I went to a great Introduction to Python Django Web Framework meetup tonight (http://www.meetup.com/django-district/events/223451662/), put on by Django District and TechTalkDC.  We’ve been using Python more and more at my work for data mining, and I was excited to tinker with a Python-based web framework.

Django describes itself as the web framework for perfectionists with deadlines — it’s a full service web framework, similar to Ruby on Rails that has a built-in content management system, baked-in security, and lots of built-in functionality (e.g. user authentication, data migration).

Django isn’t create for microservices (simple applications), where a framework like Python Flask or Ruby Sinatra is much more effective.

The demo went through a simple Django project (https://github.com/excellalabs/khanaas-django), which involved setting up a Khan as a Service, using a RESTful call to Khan-inify the word — http://localhost:8000/kirk/Mike turns “Mike” into this:

For people who want to tinker more with Django after finishing this tutorial (https://github.com/excellalabs/khanaas-django/wiki), the Excella guys recommended the Django Polls tutorial (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/intro/tutorial01/)