Hi All, I'm new to Django (and to be honest, a little bit hazy on the subtleties of MVC, but if you don't try, you don't learn).
I want to create a simple web frontend for a Python program I have already (mostly) written and I'd like to use Django (which may be overkill... not sure). - Users have a bunch of externally generated XML files. (Could be one, could be many (max of 20?). Possibly in an zip or tar.gz archive). - Users access the Django app and can upload via a simple form (with funky Ajax uploadiness - including as many ponies and rainbows as might be necessary) - A backend script will process this XML, performing all manner of fantastical space/time-bending magic (which will not take longer than 5 to 10 secs... Max tested with many, many input files is about 40seconds). - The output will be produced and the user will have the option to download as CSV or possibly PDF. Possibly with functionality to allow the report to be mailed to them when complete (so user identity needs to be built in). Very vague I know. But a very simple web app I think. Essentially, the backend script summarizes the input files into a summary per file and a total summary of the presence and count of certain keys / values or combinations of data. There's a set of logical rules that I have yet to invent which will be used when parsing the input XML (for example: if value "B" exists in "A" with attribute "Z" but not attribute "X" then count, otherwise do not). The reason I want to use Django is: - I know I will be asked to add all sorts of functionality to this. Django is extensible, powerful. - I don't want to be responsible for maintaing the "rules" and would love to be able to expose this via an admin interface so anyone (with authorization) can add or edit rules logic. - I've already got the bulk of the parsing script written in Python. I guess I need: - a handler for the input files. - a way to pass these file serially to my backend script (I presume I would use the filesystem for this? The input files can be anywhere from 2K to 1MB in very extreme cases.) - a mechanism to separate different user sessions. - a way to accumulate the results of each file parse and then report on the total (store the results in the DB?) - a mechanism to present and archive the reports (and then this leads to a way to look up old reports). So, given this paucity of requirements and the horrendously unclear explanation above, what suggestions might you lot have? (Apart from "RTFM", of course!) - Do / Don't use Django? - Structure of projects / Apps? - Any key external apps / modules that might be useful (e.g. for handling for uploads) - Any gotchas when invoking backend scripts? ... I'm really just looking for a nudge in the right direction. Thanks in advance for any tips, pointers or help you can give. Thanks Waza -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django users" group. To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en.
