Historically I've mainly written web apps in Django, but now I'm increasingly finding that I want to write single-page web apps using Backbone.js or a similar JavaScript framework, with a back-end that solely consists of a database and an API.
My questions is this. If my application structure looks like this:
1. Database
|
v
2. API methods
|
v
3. Single-page front-end written with Backbone
and I'm most comfortable in Django - but also keen to learn new things too, such as NoSQL and Node, if they are appropriate - what would people recommend I use for (2)?
Typically I would use Django with Piston as the API app, but it seems rather heavyweight to have all of Django and only use it as an API provider. Perhaps I shouldn't be worrying, though.
If you use Django, which is an MVC framework, and use Backbone, you might be comfortable setting up your app in pure Node.js or Express.js, with additional modules for connecting to your choice of database.
With Express, if you plan to serve only JSON via RESTful interface, you don't even need to use Views, which is handy. You would only need to set up models and routes (that also serve as controllers).
Any server side framework or lang that is capable of supporting or providing for RESTful APIs should work. I myself as using Slim PHP right now. But seeing that you are from a Django/Python background perhaps this post would be helpful to you.
Recommendations of Python REST (web services) framework?
Related
I want to use Django Rest Framework as an API and am looking for a way to "couple" the frontend / HTML/CSS/JS to it.
To put it in perspective, I am used to the way Django "usually" does it, by naming HTML templates and 'rendering' them when going to a particular URL.
Now, with DRF, it appears that this functionality has fallen away and everywhere I look it's just "react.js or vue.js" as the answers to consume the API.
What are my options for the front end? Can I not just do it all within the 'usual' Django framework, simply, as it was done before. And why do no resources talk about this?
Thanks, let me know if you require further info.
DRF is just additional layer for Django which help to implement API. You can use Django for render html on server side and serve it to browser. You don't need use DRF for it. But if you assume that you frontend app will be interactive, dynamic and complicated then it is not best way to solve it.
More popular approach suggest to separate it on frontend application (react or vue) and backend with REST API for interact with. It allow move all things related with UI on frontend app and only keep state on server.
By the way Django was developed for generate html on server and for site like this https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/ but world changing. Resources talk just about popular things
I have been using Flask for Building REST API on the development level. I want to create REST API at Production Level. So which Python web framework would be Best?
These frameworks I saw while searching:
CherryPy
Flask
Django
Pyramid
TurboGears
Pylons
Web2py
Falcon
Bottle
Etc.
Django has a big support for REST API. According to my own experience I'd advice Django.
See more here: https://www.django-rest-framework.org/
For a REST API, I would use FastAPI. It has a strong reputation.
I have used it for several projects, and I like it because it fairly easily lets you do the right thing without much work. For instance, it relies upon pedantic to ensure the proper data types for what you are sending/receiving.
Hello I am tasked with translating a current Excel tool to a web application. I decided to use Python and Django. Lately I studied the Django REST framework. I have the following related questions.
Is it for such an application a good idea to first write a web REST API so that I
firstly only need to focus on the backbone of the web application. I.e. implement the PUT, POST, GET and DELETE methods and the Django models.
The second step would be to implement the user interface... But if this is a valid method how can I reuse the REST views??? I followed the REST tutorials, but they don't show how to build a nice slick user-interface on top of the REST API.
Since REST views inherit from Django, I think it's maybe not such a good idea to write a Django view which inherits from a REST Apiview? Or can I directly use an API endpoint in a template. If so where can I get some nice examples?
Writing the back-end separately using Django REST Framework is a great idea.
There is a strong architecture based on the idea of decoupling the back-end from the front-end. After you finish the project's backbone, as you are calling it, you can start creating you front-end but your don't have to use Django template rendering in that case.
You can take the pros of using REST APIs and you can use one of the good front-end frameworks or libraries as Angular and React.js.
Another advantage of this that the same API can work with mobile development and so on.
So you develop one back-end and multiple front-ends depends on your need.
Also you can read a discussion about your question on Quora: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-it-make-sense-to-separate-front-end-from-back-end
I have read a couple of articles about using new JS frameworks like Backbone.js or Ember.js
I have come up to this statement:
If I use a JS framework like Backbone.js/Ember.js, I then move the logic from the back-end (Django) to the front-end.
