The explosion of the Web in the late 1990s sparked a major evolution in the core operation of businesses everywhere. The impact initially seemed minor, as the Web was made up of very simple sites that were time consuming to create and offered limited functionality. But the eventual success of new companies such as Amazon.com and eBay demonstrated that buying and selling online was not only possible, but revolutionary.
This book will explore how the Django web framework, and its related technologies, can power the next leap forward for e-commerce and business on the Web. As a tool, Django is like a power drill: it's fast, efficient, and full of momentum. It represents a major competitive advantage over previous development platforms. Along with competing frameworks, such as Ruby on Rails, it heralds a new era for web development and the Internet as a whole.
This chapter will explore what makes Django so unique. Here we will:
Discuss the pros and cons of Django as an e-commerce platform
Learn to leverage Django's strengths to build powerful applications quickly
Explore core concepts such as Django's approach to application and project layout
Begin configuring our sample e-commerce project to be extended throughout the book