Django (web framework)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Original author(s)Adrian Holovaty, Simon Willison
Developer(s)Django Software Foundation[1]
Initial release21 July 2005; 18 years ago (2005-07-21)[2]
Stable release
5:5.0.2[3] Edit this on Wikidata / 6 February 2024; 39 days ago (6 February 2024)
Repository
Written inPython[1]
Size8.9 MB[4]
TypeWeb framework[1]
License3-clause BSD[5]
Websitewww.djangoproject.com Edit this on Wikidata

Django (/ˈæŋɡ/ JANG-goh; sometimes stylized as django)[6] is a free and open-source, Python-based web framework that runs on a web server. It follows the model–template–views (MTV) architectural pattern.[7][8] It is maintained by the Django Software Foundation (DSF), an independent organization established in the US as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Django's primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites. The framework emphasizes reusability and "pluggability" of components, less code, low coupling, rapid development, and the principle of don't repeat yourself.[9] Python is used throughout, even for settings, files, and data models. Django also provides an optional administrative create, read, update and delete interface that is generated dynamically through introspection and configured via admin models.

Some well-known sites that use Django include Instagram,[10] Mozilla,[11] Disqus,[12] Bitbucket,[13] Nextdoor[14] and Clubhouse.[15]

History[edit]

Django was created in the autumn of 2003, when the web programmers at the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper, Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison, began using Python to build applications. Jacob Kaplan-Moss was hired early in Django's development shortly before Simon Willison's internship ended.[16] It was released publicly under a BSD license in July 2005. The framework was named after guitarist Django Reinhardt.[17] Adrian Holovaty is a Romani jazz guitar player inspired in part by Reinhardt's music.[18]

In June 2008, it was announced that a newly formed Django Software Foundation (DSF) would maintain Django in the future.[19]

Features[edit]

Components[edit]

Screenshot of the Django admin interface for modifying a user account

Despite having its own nomenclature, such as naming the callable objects generating the HTTP responses "views",[7] the core Django framework can be seen as an MVC architecture.[8] It consists of an object-relational mapper (ORM) that mediates between data models (defined as Python classes) and a relational database ("Model"), a system for processing HTTP requests with a web templating system ("View"), and a regular-expression-based URL dispatcher ("Controller").

Also included in the core framework are:

  • a lightweight and standalone web server for development and testing
  • a form serialization and validation system that can translate between HTML forms and values suitable for storage in the database
  • a template system that utilizes the concept of inheritance borrowed from object-oriented programming
  • a caching framework that can use any of several cache methods
  • support for middleware classes that can intervene at various stages of request processing and carry out custom functions
  • an internal dispatcher system that allows components of an application to communicate events to each other via pre-defined signals
  • an internationalization system, including translations of Django's own components into a variety of languages
  • a serialization system that can produce and read XML and/or JSON representations of Django model instances
  • a system for extending the capabilities of the template engine
  • an interface to Python's built-in unit test framework

Bundled applications[edit]

The main Django distribution also bundles a number of applications in its "contrib" package, including:

Extensibility[edit]

Django's configuration system allows third party code to be plugged into a regular project, provided that it follows the reusable app[22] conventions. More than 5000 packages[23] are available to extend the framework's original behavior, providing solutions to issues the original tool didn't tackle: registration, search, API provision and consumption, CMS, etc.

This extensibility is, however, mitigated by internal components' dependencies. While the Django philosophy implies loose coupling,[24] the template filters and tags assume one engine implementation, and both the auth and admin bundled applications require the use of the internal ORM. None of these filters or bundled apps are mandatory to run a Django project, but reusable apps tend to depend on them, encouraging developers to keep using the official stack in order to benefit fully from the apps ecosystem.

