Django is a high-level open source framework written in the Python programming language. It uses MVT architecture, which allows developers to quickly and easily build complex web applications. In this article, you will learn about the benefits of Django that make it one of the best frameworks for web development. This will help you understand if Django development services are suitable for developing your project.
History of Django
Django was developed by programmers at the American daily news publication Lawrence-Journal World in 2005. Adrian Golovaty and Simon Willison took on the task of creating the news portal for the publication they worked for.
The developers did not look for easy ways. As a result of hard work, they created the world’s first website in Python and along the way developed their own framework, which they called Django, in honor of the jazz musician Django Reinhardt.
Django appeared at a time when the similar Ruby and Rails framework, written in the Ruby language, was at the peak of its popularity. This led to Django being immediately seen as Python’s answer to Ruby and thus attracting a lot of attention from the very beginning and, as a result, began to develop rapidly.
In the first years after the release of the framework, such popular sites as The Washington Post, Pinterest and Dropbox were created on it.
Django was created using the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern and DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principles. This allowed programmers to develop projects in Django in a structured manner, using a component approach, separating business logic from the visual presentation and, as a result, saving a lot of time on developing and maintaining complex projects.
Key benefits of creating a website with Django
Let’s look at the key advantages of using a framework to create a website:
Django is time-tested
The Django framework is one of the first to respond to new vulnerabilities. As a rule, it is the Django developers who warn other platforms about patches, which they should immediately make. Django is stable, its developers are constantly working on errors and bugs of the platform. Today, the Django team is mainly focused on developing new features.
Django has a huge number of packages and tools needed for development
The Django community, like the Python community, continually creates many useful packages and utilities available for use by developers around the world. Type “Django” into the PyPI search bar and you’ll find over 4,000 packages available for use, all in addition to Django’s famous “batteries included” philosophy. This framework has everything you need to get started and more.
Django has excellent documentation.
Django was released with documentation far above the standard for open-source projects, and it has only improved over time. When Django first came out, excellent documentation was one of its main features that differentiated it from other platforms.
At the time, most frameworks provided little more than an alphabetical list of modules, methods, and attributes to use, which was good for quickly getting to know the platform, but not at all helpful in learning it.
Even though the quality of Django’s documentation is no longer a unique selling point, it is still one of the best examples of documentation for an open-source product, and maintaining this standard is always a priority for Django developers.
Community support
Python has an incredible number of supporters and contributors around the world, and Django has inherited this. If difficulties arise in development, there is a 99.9% chance that the programmer will find the answer on numerous Django community sites within 15 minutes.
Scalability
Django is a great tool when it comes to scaling, as it is a series of components that are configured and ready to go by default. Since these components are not interconnected, that is, they do not depend on each other, they can be replaced if your project requires a different solution.
Security
Django beats other frameworks when it comes to preventing common security bugs. For example, it does this much better than PHP.
What projects is Django suitable for?
Website development in Python and Django is a great solution if:
- You are planning to develop a complex web application or create a backend API
- You need to work quickly, making changes to the project as you go
- Your application should be protected from the most common vulnerabilities and attacks by default. For example, SQL injection, CSRF, XSS, Clickjacking, etc.
- Your project could potentially grow or shrink in size at any time
- You are considering integrating advanced technologies into your project in the future, for example, machine learning
- You want to use a reliable platform that is actively developed and used by the world’s leading websites and companies
- You need your web application and backend API to be in the same codebase according to SSOT (single source of truth)
- You plan to use open-source software
- You prefer frameworks with good documentation and support from a professional community that you can turn to when difficult situations arise
When is Django not recommended?
If you’re still wondering if Django development solutions are right for your project, here are some situations where building a website with Django is not recommended:
- If you need to develop a small project. Often, choosing a CMS or a ready-made website builder will be more justified.
- If you want to create a simple application that does not require a database, file operations, or other complex tools. Micro frameworks are best suited for such tasks. For example, Flask, which is one of the most popular micro-frameworks written in Python. Similar frameworks are available in other languages, for example, Slim in PHP, Apache Spark in Java, Express.js in Node.js, etc.
A perfect balance
Django is the perfect balance between performance, architecture, and the effort that goes into developing the project, maintaining security, and scalability. If you are looking for a reliable company that provides services of Django development, we recommend paying attention to SECL Group. This is a large company with representatives in different countries of the world, which provides a wide range of services for the development of IT products.
Featured image credit: pressfoto/Freepik
