Creating Dynamic Applications with Django and Backbone.js

Mjumbe Poe

Overview

• Backbone.js is cool, but sorry for all the JS
• Hijax: Accessibility is important
• Django REST Framework: it’s cool & we’re goinna make it cooler
• Templating in Django: Great but could be better.

Django Analogues

• Backbone has models, which are roughly like Django models

  • No defined structure
  • Also has form-like responsibilities, like validation

• Backbone has collections, which are like Django model managers or querysets

  • Use them find/destroy/iterate through instances of models

• Backbone has events, which are similar to Django signals

• Backbone has views which are managers of portions of the page

• Backbone has routers which are similar to urlpatterns in Django

RESTful API

• Using a basic views.View view from Django REST Framework (not what I’d consider best practices -kl)

Hijax

• Plan for AJAX from the start, but implement at the end.