What's New in the Third Edition of Web Development with Django Cookbook?

A couple of months ago the third release of Django Cookbook was published under the title Django 2 Web Development Cookbook - Third Edition. This edition was thoroughly and progressively re-written by Jake Kronika, the guy who had reviewed my second edition and had added a lot of value to it. I was sure that he wouldn't disappoint the readers, so I invited him to write the update. In this article, I will guide you through the main new highlights of over 500 pages of this new book.

Up to Date

Just like William S. Vincent's books, Django 2 Web Development Cookbook - Third Edition is adapted to Django 2.1 and Python 3.6. So you will be dealing with the state of the art technologies building your Django projects. Unicode strings, f-strings, super() without parameters, HTML5 tags, and object-oriented JavaScript to mention a few are used all over the book. The code is carefully generalized and even more adapted to the Don't-Repeat-Yourself (DRY) principle.

Working with Docker

Docker is one of the most popular deployment technologies and Jake gives a good compact introduction how to use it with Django.

Using Environment Variables for Configuration

12-factor app guidelines suggest saving app configuration in environment variables. In the book, there is a practical example of how to use it.

Multilingual Fields even with Region-specific Language Codes

I introduced multilingual fields in previous editions of the book, but there they had a limitation, that region-specific languages like Australian English or Swiss German were not supported. Now they are!

Using Precisely Semantic Markup with schema.org Microdata

Schema.org Microdata allows you to define the context of the content more specifically so that the content is more machine-readable. This was new to me and I still don't know the exact practical value of it, but I guess it is related to accessibility, new ways of presenting data via plugins, and Artificial Intelligence.

Defining Custom Templates for the Default Django Form Fields

Since Django 1.11 form fields are rendered using templates instead of Python code and those templates can be customized. There is a recipe that shows you how to do that.

Providing Responsive Images

HTML5 has the <picture> tag with <source> children that can be used in combination with the sorl-thumbnail Python package to generate different versions of the image based on your viewport size: load small image on the mobile, middle image on the tablet, and big image on the desktop or smart TV.

Uploading Images and Deleting them by Ajax

In my previous editions, I only showed how to upload a file by Ajax and attach it to a Django model. In Jake's update, it is shown how you can also delete the image.

Validating Passwords with Special Requirements

Since Django 1.11 you can define special requirements for the passwords of your users, for example, have a mix of small and big letters or include at least 1 number and 3 special characters, etc. There is a practical recipe how to do that.

Adding Watermarks to Images

When it comes to branding or copyright protection, it is common to add special watermarks, semitransparent images on top of your normal pictures. Jake added an example, how to do that and it was very interesting to me.

Authenticating with Auth0

In one recipe it is shown how to login to a Django website using Auth0, which seems to be a passwordless authentication system with integrations of popular connection services like OpenID Connect, Facebook, Google, Github, LinkedIn, PayPal, Yahoo!, and others. I haven't tried that myself yet, but it can be an interesting option for a social website.

Using Redis for Caching

It is common to cache websites using Memcached service, but a good alternative is caching with Redis and django-redis. Moreover, you can easily save user sessions there.

Creating Hierarchies with django-treebeard

In the previous editions, I introduced django-mptt for creating hierarchical structures. However, recently many projects are moving towards its alternative - django-treebeard which has more stability and writing speed. In the book, Jake shows you how to work with it.

Conclusion

There was a lot of new things to learn. For example, for me personally Docker usage was new, and I haven't heard of schema.org microdata and Auth0 which were introduced in this book. All in all, I think, Jake Kronika did an enormous job with this update and it's really worth purchasing this book, especially as there is a winter-holidays sale where you can get the EPUB, MOBI, and PDF with the code examples just for ~ 5 €.

Have a nice Christmas time and come back to this blog next year!

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Cover photo by chuttersnap.

Special Offer for the Readers of DjangoTricks Blog

Packt Publishing, the company that published my Django book, has a special offer for enthusiast and professional developers reading this blog. For two weeks you can get the eBook "Web Development with Django Cookbook - Second Edition" for half price. The eBook is available in PDF, ePub, Mobi, and Kindle formats. Also you will get access to download the related code files.

Use the discount code DJGTRK50 at the Packt Publishing bookstore.
The discount is valid until the 24th of February, 2016.

Fresh Book for Django Developers

This week the post office delivered a package that made me very satisfied. It was a box with three paper versions of my "Web Development with Django Cookbook - Second Edition". The book was published at the end of January after months of hard, but fulfilling work in the late evenings and at weekends.

The first Django Cookbook was dealing with Django 1.6. Unfortunately, the support for that version is over. So it made sense to write an update for a newer Django version. The second edition was adapted for Django 1.8 which has a long-term support until April 2018 or later. This edition introduces new features added to Django 1.7 and Django 1.8, such as database migrations, QuerySet expressions, or System Check Framework. Most concepts in this new book should also be working with Django 1.9.

