Greg Allard

Yesterday I dove into amazon’s web services to check it out as a solution for a project I’m working on. I followed a guide to setup django development server on a default amazon machine image to start off. Then I decided to go with a debian AMI and do a full production server. I used apt-get to install the newest versions of apache, python, mysql, mod_python, svn, and some others. Debian turned out to be a lot easier than some other flavors of linux I have used.

After getting the instance configured the way I wanted it, I saved an image of it to my storage bucket so I could bring it up at any time instead of paying ten cents an hour until I need it.

A recent post updates the Amazon Adventure.

I was learning python and django earlier to build a social network. So far, I have created the ability for users to

• create an account with e-mail activation
• login/out
• add other users as friends and confirm friendship that other users requested
• send/reply/forward messages

This was the base for a niche social network to be built upon.

Soon after completing those features, I discovered elgg. It’s an open source social network written in php. It can do all of those features and more. I am now looking into using that and modifying it for the original goal.

We’ve gone back to django since elgg wasn’t the easiest thing to modify. I was hoping they might have used a common php framework like cake or code igniter. More on the django developments in another post soon. On CodeSpatter I have posted about what I learned about Python, PIL, and Django working together.

Update November 12, 2008

If you are looking for an Open Source Social Network written in Django, Pinax is looking really good right now. They have combined many reusable django apps into one slick project. Cloud27 is set up as an example of all the features included in Pinax. The contact importing feature is one that I will be adding to my social app that I built before having knowledge of Pinax.

I’ve gone through part of the Django tutorial. I installed the latest copy of Django, Python, and MySQL on my desktop (windows environment) and followed the tutorial through the first three sections. I’ve started to become familiar with the data models and the admin interface.

At the moment I am liking Django’s admin interface that is created by default a little bit more than the scaffolding that can be used with Ruby on Rails. As far as comparing Ruby and Python I still don’t know enough about either language to make a decision.

Update 7/24/8

Going outside of the tutorial, I created a few views and templates to get the basic idea. Using the Django Authentication module’s User model, I displayed a few things and plowed through a few of my own mistakes. I’m enjoying learning this.

Update 7/30/8

Finished the tutorial and moved on to create my own interface for Django’s Authentication. The app can create users, log them in and out, and list them. Simple enough, but I got the hang of the templates and form helpers.

More in this later post.