a request for some brain picking
Will Dampier
This is Will Dampier, I've been an avid python and django programmer for the past two years or so. I've worked on a few in-house django projects and I've been looking for a project to "give-back" to the community. I've always worked on the "programming" side of projects and have only dabbled on the "design" side. Whenever I've started a new project I've scoured the internet for django templates that come complete with css, images, etc. and always come up empty.
So I was thinking of making a "meta"-django project. I could make a site that allows designers to upload django-templates against a well defined set of models, views, forms, etc. Then users could switch between templates and see how more "complex" examples function. This would be useful for designers to advertise their skills and for newbies to get a richer set of functions. Something akin to the CSS Zen Garden.
I'm looking for a collaborator or two ... or even just a few people to pick their brains about some of the details. I have some code in a git-hub repository http://github.com/JudoWill/DjangoTemplateRepository/ and I've got about a dozen google-wave invitations if people would like to try collaborating that way. If you wouldn't mind either forwarding this to anyone you think would be interested or posting it on your blog.
Thanks in advance,
Will
aditya
Django is much more flexible over template-based systems like
Wordpress or Tumblr. Wordpress standardizes a lot of things so generic
templates are easy to make and will work on just about any Wordpress
installation. It seems to me like to have templates in Django you'd
have to standardize things somehow...but that would result in loss of
flexibility.
Aditya
On Jan 1, 1:06 pm, Will Dampier <judow...@gmail.com> wrote:
> An open call,
>
> This is Will Dampier, I've been an avid python and django programmer for the
> past two years or so. I've worked on a few in-house django projects and
> I've been looking for a project to "give-back" to the community. I've
> always worked on the "programming" side of projects and have only dabbled on
> the "design" side. Whenever I've started a new project I've scoured the
> internet for django templates that come complete with css, images, etc. and
> always come up empty.
>
> So I was thinking of making a "meta"-django project. I could make a site
> that allows designers to upload django-templates against a well defined set
> of models, views, forms, etc. Then users could switch between templates and
> see how more "complex" examples function. This would be useful for
> designers to advertise their skills and for newbies to get a richer set of
> functions. Something akin to the CSS Zen Garden.
>
> I'm looking for a collaborator or two ... or even just a few people to pick
> their brains about some of the details. I have some code in a git-hub
> repositoryhttp://github.com/JudoWill/DjangoTemplateRepository/and I've got
Will Dampier
able to download the templates from this website and plug it into your
own without any modification what so ever. The standardization comes
from the limiting of what I actually put in the context-dictionary
when I render the template.
I hope this will become a resource for people to download templates
that they can "tinker" into their own django programs. I've noticed
that everytime I start a django project I get the views, forms,
models, etc. programmed easily but I stare at a blank editor screen
trying to write the template. If I had a place to go and find a
"slick-looking" template to tinker with I'd be able to do things even
faster.
I'm hoping to make this into an ideal place for people to demonstrate
the tricks they use in constructing their templates ... stuff like how
they arrange the "blocks", which css items they use, whether they use
lists or tables, how they implement 'nav-bars', etc.
> > repositoryhttp://github.com/JudoWill/DjangoTemplateRepository/andI've got
aditya
templates would be very interesting. I'll be interested to see where
this project goes.
Dougal Matthews
Will Dampier
templates comes from uploading them through a form. If you wanted to
change/fork them you'd have to create your own "design" and then re-
upload the modified template.
Right now my example templates are super simple HTML templates
(they're in the repository mentioned above). If a design implements
then it will preferentially render the design's template over my own.
I do like the idea of people uploading templates that over-ride admin
templates. It would make it more "plug-able" with current django
installations. I could use many different models to to show all of
the possible "view-types" that the standard ModelAdmin allows.
Although I have a question about the usefulness of these templates.
(my understanding at least) Is that the admin site is supposed to be a
"no-mess" administration site that "covers all the bases" so the coder
doesn't have to worry about implementing it. Do you think this would
be a useful resource for people creating "front-facing" templates
though?
The problem I see with a "wiki style" editing would be people
introducing malicious code which I end up unknowingly loading into
django and exposing myself and others to the whims of "bad people".
"Forking" a design would be pretty easy in implement, I could simply
copy the relevant files into a new one.
Raja
libraries that are out there, like django-registration, django-
profiles etc. Since the library offers the models and views, it would
be helpful if the templates are also available. The developer could
then take it and modify it to adapt to their website.
Also, frameworks like Blueprint CSS (http://www.blueprintcss.org) make
it much easier to start designing a layout by providing a pre-defined
template , so its not all that difficult now, but blueprint could be
one of the templates thats available in the original poster's library.
-- Raja
Will Dampier
plugables" like django-registration, django-cms, django-profiles, and
dozens of others ... the Django-Resources page would be a good place
to start.
Then designers could upload either a full "website layout" against all
of my, and the "plugable", views or simply a against a subset of the
"plugable" applications. If I "standardize" the blocks that the
designers are allowed to use, then for any missing templates I could
just implement my default template. With some sort of trickery I
could even allow people to create mash-ups combining different
designs.
Dougal Matthews
IMO, it would be useful if we get standard templates for django
libraries that are out there, like django-registration, django-
profiles etc. Since the library offers the models and views, it would
be helpful if the templates are also available. The developer could
then take it and modify it to adapt to their website.
Also, frameworks like Blueprint CSS (http://www.blueprintcss.org) make
it much easier to start designing a layout by providing a pre-defined
template , so its not all that difficult now, but blueprint could be
one of the templates thats available in the original poster's library.
Jim White
http://pinaxproject.com/. They already provide some of this and (as a
Pinax user) it would be nice to see some template compatibility.
Unfortunately they are still sub 1.0 in their release but it looks
like they have settled down a bit in their base.html and css.
Will Dampier
I wonder if I could make the entire site out of plugables. Then
designers would have a well defined (or at least standard) set of
views and templates to program against. It would also be useful for
newbies to find templates and designs for these commonly used apps.
I've created a simple voting thingy on "Moderator" at this url:
http://moderator.appspot.com/#15/e=125fbc&t=125fbd .... Please suggest
and vote for the sort of apps you'd like to see included into a
repository.
On a side-note, I wonder if there's a way to create a "template-
loader" which will return the uploaded templates. My current
implementation is to use a "r'(P<design_slug>.*?)/" in my urls.py to
determine which template to load. This would be an annoying way to
implement it if I'm including pluggables.
Any thoughts?
On Jan 2, 2:43 pm, Dougal Matthews <douga...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2010/1/2 Raja <rajas...@gmail.com>
Will Dampier
but at least by what I see so far is that its trying to allow people
to download and create an "even more batteries included" type of
platform. I'm hoping to create a repository of templates and designs
(more for learning and examples), not necessarily an integrated
platform.
On Jan 2, 2:02 pm, Jim White <white.j...@gmail.com> wrote:
> If you don't already know about Pinax perhaps you should look athttp://pinaxproject.com/. They already provide some of this and (as a
Will Dampier
> but at least by what I see so far is that its trying to allow people
> to download and create an "even more batteries included" type of
> platform. I'm hoping to create a repository of templates and designs
> (more for learning and examples), not necessarily an integrated
> platform.
After watching their two talks and playing around with the code I'm
quite impressed with their system. In about 20 minutes I actually re-
implemented the entire site in pinax (and I may do the same with some
of my other projects). At this point I'm not above throwing out my
crummy code if something better comes along ;). It certainly
implements all of the "social features" that I was scratching my head
about.
All I really need to do is create a hook for rendering the arbitrary
templates.