My top 5 favourite new recipes are these:

• Configuring settings for development, testing, staging, and production environments
• Using database query expressions
• Implementing a multilingual search with Haystack
• Testing pages with Selenium
• Releasing a reusable Django app

The book is worth reading for any Django developer, but will be best understood by those who already know the basics of web development with Django. You can learn more about the book and buy it at the Packt website or Amazon.

I thank the Packt Publishing very much for long cooperation in the development of this book. I am especially thankful to acquisition editor Nadeem N. Bagban, content development editors Arwa Manasawala and Sumeet Sawant, and technical editor Bharat Patil. Also I am grateful for insightful feedback from the reviewer Jake Kronika.

What 5 recipes do you find the most useful?

Win Free Copies of “Web Development with Django Cookbook”

Readers would be pleased to know that I have teamed up with Packt Publishing to organize a Giveaway of my book Web Development with Django Cookbook.

Three lucky winners stand a chance to win an e-copy of the book. Keep reading to find out how you can be one of the lucky ones.

Book Overview

• Improve your skills by developing models, forms, views, and templates
• Create a rich user experience using Ajax and other JavaScript techniques
• A practical guide to writing and using APIs to import or export data

How to Enter?

All you need to do is head on over to the book page and look through the product description of the book and drop a line via the comments below this post to let us know what interests you the most about this book. It’s that simple.

Prize

Winners will get an e-copy of the Book.

Deadline

The contest will close on the 1st of December, 2014 at 00:00 GMT. Winners will be contacted by email, so be sure to use your real email address when you comment!

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...And the winners are...

Out of the 21 participants I finally chose these winners: Mark Phillips, Faria Chowdhury, and Mario Gudelj. The guys from Packt Publishing will contact you by email and will give you the free copies of "Web Development with Django Cookbook". Have a nice reading!

Contributing Back to the Community - Django Cookbook

In the early beginning of year 2014, the IT book publishing company "Packt Publishing" contacted me with an interesting offer: to share my Django experience in a form of a book. I thought it might be a good challenge for me and also value for the Django community, as I had been working with Django for 7 years or so, and during that time there was quite a lot of knowledge gathered and used practically. So for the next 9 months on late evenings and weekends I was adapting some of the most useful code snippets and describing them in the book. The great staff from the Packt Publishing helped me to structure the content, make everything clear and understandable, and get the grammar correct. Finally, the book was released and it's called "Web Development with Django Cookbook".

This book is written for intermediate or advanced Django web developers. When writing the book, my own purpose was not to fully cover every possible web development task, but rather to have enough useful bits of knowledge for those who seek information about web development with Django. The book was written in the format of recipes. There are over 70 recipes giving you instructions how to deal with different challenges of web development. The code mentioned in the book is optimized for Django 1.6, but most of it should also work with older Django versions as well as with Django 1.7.

The cookbook consists of 10 chapters:

1. Getting started with Django 1.6. This chapter will guide you through the basic configuration which is necessary to start any Django project. It will cover topics like virtual environment, version control, and project settings.
2. Database Structure. When you create a new app, the first thing to do is to define your models. In this chapter you will learn how to write reusable pieces of code to use in your models. You will learn how to deal with multilingual data in your database. Also you will be told how to manage database schema changes using South migrations.
3. Forms and Views. To show your data or let one create it, you need views and forms. This chapter will show you some patterns for creating them.
4. Templates and JavaScript. Information is presented to the user by rendered templates. In modern websites, JavaScript is a must for richer user experience. This chapter shows practical examples of using templates and JavaScript together.
5. Custom Template Filters and Tags. The default Django template system is quite extensive, but there are more things to add for different cases. This chapter shows you how to create and use own template tags and filters.
6. Model Administration. Django framework comes with a handy pre-build administration. This chapter shows how to extend the default administration with your own functionality.
7. Django CMS. Django CMS is the most popular open source content management system made in Django. This chapter deals with best practices using Django CMS and extending it for your needs.
8. Hierarchical Structures. When you need to create a tree-like structure in Django, django-mptt module comes to hand. This chapter shows you how to use it and how to set administration for hierarchical structures.
9. Data Import and Export. Very often there are cases when you need to transfer data from and to different formats, retrieve it from and provide it to different sources. This chapter deals with management commands for data import and also APIs for data export.
10. Bells and Whistles. There is more to Django. This chapter shows additional snippets and tricks useful in web development with Django. Also you will learn about deployment of Django projects.

Get a copy of this book at Packt Publishing and tell me what you think about it in the comments below. Which recipes did you find the most useful? What would you like to read more in this blog or another edition of the cookbook?