Two Scoops of Django 1.11: Best Practices for the Django Web Framework

This is the best Django book out there, but that is not sufficient praise. It is the best framework book I have ever read -- at 440 or so well indexed, well sorted pages, this book is exemplary of what it covers, what it doesn't cover, what it reinforces, and what it allows you to skip and read later.This book does what a framework should do -- it provides all of the material required for good professional formation -- much more than a quickstart book, much less than an encyclopedia of Django, TSD (as it is abbreviated by the many Django managers that have to mention it too many times to write out) is the book for the typical Django user -- a perfectionist with deadlines. Reading the 15 chapters absolutely required to create and understand Django sites will take you around 15 hours. Reading all 33 chapters--and being able to apply them all -- will take you about 40, and you will then know everything that should be standard for a Django professional.I have heard it said that, when you are interviewing a prospective Django developer, hearing a mention of "Two Scoops" or "Greenfield" means that the interview is going to go well.If you want to learn python, read Mark Lutz's "Learning Python". If you want to use python fluidly, read Beazley and Jones' "Python Cookbook". If you want to __understand__ python, read Luciano Ramalho's "Fluent Python".If you want to make a living as a business programmer in python, read this book.

I agree w/ everything said in other 5-star reviews. It's not worth repeating.What follows is my experience w/ the book as a beginner and now, as an intermediate-level developer.I bought this book a month or so after I started learning Django.I had a few small, VERY basic projects under my belt. I asked for a good book so I could fill in some gaps. This was the book that was most recommended.I read about a tenth of the book and then I just blankly stared as I forced myself through the first 15 chapters. I stopped. I could see there was value in the book but I just wasn't at a level to where I could appreciate or apply b/c I didn't understand it.I learned 2 things during this 1st attempt: JSON for ENV vars and how to structure the project. But I just had to step back, get a beginner-focused book, and try again later.After going through "Django for Beginners" by W.S. Vincent, having built Django projects at work and for friends, and being able to reference the official Django docs, I've started to re-read the book. It's like a completely different book. Now that I have my way of doing something do I understand the authors' suggestions for doing it better, correctly, or more efficiently.

This is probably my favorite technical book I've ever read. It's very thoroughly researched and draws on real world examples, which I found immediately applicable to my current role as a django dev. It's guided me now through multiple projects, and informed a lot of my decisions for which packages to use.The only cautionary note is that I would stress that while I found it pretty approachable, it shouldn't be regarded as a tutorial on python or django - true beginners should probably go through tutorials and documentation before they could really use this book. I'd also say that while many of the practices are just fine for many projects, what you'll use if you're coming in on an existing project would heavily depend on the architecture that's set up - the sections on forms and templates probably won't be very useful to you if django is used solely as the backend with Django Rest Framework and the frontend is entirely based on React. But even in those cases, there'll be parallels between serializers and forms that will be quite familiar and many of the practices will still be applicable.

You could spend a good part of a lifetime learning all that this book can teach you. Read the book and enjoy the rest of your life!

Every Django programmer should have this book. It is the go-to source for people who are no longer beginners, and need to figure out Django best practices. For instance, how should you lay out your project? How can you keep your secret keys secret while doing proper version control? Everything else being equal, should you load your business logic into your view or your model? And so on.When you start to make the transition from noob to intermediate and up, you will have tons of questions like those, and this book lays it all there for you.One key strength of this book is that each Chapter (and often, each Chapter section) can be read as a standalone tidbit. This is great when I need to figure out something fast, sort of like a portable Stack Overflow. This strength can become a weakness, though, for more complex topics where I am really clueless (such as class-based views). I hunger for more fully worked out examples in the context of a real project.It would be amazing if they made a companion volume, something like 'Two Scoops in Practice' walking us through a single, complex project, that they explain from beginning to end, that could be used to illustrate the different things in the book. I would buy ten copies of that and hoard it.

My third book in this series. I really like them all.

A fantastic overview of everything Django. Buy this to go beyond the free tutorials in the official docs and elsewhere. It's worth every penny.

This is the best compendium of Django knowledge I've found. It's a vital reference for anyone who's not already a Django master, and probably still useful if you are.

I love this book, I can definitely say this is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It has its own way to teach Django and to teach you how you can excel your Django skills. Recommended for Django developers, should not be used as a reference book for beginners.

Arrived very quick! I had a blast reading it! Really good content!

This book continues to be a must-have for any serious Django developer. It contains many up-to-date tips and best practices which have been incredibly helpful in making critical decisions about my applications' design, configuration, etc. as well as solving common issues.

my go-to for Django. Took me from self-taught to writing fully fledged apps.

Summary: I have seldom found as prescriptive a book as this one. It just reads like a list of to dos, and is better suited to a code style guide for experienced joiners to a django project than a primer for django.Update: My review for this book has gone down even further given the other books I read after this. @authors, please give more credit to your readers and don't flood readers with what-to-dos, please have more of why and how.-----------This is not a book for first time Django developers. You better have a sense of Django terminologies and how-tos, and atleast have build one Django project before you can make the most of this book.----There are a few books which take you through walkthroughs of how to build a project. There are other book that act as references for everything that the language or the framework is. This book is neither.This book is essentially the best best-practices book out there for Django. It is an good second book. It needs atleast one completed Django project from your end before you can make the most of this book.Style:Very informal writing style, easy to read through , will not take you long (say one week of after work reading). No exercises as such so this is not something for students or courses.When to use this book:The authors are extremely knowledgeable about django and their experience developing in Django (and Python) comes off a lot through the pages. It tells you all the ways you can go wrong. A good time to make use of the book is after you have made a toy version of your intended project and are ready for the real thing. (Which i have found to be a very good idea in practice, to make the first version of any project intending to throw it away.)Reviewing your code:Each chapter stands by itself and can be dipped into even at a later point. So whenever you want to create some new template/view just dip into the relevant section (say forms or some such before you start coding)Who is it not for:Good coders in other languages who want to start building on Django, this one is not for you. Go for atleast one project based on Django official docs, and hopefully one project based on your actual use case before you attempt this book.Who is it for:1) Joining a company that has existing Django code? You want this one for best practices2) Creating something from scratch and you are an existing django developer? Yes this one for you.3) Giving interview for company who's stack is Django based and - you have *already read* atleast one other Django book/django official starter docs/some youtube videos - then this one is for you----Having said the above, this is the stated ambit of the book. It is a best practices book so prepare to receive the presciption you asked for. Reading this book, if you can understand it (Django idioms), *will* make you a better Django developer, that is if you don't get put off by the prescriptive style and can get through the book.