Django's primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites. The framework emphasizes
reusability and "pluggability" of components, less code, low coupling, rapid development, and the principle of
don't repeat yourself.[9] Python is used throughout, even for settings, files, and
data models. Django also provides an optional administrative
create, read, update and delete interface that is generated dynamically through
introspection and configured via admin models.
Django was created in the autumn of 2003, when the
web programmers at the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper,
Adrian Holovaty and
Simon Willison, began using Python to build applications. Jacob Kaplan-Moss was hired early in Django's development shortly before Simon Willison's internship ended.[16] It was released publicly under a
BSD license in July 2005. The framework was named after guitarist
Django Reinhardt.[17] Adrian Holovaty is a Romani jazz guitar player inspired in part by Reinhardt's music.[18]
In June 2008, it was announced that a newly formed
Django Software Foundation (DSF) would maintain Django in the future.[19]
Django's configuration system allows third party code to be plugged into a regular project, provided that it follows the reusable app[22] conventions. More than 5000 packages[23] are available to extend the framework's original behavior, providing solutions to issues the original tool didn't tackle: registration, search,
API provision and consumption,
CMS, etc.
This extensibility is, however, mitigated by internal components' dependencies. While the Django philosophy implies loose coupling,[24] the template filters and tags assume one engine implementation, and both the auth and admin bundled applications require the use of the internal
ORM. None of these filters or bundled apps are mandatory to run a Django project, but reusable apps tend to depend on them, encouraging developers to keep using the official stack in order to benefit fully from the apps ecosystem.
Django may also be run in conjunction with
Python on any
Java EE application server such as
GlassFish or
JBoss. In this case django-jython must be installed in order to provide
JDBC drivers for database connectivity, which also can provide functionality to compile Django in to a .war suitable for deployment.[33]
Version history
The Django team will occasionally designate certain releases to be "long-term support" (LTS) releases.[34] LTS releases will get security and data loss fixes applied for a guaranteed period of time, typically 3+ years, regardless of the pace of releases afterwards.
Psycopg 3 support, ENGINE as django.db.backends.postgresql supports both libraries.
Current stable version:5.0
4 Dec 2023
August 2024
April 2025
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
DjangoCon
There is a semiannual conference for Django developers and users, named "DjangoCon", that has been held since September 2008. DjangoCon is held annually in Europe, in May or June;[62] while another is held in the United States in August or September, in various cities.[63] The 2012 DjangoCon took place in Washington, D.C., from 3 to 8 September. 2013 DjangoCon was held in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the post-conference
Sprints were hosted at Digital Bootcamp, computer training center.[64] The 2014 DjangoCon US returned to
Portland, OR from 30 August to 6 September. The 2015 DjangoCon US was held in
Austin, TX from 6 to 11 September at the AT&T Executive Center. The 2016 DjangoCon US was held in Philadelphia, PA at The
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 17 to 22 July.[65] The 2017 DjangoCon US was held in Spokane, WA;[66] in 2018 DjangoCon US was held in San Diego, CA.[67] DjangoCon US 2019 was held again in San Diego, CA from Sept 22–27. DjangoCon 2021 took place virtually and in 2022, DjangoCon US returned to San Diego from October 16th to the 21st.
Django mini-conferences are usually held every year as part of the Australian
Python Conference 'PyCon AU'.[68] Previously, these mini-conferences have been held in:
Django has spawned user groups and meetups around the world, the most notable group is the
Django Girls organization, which began in Poland but now has had events in 91 countries.[69][70][71]
Ports to other languages
Programmers have ported Django's template engine design from Python to other languages, providing decent cross-platform support. Some of these options are more direct ports; others, though inspired by Django and retaining its concepts, take the liberty to deviate from Django's design:
Django as a framework is capable of building a complete
CMS, however there are dedicated CMS projects which are built upon and extend the Django framework. Below is a list of a few of the more popular Django-based CMSs:
^
abAdrian Holovaty, Jacob Kaplan-Moss; et al.
The Django Book. Archived from
the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2013. Django follows this MVC pattern closely enough that it can be called an MVC framework