Server arrangements[edit]

Django can be run in conjunction with Apache, Nginx using WSGI, Gunicorn, or Cherokee using flup (a Python module).[25][26] Django also includes the ability to launch a FastCGI server, enabling use behind any web server which supports FastCGI, such as Lighttpd or Hiawatha. It is also possible to use other WSGI-compliant web servers.[27] Django officially supports five database backends: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, and Oracle.[28] Microsoft SQL Server can be used with django-mssql while similarly external backends exist for IBM Db2,[29] SQL Anywhere[30] and Firebird.[31] There is a fork named django-nonrel, which supports NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB and Google App Engine's Datastore.[32]

Django may also be run in conjunction with Python on any Java EE application server such as GlassFish or JBoss. In this case django-jython must be installed in order to provide JDBC drivers for database connectivity, which also can provide functionality to compile Django in to a .war suitable for deployment.[33]

Version history[edit]

The Django team will occasionally designate certain releases to be "long-term support" (LTS) releases.[34] LTS releases will get security and data loss fixes applied for a guaranteed period of time, typically 3+ years, regardless of the pace of releases afterwards.


Version Release Date[35] End of mainstream support End of extended support Notes[36]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.90[37] 16 Nov 2005
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.91[38] 11 Jan 2006 "new-admin"
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.95[39] 29 Jul 2006 "magic removal"
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.96[40] 23 Mar 2007 "newforms", testing tools
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0[41] 3 Sep 2008 API stability, decoupled admin, unicode
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1[42] 29 Jul 2009 Aggregates, transaction based tests
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.2[43] 17 May 2010 Multiple db connections, CSRF, model validation
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.3[44] 23 Mar 2011 23 Mar 2012 26 Feb 2013 Class based views, staticfiles
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.4 LTS[45] 23 Mar 2012 26 Feb 2013 1 Oct 2015 Time zones, in browser testing, app templates.
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.5[46] 26 Feb 2013 6 Nov 2013 2 Sep 2014 Python 3 Support, configurable user model
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.6[47] 6 Nov 2013 2 Sep 2014 1 Apr 2015 Dedicated to Malcolm Tredinnick, db transaction management, connection pooling.
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.7[48] 2 Sep 2014 1 Apr 2015 1 Dec 2015 Migrations, application loading and configuration.
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.8 LTS[49] 1 Apr 2015 1 Dec 2015 1 Apr 2018 Native support for multiple template engines. Support ended on 1 April 2018
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.9[50] 1 Dec 2015 1 Aug 2016 4 Apr 2017 Automatic password validation. New styling for admin interface.
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.10[51] 1 Aug 2016 4 Apr 2017 2 Dec 2017 Full text search for PostgreSQL. New-style middleware.
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.11 LTS[52] 4 Apr 2017 2 Dec 2017 1 Apr 2020 Last version to support Python 2.7. Support ended on 1 April 2020
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0[53] 2 Dec 2017 1 Aug 2018 1 Apr 2019 First Python 3-only release, Simplified URL routing syntax, Mobile friendly admin.
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.1[54] 1 Aug 2018 1 Apr 2019 2 Dec 2019 Model "view" permission.
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2 LTS[55] 1 Apr 2019 2 Dec 2019 11 Apr 2022 Security release.
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.0[56] 2 Dec 2019 3 Aug 2020 6 Apr 2020 ASGI support
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.1[57] 4 Aug 2020 6 Apr 2020 7 Dec 2021 Asynchronous views and middleware
Older version, yet still maintained: 3.2 LTS[58] 6 Apr 2021 7 Dec 2021 April 2024 Tracking many to many relationships, added support for Python 3.11
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.0[59] 7 Dec 2021 3 Aug 2022 April 2023 Support for pytz is now deprecated and will be removed in Django 5.0.
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.1[60] 3 Aug 2022 April 2023 December 2023 Asynchronous ORM interface, CSRF_COOKIE_MASKED setting, outputting a form, like {{ form }}
Older version, yet still maintained: 4.2 LTS[61] 3 Apr 2023 December 2023 April 2026 Psycopg 3 support, ENGINE as django.db.backends.postgresql supports both libraries.
Current stable version: 5.0 4 Dec 2023 August 2024 April 2025
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

DjangoCon[edit]

