I still really like main website, the admin site however could do with a total overhaul in my opinion.<p>I normally use <a href="http://djangosuit.com" rel="nofollow">http://djangosuit.com</a> or <a href="http://grappelliproject.com" rel="nofollow">http://grappelliproject.com</a> but would be nice to have something good by default.
The django admin is not that nice when you look inside .. hardcoded html strings, it doesn't use templating etc.<p>The same sort of thing applies to forms and other pieces.<p>Understanding how models work on the inside is tricky - there are a lot of moving pieces.<p>I've built many sites with Django, a lot of the time you end up having to delve into the internals, it could definitely do with simplification.
I just got back into Django heavily after a 4 year hiatus -<p>It's a little frustrating that even though the platform has evolved, the documentation has gotten much much worse.. back in 2008 the docs were one of the best things about Django but today they are just a total headache.<p>The documentation is impossible to search using the built in search functionality, because it only returns a fraction of the right results. There are tons of omissions - key classes, methods etc that are only mentioned casually in bits and pieces. Lots of pages of documentation you can't even find without Google which half the time indexes docs for pages that are 4 versions outdated...<p>Also frustrating how much the admin is still frozen in 2008, the options out there for responsive themes are really clumsy at best.<p>I was trying to introduce junior devs to Django this month and all they see is an outdated interface and really really confusing documentation, it's a real turnoff
Just updating the admin header styling would be sufficient. That yellow h1 a has got to go. <a href="https://github.com/django/django/blob/master/django/contrib/admin/static/admin/css/base.css#L808" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/django/django/blob/master/django/contrib/...</a>
I've been suggesting for a while that what Django's admin needs is a completely barebones solution.<p>Something like<p>`django-admin startproject mysite --admin-theme=bare`<p>that gives you an admin with absolutely no JS/CSS and completely modular templates to simplify the making of custom admin backends.<p>I think I might make this my personal pet project to contribute to Django.
I feel that the point the author is making is that this is hurting Django's growth. I'm afraid I agree with that notion. Personally I've looked at Django compared to other frameworks and ,for me at least, spending time skinning the default 2005 theme is not well spent.<p>It also makes me think Django isn't keeping current. This is a very dangerous sentiment to have in a world of ever competing web frameworks. I feel that Djano is not marketing itself well.<p>My outsiders perspective, without having ever used Django, is the framework is in decline. That's my outside perspective and I hope it to be wrong. I'd like to reconsider using Django but I'm refraining myself from doing that until I can see change in direction. Maybe it's just not the right framework for me.
That's what I love in Django, they tend to keep intact things that are functioning well. A rare quality.<p>I wish this was the case with many commercial programs, e.g. Skype.