PreferredLibraries.md

Preferred Libraries

Automatic cleanup of FileFields

django-cleanup works seamlessly via signals.

Currency storage

Use django-money, add something like CURRENCIES = ('GBP',) to settings and use a field definition along the lines of this:

price = MoneyField(
    'Price',
    max_digits=20,
    decimal_places=2,
    default_currency='GBP'
)

In template:

{% load djmoney %}

...

{% money_localize object.price %}

Database-based config/settings

Use django-constance to supplement runtime settings with database-backed configuration. The pip installation candidate is django-constance[database] – installing django-constance on its own results in missing dependencies.

DRY admin thumbnails

For a convenient DRY way to add thumbnail images to your admin list views and forms, try django-admin-thumbnails (full disclosure: I wrote it).

Inlining static files in templates

E.g. priority JavaScript files, SVG Symbol files etc. Use django-simpleinliner (full disclosure: I wrote it).

Image cropping controls in the admin

Have had previous success with django-image-cropping though should investigate current library landscape.

Mailchimp integration

For simple mailing list sign-up without CMS integration just use the mailchimp library (pip install mailchimp).

Measurement/dimensions fields on models

Use django-measurement but beware providing multiple unit choices – it can screw up when dealing with existing values. I instead limit to one unit, but then use the field properties to output in multiple units:

from django_measurement.models import MeasurementField
from measurement.measures import Distance

...

width = MeasurementField(
    'Width',
    blank=True,
    null=True,
    measurement=Distance,
    unit_choices=(('cm', 'cm'),),
)

In template:

<p>Width</p>
<p>{{ object.width.cm|floatformat }}cm</p>
<p>{{ object.width.inch|floatformat }}”</p>

Model translation

django-modeltranslation seems to be best in class.

Modify form field widgets at the template level

django-widget-tweaks provides template tags for this, e.g. {{ field|add_class:'form__input' }} or {% render_field form.search_query type="search" %}.

ReCAPTCHA

The canonical ReCAPTCHA library is django-recaptcha.

Simple colour picker field

django-colorfield is lightweight and works well.

Singleton models

django-solo provides simple mixins to help create and manage singleton models, and works perfectly as of Django 1.11 (and probably beyond).

Sortable models and inlines

django-admin-sortable2 provides the simplest integration and seemingly the most effective UI.

WYSIWYG editing

django-ckeditor is better than TinyMCE, more easily configurable and doesn't require you to manage any static files. Here's a sensible default config:

CKEDITOR_CONFIGS = {
    'default': {
        'toolbar': [
            ['Format'],
            ['BulletedList', 'NumberedList'],
            ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Subscript', 'Superscript', '-',
             'RemoveFormat'],
            ['Link', 'Unlink'],
            ['Undo', 'Redo'],
            ['Source']
        ],
        'format_tags': 'p;h1;h2',
        'format_h1': {'element': 'h3'},
        'format_h2': {'element': 'h4'},
        'removePlugins': 'elementspath,save,font',
        'language': 'en-us'
    },
}