Things You Should Know About Django Development before Start a Company

It is amazing how Django has grown since inception. Every single time you master a version of Django, you witness the release of the next version.

If you are beginning with Django development services or are planning to start a full-fledged Django development company, here are a few things that you should know to begin with. This will make your life as an entrepreneur easy, and hassle-free.

#1 Choose your data storage wisely

MongoDB has received a lot of flak. However, when it comes to fast iteration, there is nothing that can beat this data storage. RDBMS migrations are easier with MongoDB. The datastore offers better control and is a more mature platform today.

Though MongoDB is good, it does not offer the agility Postgre does. For one, Postgre extends support to JSONB without ruining its performance. The Postgre app works effectively for OSX as well.

While both datastores are good, only one will help you complete your project within the stipulated time. It is always a good idea to choose the datastore wisely.

#2 Structure with an efficient directory

Most often, you are caught unawares on how to structure your directory. There are different directories that store different apps within, and you need to know them all before you start developing with Django.

1) Apps directory: Stores customized apps

2) Vendor directory: Stores apps that don’t need to be installed

3) Bin directory: Helps automate the tasks

4) Config directory: Stores the database, webserver, supervisor etc.

5) Media directory: Stores images, JavaScript etc.

#3 Go Beyond Apache

While we all think Apache when we are looking for webservers, it is time to go beyond Apache. The reason being if you are a beginner Django developer, chances are Apache might seem like Hulk to you. It is complicated and the different configurations take up a lot of time.

On the other hand, Gunicorn seems simple and helps you get the tasks done easily. So next time you are creating a website on your own, you should choose a simpler webserver.

#4 setting it right

It is important to set your settings file right. There are various ways in which you can configure your settings file. One way is to add the local settings to the top directory and then import it to the bottom settings file. There are many other methods of importing the settings file.

You will need to choose wisely.

#5 Go with supervisor for process monitoring

Instead of going with a Unix based program to deploy the process monitoring, you should opt for Supervisor. It helps control the processes with ease. It allows you to add separate configuration for the different processes.

#6 Use unit testing infrastructure

A test driven development environment seems to be a good idea, even though many developers are set against it. You could instead work on setting up frameworks that allows unit testing environment, thus making project writing and development easy. You can develop small test cases, and use it to test parts of the project.

#7 Internal debug toolbar for optimization

The Django-debug-toolbar is an excellent way to debug your program and optimize it for the future. This internal toolbar helps in tracking the performance issues that occur in SQL queries, templates and cache. It is always a good thing to keep optimizing your program right from the start.

#8 Choose Redis for Celery

Redis is your best friend for Django development, and this is something you should know from the start. Redis helps queue the Celery jobs and helps store the necessary sessions within Redis. Caching becomes easy with Redis.

#9 Jammit is your friend

For those uninitiated to Jammit, it helps with static asset compression, and can be called a Django developer’s best friend. It was initially built to work with Ruby on Rails but is pretty effective on Django as well.

#10 Use custom user model

When Django version 1.5 was released, it came with custom user models. This made adding user fields easy and gave a hassle-free alternative to the developer. The inherent field character allocation did not seem enough for the end user which is why the new version came up with the custom user model.

URLs and Reverse URL

The reverse URL and URL template tag are something every Django developer wishes they knew right at the start. You should name the URLs and refer to them with names in both the template tag and reverse URL files, which is present in the backend. This allows tracking and calling the URLs easy.

Hope these little things about Django Application Development helped you start with your ambitious project. They may seem very primary to begin with but, they help in creating large-scale projects with ease.