Therefore, will Django actually be used only for its Models?
Does that mean that Django Views and Django Template are not needed anymore and the Django back-end is kinda turn into a "basic" REST API that will be consumed by the front end.
Do you agree? Is it then the purpose of Django in this case?
Is turning the django backend into a REST API one of the most suitable use case when using a framework like Backbone.js/Ember.js for the front-end?
Thanks.
Django is perfectly fine to be used this way, you still get the admin, the models, the orm and all the third-party plugins. However, it isn't blazingly fast, so if you're doing simple document level, non-relational REST mapping, you might wan't to look into node.js and mongoDB for instance.
If you're sticking with django (like we are, we like the structure it gives us), you can use one of the REST plugins:
Django Rest Framework A perfect match since DRF 2.0, under very active development!
Django Tastypie (checkout backbone-tastypie.js for integration)
Django Piston (might be a bit stale or has development picked up lately?)
If you only want to work with frontend development, checkout the Backend-as-a-Service places like cloudmine.me or firebase.com that handle all backend stuff for you, for a price of course.
Django may seem unnecessary once you start thinking about single page solutions and Javascript applications, but if you want your site to be 'fail proof' it wouldn't be impossible to develop both a client side Javascript version of the site as well as a backend django side incase the user, or your site's javascript, fails at some level. Of course this requires creating your site twice, and probably isn't needed in the age of modern browsers, but such would be one of the few instances where you would mix the two for a complete solution.
Yes, that's about it. You can use it to manage authentication to resources and such and maybe use a main view for your application but you won't need to use the server side templating since these frameworks are made to work with json/xml response.
That's why a lot of people are moving to lighter backend/backbone or ember combo instead of a complete solution like django. You can also use your django for caching json response which makes your application appears faster.
We are doing that and use django-piston to make it easier on you.
Normally you make your entire website under Django and only one page will be a "single app page" using backbone.js, usually that page is a very interactive page, with lots of small updates that occur frequently and need to be shown very fast to the user. This page, because of the large number of changes and user interactions is constructed on the client-side so that you are using his PC resources and not the server's, the rest of the pages can use django because it offers you a very stable and secure framework for the server-side
This question is regarding the co-extisense of two MVC Frameworks (on the client side and the server side).
Some Background: I am fairly new to web development, but am a very proficient programmer. I learnt javascript and Django only recently. The Front end for my app is quite Javascript extensive and hence I decided to use a framework. I am currently reading up on the available frameworks and I am inclining towards backbone.js + jquery.
My problem is that I don't fully understand how a MVC framework like backbone.js can co-exist with a server side framework like Django.
From what I understood of backbone.js, when there is a change to a model, the corresponding views related to the model are automatically updated. Here, we are referring to the "views" of the Client side framework right? Would such a "view" communicate with the backend framework's "controller"?
How would a possible directory structure be? Is such an architecture bad?
Does the question make sense? or am I lost?
Edit: To add some clarity: I guess my essential question is : How a complex single-page JS web application be structured on the client-side (espertially if u are using a client side framework)? Specifically I'm curious about how to cleanly structure the application in terms of its model objects, UI components, any controllers, and objects handling server persistence.
I can speak in terms of Rails/Backbone, but I can't imagine that Django would be much different.
First, a client-side MVC framework like Backbone isn't just for single-paged apps. You can also use it to add some rich interaction to one or many views of a more traditional app. They simply provide structure and data abstractions on the client.
Next, these client-side frameworks are designed specifically to work with your back-end MVC frameworks. Backbone.js (since you tagged it specifically) models and collections work with REST services. They will talk via GET/POST/PUT/DELETE verbs and will ultimately communicate with your controllers on the back-end when they make asynchronous requests.
In the case of Backbone, it talks JSON instead of HTML. In the case of Rails, this is really easily handled in the controller. If the request is an HTML one, then you return a view as HTML. If it is a JSON request (*.json or Content-type) then the controller returns a JSON representation of the data. I am assuming that it is as easy in Django as it is in Rails to have the same controller respond to multiple content requests (HTML, XML, JSON, etc)