This is the second in my series that I am calling "Eddie's Practices" for Django, in which I present tips and tricks that I have gleaned over the years of working with the Django web application framework. If you haven’t seen Eddie’s Django Tip #1: Choose Names Carefully, why not take a look at it now?

Today's tip is:

Don't Get Trapped in the Django Universe

One of Django's strengths is its "batteries included" approach. It provides for free many of the features you would normally have to write from scratch or cobble together from disparate sources. Some examples are the authentication system, the administrative interface, and the templating system. These are wonderfully useful, and they often work together in ways that separately developed libraries can not. However, not every part of Django will fit your needs all the time. Choices were made in the design of Django, and those aren’t always the same choices you would have made.

Fortunately, another strength of Django is its modularity. It is very easy to unplug one of its built-in features and plug in your own or someone else's. I'll go through some of the Django features that you may want to consider replacing or eliminating.

The important point I want to emphasize is that there is nothing unclean or dangerous about doing this. It's your site, you're the boss of Django, and you should only use the parts of it that you need. I think the creators of Django would agree with me.

When writing web applications, sooner or later (usually sooner), everybody is going to need a template language. String-interpolation just doesn't cut it. We need a way to write something that is almost all text (or HTML, or XML, or whatever), but with some dynamic pieces thrown in.

Since this need is so universal, and the basic requirements are so easy to describe, many different groups of people have taken it upon themselves to create Yet Another Template Language. As developers, we can join the fray and roll our own, or we can wade through the myriad options available to us to find the one that meets our needs or philosophy. Those who use PHP or ASP pretty much have the choice made for them, since the languages themselves are glorified template processors. Python programmers have a lot more options.

Here I'm just going to focus on the two Python templating languages I have used in real applications: Cheetah and the Django templating engine. (Django, of course, is more than just templates, but the template subsystem can be used independently.) I use and enjoy both of these, but there are significant differences that are worth comparing and contrasting, when deciding which to use for your particular needs. There are other comparisons out there, including one by the Benevolent Dictator for Life himself (though that's a bit out of date and inaccurate). When choosing which to use, you should read as many opinions as you can, then make the decision yourself. Presented here are just my personal thoughts.