django ! request - commenting system and forums paypal?

by: kingfitz, 8 years ago

Last edited: 8 years ago

Hey bro been a while.  Took a break now Im back, and knocking out django tutorials.  I ran into a wall awhile back with Flask, basically I have a pretty decent website with it but began to realize that its going to be a technical nightmare trying to engineer a dynamic site with multiple functioning applications in it - namely a user oriented dynamic dashboard with related functions, a forum perhaps, commenting system, store using paypal integration etc.  The problem is tying all this together with flask takes skill on the level of a web/software engineer.  I figured out that the customizability and extensibility of flask is a double edged sword, since its lower level you need the technical expertise to work out these rabbit holes.  On top of that say I produce websites for clients and I have like 40 of them, all on separate servers.  Having to manually go into every server and change and edit every html file, every init,py, writing sql queries becomes a logistical nightmare, sapping time when it could be better used outputting more sites.  Also, there are people much better at programming than me who've already built decent flask apps, so mine would surely be inferior as far as bottlenecking and may have security holes like swiss cheese Ive missed.

For this reason Im trying out django.  I may use flask for simple static sites, but anything more complex probably wont be the best option.  So I was going to ask you a couple questions clarifying a couple things related to django website management and some feature requests for the common apps I plan on deploying.

Mainly Im wondering how easy the management process is with django admin.  If I produce websites for clients such as blog, user login system with basic dashboard functionality, and/or forum and ecommerce, how easy is it to manage and modify the html templates and these functions as a server admin and say a moderator.  What Id like to be able to do is partially hand the reins over to the client, to be able to publish, edit html pages, blog posts, comments, users, etc without needing much technical knowledge.  This is probably wishing for too much but if I have to do all these menial tasks managing small edits constantly its not going to be efficient at all.  Was wondering what your experience / advice is regarding this matter.

Lastly I know django has a pretty active community and therefore has decent packages like django forums and other apps already out there to use.  Im mainly looking at integrating these types of apps into a website:   dynamic user dashboard, blog with commenting system, forums, ecommerce store, with a user friendly way to manage this stuff (Is there a comparable paypal integration or ecommerce app for django, or a decent CMS to help manage content?).  I and others could use some help integrating all this or at least a point in the right direction, would be very appreciative and will make donation if you can post more django tutorials regarding these functions.  In the meantime Im going to plow through the django series (thank god its only 12 videos compared to 35 hah) and do some further digging into running a blog and forums which are my first obstacles to tackle, and the easiest way to manage them as an admin and user.  Thanks a ton for your great work spreading programming knowledge and producing amazing tutorials, and for your wise counsel on these matters.  

Fitz



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Django is super simple to manage via the admin page. You can only interact with whatever objects you create, so people wont be modifying html templates via the admin page. You could allow people to write html via a model or something, and then just include it as a variable.

While the Django admin is super useful, I actually use Flask for all of the things you say Flask wont do well:

This entire website is flask. These forums are flask, the +=1 paypal integration is flask, user system is flask... I even wrote my own admin page.

In the end, you can be successful with both frameworks, it just depends on which fits you best personally.

-Harrison 8 years ago

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Ok cool.  I like flask but Im no where near the skill level to write my own admin panel, or CMS, or forum, or dashboard functions, which sucks.  Gets discouraging because no matter where you dig online everyone does things differently so adapting methods that can work for me is currently beyond my skill level.  Thanks for answer though.  Maybe in future you can release a forum and or commenting system guide for the flask or django series, or both!  Dont mean to wish for a pony here!  haha later

-kingfitz 8 years ago

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