Django web framework

Django is an open source web application framework written in Python_programming_language.

=History=

In many ways Django is Python s answer to Ruby on Rails, though Django development began before Rails was released. It shares a similar development history while not actively seeking to be Python on Rails, and solves many of its problems in a similar way. Both exist to aid rapid development of database-backed web applications, using a Model-view-controller design.

Django was developed at Kansas (US) newspaper [http://www.ljworld.com/ Lawrence Journal-World] by [http://www.holovaty.com/ Adrian Holovaty] and [http://simon.incutio.com/ Simon Willison], who were later joined by [http://www.jacobian.org/ Jacob Kaplan-Moss]. The project was released as open source under a BSD license in July, 2005.

The project takes its name from jazz guitarist Django_Reinhardt.

=Main Features=

An object-relational mapper for defining data models in Python

A URL dispatcher for designing framework-independent URLs

A powerful and extensible Template system to separate design, content, and Python code

A cache system to hook into memcached or other cache frameworks

Automatic admin interface generation

Django was originally designed to be deployed on top of mod_python, but it also supports WSGI, and includes a stand-alone server similar to Ruby on Rails or CherryPy. PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite are supported as database backends.

=Model View Template=

Django doesn t strictly conform to the MVC model. As they say in their FAQ[http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/faq/], they don t believe in capital-M Methodologies and rather do what feels right. The effect has been that what Rails call the Controller is equivalent to the View in Django, and what Rails call the View is what Django calls the Template.

=External links=

*[http://www.djangoproject.com Django Project Homepage] *[http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2005/07/17/django Introducing Django] *[http://www.magpiebrain.com/archives/2005/08/14/rails_and_django Comparison between Django and Rails]