Beginning Django E-Commerce - McGaw - Apress

409 Pages·2011·5.07 MB·English

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Beginning Django E-Commerce
Beginning
Dear Reader,
Beginning
D
Django is a web framework that allows developers to build clean and elegant
web sites. In this book we take an in-depth and detailed look at using Django to
build a fully functional e-commerce web site. Whether you’re a seasoned web j
programmer looking to try Django or completely new to the realm of dynamic a
Django
web development, this book will give you the theoretical groundwork and prac-
n
tical guidance you need to develop your ideas into a working site. Best of all,
Django and Python are open source, so they’re free for anyone to use.
g
As a developer, I have always enjoyed learning new things by example. For
this reason, we will build a single shopping cart site over the course of this book.
o
Chapter by chapter, we’ll add new features and functionality to the site, all the
while discussing the theory behind the code we’re writing. In the end, our site
will have a product catalog, shopping cart, checkout functionality, payment E-Commerce
E
gateway integration, customer accounts, order administration, product search,
cross-selling, automated test cases, and secure credit card storage. You’ll see
-
how all of these individual pieces fit together to create a search engine-friendly
site, learn Django best practices in the process, and come away with a code C
base that you can re-use in your other projects.
Because Django was created using the Python programming language, you
o
get the benefit of several solutions to existing problems that have been put forth
by the heavily active Python community on the web. As a language, Python is m
very powerful, and because of this, there is almost no limit to the kinds of sites
you can build, the complexity of which is all made simple using Django. After
learning the concepts covered in this book, you’ll be well on your way to devel-
m
oping your own fully featured, production-ready Django web sites.
Have fun developing along with this book!
Learn how to build powerful e-commerce sites

e
Jim McGaw using the Django web framework and the Python
r programming language
Companion eBook
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Beginning Django Definitive Guide to Django,
Pro Django
E-Commerce 2nd edition

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on $10 eBook version
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SOURCE CODE ONLINE
M Jim McGaw
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Beginning Django
E-Commerce

■ ■ ■
JIM MCGAW
Beginning Django E-Commerce
Copyright © 2009 by Jim McGaw
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior
written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-2535-5
ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-2536-2
Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Development Editor: Douglas Pundick
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This book is dedicated to my parents.
—Jim McGaw

■ CONTENTS

Contents at a Glance

■ About the Author....................................................................................................xi
■ About the Technical Reviewer...............................................................................xii
■ Acknowledgments................................................................................................xiii
■ Introduction..........................................................................................................xiv
■ Chapter 1: Best Laid Plans.......................................................................................1
■ Chapter 2: Creating a Django Site..........................................................................17
■ Chapter 3: Models for Sale....................................................................................39
■ Chapter 4: The Shopping Cart................................................................................79
■ Chapter 5: Site Checkout & Orders......................................................................109
■ Chapter 6: Creating User Accounts......................................................................153
■ Chapter 7: Product Images..................................................................................173
■ Chapter 8: Implementing Product Search...........................................................179
■ Chapter 9: Intelligent Cross-Selling.....................................................................193
■ Chapter 10: Adding in Ajax..................................................................................205
■ Chapter 11: Search Engine Optimization.............................................................231
■ Chapter 12: Web Security Overview....................................................................255
■ Chapter 13: Improving Performance...................................................................279
■ Chapter 14: Django Testing.................................................................................299
■ Chapter 15: Deployment......................................................................................323
■ Chapter 16: Django on Google App Engine..........................................................341
■ Index....................................................................................................................365

v
vi
■ CONTENTS
Contents

■ About the Author..................................................................................................xvi
■ About the Technical Reviewer.............................................................................xvii
■ Acknowledgments..............................................................................................xviii
■ Introduction..........................................................................................................xix
■ Chapter 1: Best Laid Plans.......................................................................................1
Selling Stuff Online........................................................................................................................2
Why Django?..................................................................................................................................4
Straying From the Django Philosophy.......................................................................................5
A Quick Word on the Software..................................................................................................5
A Note on Version Control..........................................................................................................6
Firefox.......................................................................................................................................6
Installing the Software...................................................................................................................7
Installing Python........................................................................................................................7
Installing Django........................................................................................................................8
Installing MySQL........................................................................................................................9
Installing Eclipse and the PyDev Extensions.............................................................................9
Things to Consider Before You Start..............................................................................................9
Security...................................................................................................................................10
Accessibility............................................................................................................................10
PCI Compliance........................................................................................................................11
Search Engine Optimization....................................................................................................11
Deployment.............................................................................................................................12
Business Requirements...............................................................................................................12
Accounting & Auditing.............................................................................................................12
Supply Chain Management......................................................................................................13
Marketing Decisions................................................................................................................14
Summary......................................................................................................................................16

vii
■ CONTENTS
■ Chapter 2: Creating a Django Site..........................................................................17
A Django-istic Welcome...............................................................................................................17
Creating the Project.................................................................................................................17
What Django Creates...............................................................................................................18
Creating the MySQL Database.....................................................................................................19
Dealing with Django Exceptions...................................................................................................22
Template & View Basics...............................................................................................................23
Advanced Templates with Inheritance.........................................................................................25
Greater Ease with render_to_response().....................................................................................28
Adding in the CSS........................................................................................................................29
Location, Location, Location........................................................................................................34
A Site Navigation Include.............................................................................................................35
A Word (or Two) About URLs........................................................................................................37
Summary......................................................................................................................................38
■ Chapter 3: Models for Sale....................................................................................39
Databases 101.............................................................................................................................40
An Introduction To SQL............................................................................................................40
What Makes a Relational Database.........................................................................................42
What Django Gives You – The ORM..............................................................................................44
Creating the Catalog App.............................................................................................................45
Creating the Django Models.........................................................................................................46
Model Field Data Types...........................................................................................................48
Creating the Category Model...................................................................................................50
Creating the Product Model.....................................................................................................54
The Django Admin Interface.........................................................................................................56
Product and Category Admins.................................................................................................57
A Note on Model Validation.....................................................................................................59
Syncing Up the Models............................................................................................................60
Playing with Model Structure and Data...................................................................................64
Templates, URLs, and Views........................................................................................................65
Configuring Page Titles and Meta Tags...................................................................................66
Coding Up the Catalog Views...................................................................................................68
Creating the Template Files.....................................................................................................69
A Category Link List.................................................................................................................73
viii