Django is a free and open-source, high-level, Python-based server-side web framework that emphasizes reusability and pluggability of components, minimal code, rapid development, low coupling, and the principle of “don’t repeat yourself.” It was co-created by Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison in the autumn of 2003. The name “Django” was inspired by the Romani jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt. Django is the most popular Python web framework, with over 85,000 stars and 33,000 forks on GitHub. Some well-known sites that use Django include Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Dropbox, Pinterest, Mozilla, The Washington Post, BitBucket, and Disqus.

Django is a “batteries-included” web framework that follows the Model–View–Template (MVT) architectural pattern. One of Django’s greatest strengths is its large ecosystem of third-party packages that enhance the framework’s capabilities. With more than 10,000 Django packages available, it covers virtually everything you might need to build a web application — from APIs to content management, authentication, form validation, CAPTCHA protection, and more. Below are some of the most popular packages in the Django ecosystem.

  1. Django REST Framework: With over 25,000 GitHub stars, Django REST Framework is the most popular package in the Django ecosystem. It provides a powerful and flexible toolkit for building web APIs in Django, offering features like serialization, authentication, and customizable views. DRF simplifies the process of creating RESTful APIs by integrating seamlessly with Django’s models and views.
  2. Django Extensions: Despite its quirky name, Django Extensions is a collection of custom management commands designed to enhance Django’s functionality. It offers tools such as shell_plus, runserver_plus, job schedulers, model validators, and debugging tags to simplify development tasks and boost productivity.
  3. Django Filter: Django-filter is a reusable extension that simplifies the process of filtering querysets based on model fields. It allows developers to easily generate forms for filtering data and integrates seamlessly with Django REST Framework. This package enhances the flexibility and usability of Django applications.
  4. Django CORS Headers: CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is a security mechanism that allows web pages to request resources from a different domain than the one that served the web page. It prevents malicious sites from accessing sensitive data while enabling legitimate cross-origin requests. The django-cors-headers package helps configure and manage CORS policies in Django applications, allowing developers to specify which domains can access application resources — an essential feature for secure communication between frontend and backend components.
  5. Django Debug Toolbar: Debugging Django applications can often be time-consuming and complex. Django Debug Toolbar provides panels that display detailed debugging information about each request and response. It’s particularly useful for identifying performance bottlenecks and understanding the behavior of an application during development.
  6. Django Import Export: Django-import-export is a Django application that simplifies importing and exporting data, featuring built-in admin integration. It allows developers to handle bulk data in multiple formats, including CSV, TSV, JSON, DataFrame, Excel, and YAML.
  7. Django Tenants: By default, Django does not natively support multi-tenancy within the same project instance when only the data differs. The django-tenants package enables PostgreSQL-based multi-tenant architectures, making it ideal for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. It allows multiple customers to share a single application instance while maintaining isolated data and views.
  8. Django Allauth: Django-allauth is a robust authentication package providing a complete solution for managing user accounts. It supports local and social authentication, multi-factor authentication, and customizable configurations. The package simplifies user sign-up, login, and account management workflows and supports JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure client-server communication.
  9. WhiteNoise: Django does not include a production-ready built-in solution for serving static files. WhiteNoise solves this by allowing Django applications to serve static files directly, making deployments simpler and more self-contained without relying on external services. It integrates easily by adding a few lines of configuration in Django’s settings.py.
  10. Django Browser Reload: : While Django’s runserver command restarts the server when .py files change, it does not refresh the browser or detect changes in static files. django-browser-reload automatically refreshes your browser whenever it detects changes in Python code, templates, or static files, making development faster and more efficient.

REFERENCES

  1. Everything you need to know about Django. https://docs.djangoproject.com/
  2. Django Packages is a directory of reusable apps, sites, tools, and more for your Django projects. https://djangopackages.org/
  3. Learn django web framework. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Extensions/Server-side/Django
  4. Classy Class-Based Views. https://ccbv.co.uk/