On Saturday, February 05, 2011 01:10:56 am Izz ad-Din Ruhulessin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been theorizing about a Django Desktop Application built a GUI
> framework (eg. PyGTK, Tkinter).
>
> It basically comes down with this:
>
> 1. Login using an SSL POST request and create a user object.
>
> 2. Download certain tables from the DB to the local machine, perhaps
> specified by a "download_local" attribute (True/False) on models. If
> it already is downloaded, synchronize it with the server.
>
> 3. Use the Django ORM locally to do your work.
>
> 4. Provide wrapper classes for the models save, delete methods etc.
> Foo.objects.get(pk=4) for example sends a POST request: {'obj': 'Foo',
> 'kwargs_keys': 'pk', 'kwargs_values': 4, 'op': 'get'}; the server then
> can do the job via get_model, getattr, etc.
> - OR - log all changes on the local machine, and provide a 'Send my
> work to the server'-button.
>
>
> This is my basic idea. What do you think about this? Is this the right
> approachs? And what would be possible pitfalls?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Izz ad-Din Ruhulessin
If you only want to use the orm for the desktop appliction, I would suggest
using sqlalchemy over django, much easier configuration and setup for a
desktop application. I like to use sqlalchemy with PyQt, which does include a
QtSql module. But it's more like PHP, you have to write all queries in SQL.
The db table can be tossed back and forth with json still or use the orm's db
settings to communicate with the server. While not advised for public apps,
you can have the client talk directly with the db by passing a restful
interface. Then you create a db user who has special permissions to the tables
you want them to have access to.
I'm also not sure you're gaining anything this way. I think it would depend on
the use. If you're aiming to make a data entry application, it would be easier
to just do the communication and let the server handle all the work. The
application should validate before you send the data off, but gui libs provide
nice tools for validation already, just implement those. And validate at the
server end, always, especially if you're going with a restful style interface.
I also think you're approaching this idea the wrong way. The desktop
application should be in pure django, with a script/batch file loading the
page in the users browser. Then you get all of django's benefits. But even
here, I still have my own doubts on the validity of it. This part is about
wide-spread usage and what's the real benefit of this use?
You could also build a simple browser with a notification area/systray icon
for hiding the app off the desktop.
I have previously played with this idea and these are some of the things I've
come across, in the theory stage. The last question of benefit being the
stopper from implementing it for desktop apps that work with a website/db. I
just found it better and easier to implement it in a gui lib and use
sqlalchemy to communicate with the server, or just skip the db part in the
client and send off json, dumping the readied json to a pickle (or shelf) file
when the network/user is not ready to send. When the network con is available
read and send the data from the pickle file.
Mike
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