What Is Django and How Is It Used?

Django is an open-source, high-level web framework written in Python. It’s particularly favored by developers who appreciate the rapid development capabilities it offers, along with its security and scalability. In other words, Django aims to simplify and significantly speed the development process. 

This article explains more about Django, how and why it’s used, and the strategies that exist to help you build up your Django skills.

What is Django?

Django is a free, open-source framework written in Python that specializes in quick development and practical design. It expedites the building of web applications by providing a structured framework, pre-built components, and tools that handle many common web development tasks. It’s written in Python, which remains one of the world’s most popular programming languages [1]. 

First developed in 2003 by website builders Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison, Django was their solution to continually building from scratch. They took two years to develop reusable code and designs to expedite web development and then released Django in 2005. It is now a collaborative endeavor with thousands of contributors and users helping to improve the functionality and add feature support.

Is Django back-end or front-end?

Django has both back-end and front-end capabilities that help developers quickly build a project from scratch. While primarily a back-end framework, Djanvo also has tools that help front-end developers. That makes it a full-stack framework, which means it covers the website’s underlying database and logic (back-end) and can control how the data looks to the user on the web (front-end).

What database management systems does Django support?

Django supports several database management systems, including third-party database backends. The official databases that Django supports include: 

• MySQL

• Oracle

• PostgreSQL

• SQLite

• MariaDB

Frameworks similar to Django 

As an open-source framework for web development, Django is in company with the likes of Laravel, Jekyll, Ruby on Rails, and CakePHP.  Sharing similar architectures and often enabling code reuse to support greater productivity, these frameworks help developers build their web applications more efficiently.

Django vs. Flask

You might want to consider using Flask versus Django. Generally, Django is the more robust option. Flask is considered a “micro-framework”, which means it has more features that you’ll need to build up manually than if you used the heavy-hitter Django. Still, if you want a speedy, lightweight framework, you might prefer Flask depending on your project needs.

Apps that use Django 

Several popular apps use the Django framework. Well-known web applications built with Django include:

• Instagram

• YouTube

• Spotify

• Dropbox

• Pinterest

• Mozilla

• Reddit

• BitBucket

• GoogleMaps

Major newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian join NASA in using Django to handle their heavy traffic reliably and securely.

How is Django used in Python?

You can use Django and Python together to build web applications. Doing so requires you to understand Python. Let’s explore the process with the following brief overview.

• Install Django: Use pip to install Django on your computer.

• Create the project: Use a command to start a new project and set up its basic structure.

• Define models: Create Python classes that describe your data and relationships.

• Create views and templates: Make views to handle user requests and templates to structure how data is shown.

• Run development server: Launch a local server test to view your progress in action.

How to learn Django

Learning Django requires practice and familiarity with Python, URL routing, and API can help. Still, you can learn Django’s fundamental principles in several ways:

• Do an online search for beginner tutorials

• Watch videos on YouTube

• Look for books covering Django 

• Listen to Django podcasts (such as Django Riffs)

• Attend Django conferences and meetups

• Enroll in formal, instructor-led Django courses

Pros and cons of Django

As with any Python framework, Django has advantages and disadvantages. The benefits include its wide range of built-in features, scalability, and security. The disadvantages focus on its size. 

Pros

Django can offer developers the ability to save time. It simplifies web development by adding a range of pre-built functionalities, such as:

• Database migrations

• Cross-platform use with support for multiple languages

• User authentication 

• Free API

• URL routing

• Sitemaps package for generating Google sitemap XML

• Messages package for managing temporary messages

• Sessions package for session management

Further, Django has security measures like SQL injections and cross-site request forgery that protect against common web vulnerabilities.

Cons

Meanwhile, Django comes with a lot of code, which can make it unwieldy for smaller projects. It can demand too much processing power and time. Additionally, critics point out that Django’s structured framework means that users have to learn the configurations to perform certain tasks. 

So, while it has many features (hence the volume), users must overcome a steep learning curve before they can fully leverage the platform.

Next steps on Coursera

Django is an open-source framework used to create a wide range of applications by software professionals. While you can select from similar frameworks such as Flask, Django offers a more robust option with intuitive features. On the other hand, Django is a bulkier option than the lightweight Flask. 

Consider strengthening your skills using the Django framework through courses on Coursera. Start with Django for Everybody, offered by the University of Michigan or Meta’s Django Web Framework course as part of its Meta Back-End Developer Professional Certificate. 

You may also opt to upgrade your Django skills with Codio’s Advanced Django: Mastering Django and Django Rest Framework Specialization course. This four-course series helps people interested in taking their web development with Django to the next level by covering building a blog, the Django Rest Framework, external APIs, and test queuing.