTP libraries and templating libraries;

• Code Layout (you can plug new capabilities by using applications);

• Default Admin section and more.

Yeap, Django is batteries included, though, you still have to do some custom code.

#4 – Stellar Documentation and Tutorials

You will not have any problems as Django includes benefits such as:

• Requirements and quick start details

• Detailed release notes

• Backwards-incompatible changes

• Online topics and discussion on development and scalability

Here’s a quick example straight from the Django tutorial:

class Reporter(models.Model):

    full_name = models.CharField(max_length=70)

    def __str__(self):              # __unicode__ on Python 2

      return self.full_name

class Article(models.Model):

    pub_date = models.DateField()

    headline = models.CharField(max_length=200)

    content = models.TextField()

    reporter = models.ForeignKey(Reporter, on_delete=models.CASCADE)

    def __str__(self):              # __unicode__ on Python 2

       return self.headline

#5 – Administration Interface

The administration interface provided by Django is one of the coolest things. It’s truly simple to create and it’s really one of the key advantages when using the framework. You get a fully featured admin interface from writing only a few lines of code:

class MyInterface(models.Model):

interface_title = models.CharField(max_length=50)

some_other_text = models.CharField(max_length=100)

some_boolean_value = models.BooleanField()

admin.site.register(MyInterface)

Notice, the code is very minimal. The administration interface can make lots of stuff and be customized in all sorts of ways.

#6 – Community

As an open source and available for free online, Django is supported by active volunteers who constantly provide updates and resources on djangoproject.com and on Github (in the last, there are 11,300 Django stars). As well, people in the community are cool and they support each other via:

• Mailing list

• IRC channel

• Blog posts

• Stackoverflow

#7 – Django is Immensely Scalable

One of the nicest advantages of Django is that it can handle traffic and mobile app API usage of more than 400 million+ users helping maximize scalability and minimize web hosting costs. And when talking about hosting, we need to mention that the number of hosts is high and hosting price is relatively cheap and even free.

#8 – Customizable Framework

The developers must have put a lot of work into the architectural layout of using Django for a project. Are you in need of serializer classes? Here it goes, serializing data is a very simple operation: from django.core import serializers.

#9 – Robust Built-In Template System

One of the benefits of Django framework is a built-in template language that facilitates the process of building applications. +1 for this!

#10 – Best Security

For one thing, Django hides your website’s source code. The framework has protection against XSS and CSRF attacks, SQL injections, clickjacking, etc. Django notifies of a number of common security mistakes better than PHP (you can count it as one of the main advantages of Django over PHP).

#11 – Future

Django literally grew up largely over the last years. What does that mean? Companies who choose Django over other frameworks can aim attention at what makes their projects exclusive, and pay less attention to general supporting issues in web development or framework upgrade performance. One can be guaranteed that the Django functionalities selected now will continue to operate well together in the future.

Disadvantages of Django

Is there any reason not to use Django framework while developing? Probably not. But it would be unfair not to include some disadvantages as well.

#1 – Regex to specify its URL:

You can create simple and easy-to-read URLs. However, Django uses regex to specify its URL routing patterns and that makes the code larger and creates complicated syntaxes. This is an example straight from the documentation:

r'^articles/(?P<year>[0-9]{4})/$'

r'^articles/(?P<year>[0-9]{4})/(?P<month>[0-9]{2})/$'

r'^articles/(?P<year>[0-9]{4})/(?P<month>[0-9]{2})/(?P<day>[0-9]{2})/$'

#2 – While maintaining backwards compatibility, it’s moving far too slowly

The framework has dedicated itself to backwards compatibility. What does that mean? It tends to get bigger and heavier over time. Speed is a valid issue even in Python, but Django has explicitly chosen to designate other stuff. Django worries more about dev productivity and backwards compatibility than its speed.

#3 – Is Django too monolithic?

For sure, and this is the reason why Django maintains large, tightly-coupled product. The framework is monolithic and it pushes you into given patterns, but it is more fun when you can program yourself — choosing architecture, structure and design patterns. Besides this, components get deployed together.

#4 – It feels like it has too much software for minor projects

Vast functionality and heavy structure are always with you, even if it is not used for simple stuff. A framework is a complex tool for simple usages, so if you ready to face with low flexibility, put your heart and soul into it.

#5 – Template errors fail silently by default

It seems like the framework developers didn’t pay attention to mistakes when they stepped to their own class-based views. They are extended via inheritance, that means it will make everyone’s life entangled in the subsequent versions.

#6 – A process only handles a single request at a time

Unluckily, WSGI-based servers cannot be utilized to develop real-time apps, as WSGI protocol is synchronous. WSGI server can handle only one request at a time.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, we outlined the main pros and cons of Django.

Pros

• Python is vastly more writable than PHP;

• Excellent for big projects;

• Magical ORM;

• Easy database management;

• Security.

Cons

• Not the best for small projects;

• Heavy and you probably won’t utilize the whole framework;

• Monolithic one;

• All components get deployed together.

In case, you still have doubts about applying Django, you can go ahead and try it. Django is definitely a must-have for any professional programmer. And if you feel like you don’t get something, Django’s community with really cool people are always ready to help. At psyber.co we strongly recommend Django – it’ll make you hate life less.