Overmortal Technology Blog.

Django Settings Aren't Accessible from Models

by Michael on 2009-12-04 11:08:59 tags: django, django-tagging, models, python, settings, tagging

We ran into an interesting problem yesterday. As any good programmer knows, you never hard code path information into your code. You use properties files, external XML, etc. In Django, you use the settings.py file.

The settings.py file is a python file like any other. It's all python code. This means that you can add your own stuff in there too - like file and directory paths.

Yesterday we were working on some model code for a client's e-commerce application and the strangest thing happened. It wouldn't let us access the variables from the settings file ...

Extending Django's Flatpages

by Michael on 2009-06-12 10:38:46 tags: admin, django, flatpages, meta tags, python, seo

If you're a Django developer and you've had to deal with static content, you're very familiar with Django's flatpages application and middleware. Most developers are content with implementing this solution and leaving it "as is" for the content site editors who handle those pages. However, in any company with an SEO employee, or a marketing employee with SEO knowledge, you'll often run into a situation where meta tags need to be managed along with the static content. Django's flatpages don't have this ability by default, but it is something that you can easily ...

Making Multi-Column Tables from a QuerySet in Django Templates

by Michael on 2009-02-17 10:23:19 tags: django, django templates, multi-column, python

When I first got started programming in the Django framework, Django was still relatively new. As such, documentation was scarce. It look long hours of searching to often find complete solutions to complex problems. Sometimes, it even took a large chunk of time to find simple solutions to small problems. One small problem new Django users often run into is how to create a multi-column table structure in a template page. Django's template language is very strict and does not want you injecting code galore in your markup. As a result, this strictness often forces you to find a ...

Software Development: Aptana Studio 1.2

by Michael on 2008-12-04 08:40:19 tags: adobe air, ajax, aptana, django, iphone, php, programming ide, python, ruby on rail, software development

When Java was the primetime language of choice for most companies, it wasn't hard to come up with an IDE or two that would more than suffice in development. A lot of the projects that I worked on fell into one of two categories: IBM or open source. Many of the large-scale big companies working with Java were either backing IBM or Sun Microsystems. If you were an IBM backer, you used IBM's Visual Age for Java as your IDE of choice. If you were a Sun or open source backer, you more than like used a variation ...

Using Django Models without Using Django

by Michael on 2008-11-03 11:08:03 tags: django, orm, python, web site development

Not all of the web sites we do are full-board software applications. Some of these web sites are simple brochure-ware for local area businesses. Although we could overcharge for a full-suite content management system and hand out chainsaws to cut butter (like some of our competitors), that's just not our style. We try to fulfill our clients' actual technology needs, and sometimes, that need is just a plain old web site with a handful of pages.

Some brochure-ware sites do require a bit of dynamic coding though - such as a web site that requires newsletter signup functionality. This functionality ...