I am pretty familiar with the MVC structure and have been writing Python for a while now mostly within the context of unit and integration testing. I started to think that maybe it was time to begin looking into web development with Python. In the past I’ve done a little work with python and CGI, but decided to look into Django as a framework for building Python sites.

I read a number of reviews on this book before picking it up and many of the complaints seemed to revolve around the fact that the book does not consistently build an application throughout the chapters. While true, I believe it adds to the learning experience in that it drills the basics of creating a Django application into your head. The book has 10 chapters and each chapter is a new application. While many of the applications are simply expanded versions of the application built in the previous chapter the author to go through again the process of creating the application. While probably annoying for the advanced Django programmer, the beginner leaves the book with the ability to set up a Django application in his or her sleep. Ultimately repetition is the best way to learn, and this book is full of repetition.

The writing style was clean and concise. No real issues with versioning. All of the code seemed to work as illustrated. Overall, I was looking to get a broad idea of what Django was all about, and on a high level what I could get out of it. If you’re at all advanced with the Django framework this book will probably bore you out of your mind, but if your a Django newbie I think you’ll find this book very informative.

If I had one criticism of the book, it would be that on a very basic level the book continued to be very instructive in how to accomplish certain tasks. I like the idea that I have to create a new application and set up a new database for each chapter. But I also think that it is good to force the user to begin doing it themselves without instructions. For example after chapter 6 or so the instructions should have indicated to the user that they should create an application named ‘thisApplication’ with a database named ‘thisDB’ instead of going through detailed instructions each time.

Overall good book, and well worth the time to read.