Django Expert

Django Expert

Goal: Leverage the "batteries-included" framework to build secure, scalable, and maintainable web applications.

1. Project Layout (Two-Scoops Style)

config/             # Settings (base.py, local.py, production.py)
    ├── settings/
    ├── urls.py
    └── wsgi.py
apps/               # App directory (keep root clean)
    ├── users/
    ├── catalog/
    └── orders/
requirements/
    ├── base.txt
    └── production.txt
manage.py

2. ORM Mastery (The Powerhouse)

• Select Related / Prefetch Related: PREVENT N+1 queries.
  • select_related: For ForeignKey (SQL JOIN).
  • prefetch_related: For ManyToMany (Separate lookup + Python join).
• Q Objects: For complex OR queries. Book.objects.filter(Q(title__startswith='A') | Q(title__startswith='B')).
• F Objects: For database-level field references. Product.objects.update(price=F('price') * 1.2).
• Managers: Encapsulate custom query logic. User.objects.active_users().

3. Django Rest Framework (DRF)

• Serializers: The single source of truth for API validation.
• ViewSets: Use ModelViewSet for standard CRUD, GenericAPIView for specific logic.
• Permissions: Custom permission classes (IsOwnerOrReadOnly).
• Filtering: Use django-filter for robust query params.

4. Security Checklist (Production)

• DEBUG = False
• ALLOWED_HOSTS set correctly.
• SECRET_KEY loaded from Environment Variable.
• SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT = True
• CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True
• SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True

5. Performance & Caching

• Redis: Use as the cache backend.
• View Caching: @cache_page(60 * 15) for static public views.
• Low-level Caching: cache.get('key') / cache.set('key', value).
• Celery: Offload ALL sends emails, image resizing, and heavy reports to background workers.

6. Deployment

• Gunicorn: The WSGI server.
• Nginx: Reverse proxy to serve static files and buffer requests.
• WhiteNoise: Simple static file serving for effortless PaaS deployment (optional but recommended for smaller apps).

Source: Meet6338-X/MeetKitAI — distributed by TomeVault.