There is a semiannual conference for Django developers and users, named "DjangoCon", that has been held since September 2008. DjangoCon is held annually in Europe, in May or June;[62] while another is held in the United States in August or September, in various cities.[63] The 2012 DjangoCon took place in Washington, D.C., from 3 to 8 September. 2013 DjangoCon was held in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the post-conference Sprints were hosted at Digital Bootcamp, computer training center.[64] The 2014 DjangoCon US returned to Portland, OR from 30 August to 6 September. The 2015 DjangoCon US was held in Austin, TX from 6 to 11 September at the AT&T Executive Center. The 2016 DjangoCon US was held in Philadelphia, PA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 17 to 22 July.[65] The 2017 DjangoCon US was held in Spokane, WA;[66] in 2018 DjangoCon US was held in San Diego, CA.[67] DjangoCon US 2019 was held again in San Diego, CA from Sept 22–27. DjangoCon 2021 took place virtually and in 2022, DjangoCon US returned to San Diego from October 16th to the 21st.

Django mini-conferences are usually held every year as part of the Australian Python Conference 'PyCon AU'.[68] Previously, these mini-conferences have been held in:

  • Hobart, Australia, in July 2013,
  • Brisbane, Australia, in August 2014 and 2015,
  • Melbourne, Australia in August 2016 and 2017, and
  • Sydney, Australia, in August 2018 and 2019.

Django has spawned user groups and meetups around the world, the most notable group is the Django Girls organization, which began in Poland but now has had events in 91 countries.[69][70][71]

Ports to other languages[edit]

Programmers have ported Django's template engine design from Python to other languages, providing decent cross-platform support. Some of these options are more direct ports; others, though inspired by Django and retaining its concepts, take the liberty to deviate from Django's design:

CMSs based on Django Framework[edit]

Django as a framework is capable of building a complete CMS, however there are dedicated CMS projects which are built upon and extend the Django framework. Below is a list of a few of the more popular Django-based CMSs:

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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  3. ^ "Release 5.0.2". 6 February 2024. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Django Download". Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  5. ^ "django/LICENSE". GitHub. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  6. ^ "FAQ: General - Django documentation - Django". Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  7. ^ a b "FAQ: General - Django documentation - Django". Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  8. ^ a b Adrian Holovaty, Jacob Kaplan-Moss; et al. The Django Book. Archived from the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2013. Django follows this MVC pattern closely enough that it can be called an MVC framework
  9. ^ "Design Philosophies". Django. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  10. ^ "What Powers Instagram: Hundreds of Instances, Dozens of Technologies". Instagram Engineering.
  11. ^ "Python". Mozilla Developer Network. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  12. ^ Robenolt, Matt. "Scaling Django to 8 Billion Page Views". blog.disqus.com.
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  14. ^ "The anti-Facebook: one in four American neighborhoods are now using this private social network". The Verge. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  15. ^ Demi, Luke (15 August 2021). "Reining in the thundering herd ⛈ Getting to 80% CPU utilization with Django". Clubhouse Blog. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  16. ^ Willison, Simon. "What is the history of the Django web framework? Why has it been described as "developed in a newsroom"?". Quora. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  17. ^ "Introducing Django". The Django Book. Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  18. ^ "Review: Adrian Holovaty's Playful and Precise 'Melodic Guitar Music'". Acoustic Guitar. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023.
  19. ^ "Announcing the Django Software Foundation - Weblog - Django". Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  20. ^ "Security in Django". Django Project. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  21. ^ Socol, James (2012). "Best Basic Security Practices (Especially with Django)". Retrieved 25 March 2013.
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  33. ^ beachmachine. "GitHub - beachmachine/django-jython: Database backends and extensions for Django development on top of Jython". GitHub. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
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  39. ^ "Introducing Django 0.95". Django weblog. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  40. ^ "Announcing Django 0.96!". Django weblog. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  41. ^ "Django 1.0 released!". Django weblog. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  42. ^ "Django 1.1 released". Django weblog. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
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Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]