The Django Framework's Killer Feature for Java Developers

Code Speaks for Itself

Here is how the model definition for the invoicing application would look like (usually in a file called models.py):

from django.db import models

class Product(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField("Name",max_length=30)
    price = models.DecimalField("Price", max_digits = 10, decimal_places = 2)
    
    def __unicode__(self):
        return "%s - $%s" % (self.name,self.price)
    
class Customer(models.Model):
    first_name = models.CharField("First Name",max_length=50)
    last_name = models.CharField("Last Name",max_length=50)
    address = models.CharField("Address",max_length=50)
    city = models.CharField("City", max_length=50)
    state = models.CharField("State", max_length=2)
    postal_code = models.CharField("Postal Code", max_length=10)
    
    def __unicode__(self):
        return "%s %s" % (self.first_name,self.last_name)
    
class Invoice(models.Model):
    invoice_number = models.CharField("Invoice Number", max_length=30)
    customer = models.ForeignKey(Customer)
    invoice_date = models.DateField("Date")
    
    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.invoice_number
    
class InvoiceLine(models.Model):
    product = models.ForeignKey(Product)
    quantity = models.IntegerField("Quantity")
    invoice  = models.ForeignKey(Invoice)
    
    def __unicode__(self):
        return ("%s x %s = $%s") % (self.product,self.quantity,(self.product.price * self.quantity))

A bit less verbose than JPA, I think we would all agree.

Now let's hook up the entities to the admin interface. Customer, Product and Invoice will all get their own CRUD screens, while Invoice Line will be hooked up automatically to its invoice via a master-header relationship.

In a file usually called admin.py we enter:

from models import Customer, Invoice, InvoiceLine, Product
from django.contrib import admin

class InvoiceLineAdmin(admin.TabularInline):
    model = InvoiceLine
    extra = 1

class InvoiceAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ['invoice_number','invoice_date','customer',]
    inlines = [InvoiceLineAdmin]

admin.site.register(Customer)
admin.site.register(Product)
admin.site.register(Invoice,InvoiceAdmin)

That's it! When this is up and running, the following screens are what we get:

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Figure 1. A Login Screen (with a built-in user registration and authorization system)

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Figure 2. A Customer Listing Screen

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Figure 3. A Customer Edit Screen

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Figure 4. A Product Listing Screen

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Figure 5. A Product Edit Screen

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Figure 6. An Invoice Listing Screen

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Figure 7. An Invoice Edit Screen

Notice that in the invoice edit screen, the invoice lines are added automatically. The date field has a default for "Today", as well as a built-in JavaScript date picker. The Customer and Product fields automatically show a drop-down list via the foreign key relationship. They also have the plus sign (+) next to them, which allows you to add a new customer or product via a popup screen without leaving the invoice edit screen. Also, every entity modification is automatically tracked via a built-in audit trail subsystem (see Figure 8).

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Figure 8. Entity Audit Trail

Now think how much code and HTML you would have to create to provide the same functionality in any Java Web framework and ask yourself this simple question: isn't Django worth my time?

And we haven't touched on any of the advanced functionality available in the admin app: filtering, mass actions, in-line editing, customizing the edit/list screens, etc.

Python Tooling

When Java developers hear Python, they probably think of old school Unix editors like vi or emacs. Don't fear; there is a great Python plugin for Eclipse called PyDev. This plugin allows you to stay within the comforts of a modern IDE, providing new project wizards, code completion and even refactoring.

Summary

I hope this short introduction to Django explained clearly how its admin interface elevates Web development above the low-level details of HTML/CSS/JavaScript, etc., and lets you focus instead on the business functionality. No other framework I've seen comes close to delivering this level of productivity.

In short, it's worth learning a Python to take advantage of Django. In our development team, we have settled on Java as our language of choice for all of our performance-intensive server applications and Python Django for all of our Web development.

About the Author

Simple Invoicing Application

About the Author

Jacek Furmankiewicz is a Senior Java EE, Python, Oracle and MySQL developer at Radialpoint. He has 16 years of IT experience in writing enterprise software for a wide variety of industries.



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This article was originally published on June 29, 2010