Ditching Django's models for Ajax/Web Services
- by Igor Ganapolsky
Recently I came across a problem at work that made me rethink Django's models. The app I am developing resides on a
Linux server. Its a simple model/view/controller app that involves user interaction and updating data in the database. The
problem is that this data resides in a MS SQL database on a Windows machine. So in order to use Django's models, I would have to leverage an ODBC driver on linux, and the use a python add-on like pyodbc. Well, let me tell you, setting up a reliable and functional ODBC connection on linux is no easy feat! So much so, that I spent several hours maneuvering this on my CentOS with no luck, and was left with frustration and lots of dumb system errors. In the meantime I have a deadline to meet, and suddenly the very agile and rapid Django application is a roadblock rather than a pleasure to work with. Someone on my team suggested writing this app in .NET. But there are a few problems with that: it won't be deployable on a linux machine, and I won't be able to work on it since I don't know ASP.net. Then a much better suggestion was made: keep the app in django, but instead of using models, do straight up ajax/web services calls in the template. And then it dawned on me - what a great idea. Django's models seem like a nuissance and hindrance in this case, and I can just have someone else write .Net services on their side, that I can call from my template. As a result my app will be leaner and more compact. So, I was wondering if you guys ever came across a similar dillema and what you decided to do about it.
