Show HN: Django and React SaaS boilerplate tutorial

As someone who works in Django a lot, their non-standard approach to defining models is wild.<p>ie.<p>Their approach in accounts models.py:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;saasitive&#x2F;django-react-boilerplate&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;backend&#x2F;server&#x2F;apps&#x2F;accounts&#x2F;models.py" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;saasitive&#x2F;django-react-boilerplate&#x2F;blob&#x2F;m...</a><p>Over the standard approach in their notes models.py:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;saasitive&#x2F;django-react-boilerplate&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;backend&#x2F;server&#x2F;apps&#x2F;notes&#x2F;models.py" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;saasitive&#x2F;django-react-boilerplate&#x2F;blob&#x2F;m...</a>

The biggest challenge to using Django with React IMO is getting the right blend of isomorphic rendering down. I don&#x27;t want to go full SPA with Django as this defeats the purpose of Django IMO. Most parts of the site I want server-rendered, while in stateful parts I want React. So, let&#x27;s say I have a site with 20 different React &quot;apps&quot; (i.e. stateful components) that I want to distribute amongst my various Django sections (Django &quot;Apps&quot; within the same project). And I want to do that with one webpackconfig. How do I tell my webpack where to put all those react bundles? The answer I&#x27;ve found is django-webpack-loader[1], however as you can see in the Issues section, one of the biggest limitations here is the inability to chunk React (and other issues).<p>Does anyone have a solution they like for this kind of isomporphic Django problem?<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;owais&#x2F;django-webpack-loader" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;owais&#x2F;django-webpack-loader</a>

As someone who has worked daily with React (and Django) for more than 5 years, I am always surprised to see how many boilerplates and tutorials include redux.<p>It’s a tool that solves very specific issues that most people won’t have and often adds quite a bit of complexity.

I was reading through the tutorial and it has you add CORS to enable api requests during development. I think using create-react-app&#x27;s proxy feature might be a better fit:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;create-react-app.dev&#x2F;docs&#x2F;proxying-api-requests-in-development&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;create-react-app.dev&#x2F;docs&#x2F;proxying-api-requests-in-d...</a>

What would the typical HN startup gain from this over using just Django?<p>Is there anything on the Demo page (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boilerplate.saasitive.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boilerplate.saasitive.com&#x2F;</a>) that would be different?<p>In my experience as a user, everything that uses React is always an annoyance in one way or another. But I am happy to understand if there are legit use cases.

Falls a bit short:<p>- Should use the django-env package to have a generic settings file<p>- Models are incomplete<p>- Where does registration happen? In the backend? Fronted?<p>- Weird code around the user model<p>- Unused imports<p>Overall this needs some polish in order to be a strong boilerplate solution. I’d say request code reviews from the community in order to improve it. Also think about using cookie cutter for it as well.

Thanks for this! Looks useful, will be checking it out after the Christmas festivities.<p>Coming from academia&#x2F;data science and learning this from the scratch, the python backend + js frontend boilerplates are quite cryptic. The tools for sure seem useful, but there&#x27;s a lot to grasp for a noob - rabbits, celeries, and so on.

I&#x27;ve been evaluating potential replacements for the Django admin to provide a path for progressive evolution as apps outgrow Django, and have found <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;marmelab.com&#x2F;react-admin&#x2F;Readme.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;marmelab.com&#x2F;react-admin&#x2F;Readme.html</a> -- anyone got other generated admin platforms they like for handling CRUD &#x2F; mutations?<p>I think the Django admin is great, I use it a lot and recommend it for new&#x2F;small projects, but it&#x27;s tightly coupled to the Django ORM which can be restrictive in some usecases.

Cory Zue has made a saas django starter kit (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.saaspegasus.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.saaspegasus.com&#x2F;</a>).

In case you&#x27;re looking for something similar, but django-boilerplate doesn&#x27;t adjust, try cookiecutter-react-django instead. It has Heroku deployment, and a minimalistic approach.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ohduran&#x2F;cookiecutter-react-django" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ohduran&#x2F;cookiecutter-react-django</a>

You could potentially remove more?<p>I would maybe use this if it was Django and React only, there are many things in the tech stack which I just don&#x27;t want to get into.<p>For example, I would be happy with sqlite instead of postgres. I&#x27;ll migrate if sqlite ever gets near capacity.

What framework would HN recommend for frontend development? Is React the way to go?

I admire the motivation here to offer a boilerplate to the community using these tools, but it feels like a lot of this has been solved by the Baas providers like AWS Amplify, Azure Static Web Apps, Firebase, etc.<p>These services all support your choice of front-end and back-end programming language. All these providers also allow hooks into features like security, database, apis, ci&#x2F;cd, and so on. You would be in a serverless architecture also which provides scalability and keeps costs low up front. Not trying to discredit the author here, which is admirable in the intent, but feels like it&#x27;s trying to solve for something that several other solutions exist for unless I&#x27;m missing something critical.

Is there a list of these anywhere for Django and other languages? Eg rails jumpstart etc

Wow this would&#x27;ve been so useful to me when I was starting out. You are a scholar.

Why does this need React?

I don&#x27;t want feel like a Dinosaur.<p>But I hope some of HNers illuminated me.<p>I don&#x27;t do React&#x2F;vue .<p>Only SRR + some javascript (modals, effects, etc).<p>What I am missing? Serious question, Am I missing TOO much or maybe 20% productivity?<p>1. I am a one man shop doing Django sites, SRR only. When I need to interact with front end for more &quot;Reactivity&quot; I use javacript + a view exporting json.<p>2. About admin: It is good for me or the operator but I dont feel like my user should be using it?<p>Then I do my own &quot;admin&quot; for the customer.<p>Please what I am missing?<p>The #1 I feel once you have 2-3 they <i>may</i> make sense (separating functions).<p>The #2 the community answer was : &quot;Not for user, only staff or operator and not for general consumption&quot;<p>I would glad hear your points.<p>Thank You

unless you&#x27;re doing a lot of math - where python&#x2F;numpy&#x2F;sklearn&#x2F;scipy&#x2F;BLAS&#x2F;LAPACK&#x2F;Tensorflow is unparalleled - you should do everything in JS&#x2F;TS.<p>something like nextjs - with built in frontend+backend is ideal.