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I'm a newbie on the Django scene coming from an ASP.NET C# background. I'm looking for some good resources to help me learn the ins and outs of Django/Python. Any recommendations?

mkelley33
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Bill the Lizard
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Thomas Schreiber
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  • Wow. I've already marked this post as "answered" before this response came in, but then again I wish I could mark most of these responses as the "answer". The Django community seems extremely involved and knowledgeable. I can't wait to explore all the good information you've shared thanks so much. – mkelley33 Jul 18 '09 at 16:18
  • This is what I call an "Answer". – wassimans May 11 '11 at 19:21
  • Here's another recent one that I found useful.. http://www.jeffknupp.com/blog/2012/02/09/starting-a-django-project-the-right-way/ – Sundeep Aug 04 '12 at 06:23
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Practical Django projects, second edition by James Bennett the release manager of Django

The book covers building applications, adding features, practical development techniques like using DVCS, automated build deploy tools and there is also a dedicated chapter on reusable development and how to submit to PyPI.

The book also gives good tips on Python wherever necessary; that way you can develop a good understanding of Python too.

Peter Mortensen
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lprsd
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  • Thanks. Any tips for getting to know hosting/deployment or is that included in this book? – mkelley33 Jul 17 '09 at 22:54
  • Actual Django hosting services: see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1118835/which-are-good-python-django-hosting-solutions/1119139#1119139 . – Peter Mortensen Jul 21 '09 at 08:43
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The django book for django!

And the python tutorial for python basics.

plastic chris
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Most books will tell you how to deploy to Apache. You can also look into lighttpd and nginx.

For deployment, you should look into Fabric, a python package that does SSH from your machine to your server.

Here's my Amazon list of top Django books, for what it's worth. I'm referencing this rather than repeating my comments here. I would point out that Django Templates (not on the list) is a bit of a let down. Not up to the technical quality of the other books.

People have already pointed you at James Bennett. I'll reiterate that. He has a lot of great material on his website at www.b-list.org. Highly recommended.

If you are looking for simple setup and/or support for Django sites, I'd recommend slicehost.net or webfaction.com. The former is more hardcore, control your own Unix server slice. The latter is simpler, easier to start up, but not so much control over everything. The former starts at about $20/month for a 256MB slice. The latter is about $10/month.

Even if you don't use either of these hosts, their websites have awesome tutorials on setting up Django, python, and Apache on Unix boxes.

I'd also recommend getting a free account to github.com. There is a huge community of celebrity Django developers there, and there are lots of projects you can copy to your machine and try out. One of the cool things: you can "follow" other Djaango developers and see what is popping up on the hivemind's radar.

More information on Fabric.

Community
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hughdbrown
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  • Good advice on slicehost and webfaction's tutorials. My company runs several Django sites concurrently on a 256 MB slice. Slicehost is just a great company, too. A pleasure to work with. – Gabriel Hurley Jul 18 '09 at 02:13
  • LOL. Thanks for the awesome advice. I say LOL, b/c my the company at which I'm working is using slicehost, and we're moving from ASP.NET C# to Django for our next big project. In addition to all the input my co-workers have been doling out, this has been extremely helpful. I already told another person in this post that I wish I could mark almost all of the responses to this question as answered. Maybe stackoverflow could add an "extremely helpful" check mark too? Thanks again. – mkelley33 Jul 18 '09 at 16:23
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Certainly the Django documentation is a good resource. I keep getting told to use it and its been helpful most of the time:

www.djangoproject.com

AlbertoPL
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  • I also come from a Asp.Net/C# background and have found myself spending a lot of time on the django project site reading documentation as I have been building a site with Django. – Corey Sunwold Jul 17 '09 at 21:55
  • I believe the Django docs are my 2nd favorite, after the PHP manual (God, I love that thing!) and a bit before the Python and Symfony ones. – Xiong Chiamiov Jul 18 '09 at 00:17
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stackoverflow.com? ;-)

Practical django projects

I also like b-list.org's Django category and the Django tag on Jeff Croft's blog.

Gabriel Hurley
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I started with Django not so many weeks ago.

I can recommend to study the source code to the Django site itself. It helped me getting started to do real work as there was a complete and working example to refer to. It can be found at http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/djangoproject.com/django_website/. A direct download URL for the source code is: http://code.djangoproject.com/changeset/10750/djangoproject.com/django_website?old_path=%2F&format=zip (ZIP file, 61 KB).

And it is a good idea to read the first 5 chapters in the Django book, starting at http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/chapter01/

If you are interested in making a blog then I can recommend this blog-entry by James Bennett:

http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/jul/03/django-tips-scaling-application/ "Django tips: scaling an application. Let’s build a blog."

Peter Mortensen
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  • Wow, its cool to see that Django has a lot of noobs like myself involved in digging deep into the technology. Thanks for sharing. – mkelley33 Jul 18 '09 at 16:20
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Found Python Web Development with Django by Forcier, Bissex and Chun a great start. 50 pages on python to get you going and all the basics of Django.

PhoebeB
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