What is the best way to learn Django 1.5? [closed]

Question

What is the best way to learn Django 1.5 thouroughly? I have been a .NET developer and have a really good understanding of OOP, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. I also have an entry-level knowledge of Python. I am completely new to MVC (or MVT, in this case).

I have a need to build apps with Django that provide users with features such as finding each other based on geographical distance, upload pictures and edit them online, natural language search, etc... (just to highlight that I need to know more than how to build a poll app or a simple blog).

My understanding is that the entry point to learn Django is by completing the tutorial at the Django project site. Then, what? What path would you recommend? I have seen that lots of learning resources on the web target versions lower than 1.5 and I couldn't really find books on 1.5. When reading reviews on learning material on 1.4, I often see they are outdated and not really applying to 1.5.

Also, I briefly looked at what it takes to deploy a Django app. Virtualenv, git, pip, etc... are all things unknown to me and it looks a bit scary for a guy used to deploy apps by uploading the compiled binaries through FTP.

Help in defining a clear path to learn how to bend Django to my will would be invaluable!

Galbraith

Answer 1

1. The official Django tutorial (as you are aware)
2. 2 Scoops of Django e-book or paperback (https://django.2scoops.org/). There are lots of useful information in it, even about virtualenv, custom settings etc.

If you don't want to spend the few bucks for the excellent book, have a look at this github repository: https://github.com/jacobian/djangobook.com which is an ongoing project.

Aspia

I'm not against buying a book! I love supporting dedicated authors and I already flagged this one in my previous searches. Would reading the complete tutorial and this book be enough to be at a professional level of knowledge on Django? – Galbraith

You need to get your hands dirty to get a professional level of knowledge. That said I think these are the materials you should be looking into when you're starting with Django. 2scoops contains a lot of best practices and considerations to help you avoid common pitfalls in development. – Shrivel

Thank you for the answers. I will then proceed with these two sources. I have many projects that need to be completed, they'll serve the purpose of hands-on experience. I was looking for the companion theory resources. – Galbraith

"entry-level knowledge of Python" might not be enough to really make the best use of most of Django's features, so you may want to learn as much as possible about Python and it's object model (which is quite powerful but kind of peculiar). – Feet

Thanks Bruno. I have read the OOP with Django 3 book and that's more or less my current level of knowledge in Python. – Galbraith

Answer 2

I'm a newbie to python and Django.
Here is the path that I am following in this order :

1. www.learnpythonthehardway.org (free html online)
2. do the djangoproject poll tutorial
3. gettingstartedwithdjango.com (GSWD)

It is important to follow these tutorials in this order because this will setup your environment for GSWD and it will go over virtualenv.

Also as mentioned, the 2Scoops book is a best practices book.

Smelter