Best Books to Learn Django for Beginners and Advance Programmers
In this article, we will discuss a few excellent books to learn Django for all readers. We will explore their features, books writing style, example explanations, topics covered and the number of projects defined in the book. Before exploring the book, let’s have a brief introduction to Django.
What is Django?
Django is an open-source Python framework used to develop rich web applications. It is one of the most popular frameworks for web development. It provides many built-in features so that the developer only needs to focus on the business logic rather than repetitive functionality. Let’s see some awesome features of Django. Let’s see some awesome features of Django.
- Great documentation, a vast community across the world.
- It is fast, secure, reliable, and versatile.
- Written in Python.
- Follow the MVT approach which means the Model View Template.
- It automatically handles the site maps, RSS feeds, content administration, user authentication, etc.
- It provides a built-in admin panel.
- Rapid release of its version.
- It eliminates the need to write SQL queries by using Python objects. SQLite database comes with it.
Learning Django may take a slightly longer time, but once we get the concepts properly. We will explore more concepts Django in our application.
Best Django Books for Beginners
We have listed below best Python Django books for beginners.
1. Django for APIs: Build web APIs with Python & Django
Amazon – Django for APIs
This book is written by William S. Vincent. The author has explained how to create RESTful API using Django and the Django REST framework from scratch in this book. This book is not explained “What is Django”; instead, it teaches us how to write code API that can be reused.
This book focuses on the best coding practice to build APIs and also explains the Django REST framework and React (JS library). If you have learned much from the official documentation, this book provides much information and covers only the most important concepts. The author has written this book for beginners, but he also written many complicated topics for advanced programmers.
2. Django Unleashed
Amazon – Django Unleashed
This is the best book for beginners as well as experienced Django programmers. This book has a detailed explanation and starts with scratch to build an application in Django. It includes different problem solving the same problem that we can identify which solution is appropriate. The author shifts the topic explanation from basic to complex topics. Some of the advance topics are difficult to follow initially, but we do the practice, we will appreciate the effort the author has put explain them. This book covers many topics such as Generic views, creating custom, security, performance, users and managers, etc., are explained very effectively.
3. Beginners Django E-Commerce
Flipkart – Beginners Django E-Commerce
This book is written by Jin McGraw. It is not a purely technical book but also describe some practical concept of the framework. The author hasn’t explained the in-built libraries in detail. It focuses on how to use these in projects and scenarios. If someone has a basic knowledge of Django then it will help to sharpen the skill. However, we should have a decent understanding of HTML, CSS, XML, SQL other than Python. This book is also included e-commerce website, however author gives small details about the project but not described fully. We have to find out how to do what we are supposed to do. It is best book to understand Django for basic concepts.
4. Lightweight Django 1st Edition
Amazon – Lightweight Django
This book is written by Jula Elman & Mark Lavin. This is another nice interactive book with hands-on approaching book to learn Django. This book starts with the basic concepts and covers a most of topics in-depth. It is suitable for both beginners and advanced developers. The best thing about this book is that topics are broken into smaller components and explain each component, which makes each read and helps the reader understand the low-level details and overall pictures. The author has taken care to explain every single line code that everyone can understand very easily. We can say that the detailing of this book is just amazing.
Before diving into the topic, we must have a basic knowledge jQuery, Bootstrap and HTML. If we have the knowledge of these topics, it will add advantage and we can learn fast. This book is enough to understand the basic concepts, but we might need addition resources such as documentation/blogs to understand why something has been done.
5. Django Design Pattern and Best Practices
Amazon – Django Design Pattern
This book is written by Arun Ravichandran. This book covers a few unique and important concepts that we would not find in many other resources or online resources. Apart from that, this book discusses a good amount of basics about Django starting with why Django came into existence. The author also discusses many problems with various solutions. It also explains how we make development faster. Various patterns help to reduce the coding time and enhance code performance. The author also explains to identify where and when to use pattern by giving examples and solutions. This book also talks about testing and security which makes it a very effective and useful book.
6. Django 2 by Example
Amazon – Django 2 by Example
This book is written by Antonio Mele. This book is good for both beginners and intermediate level learners. If someone has a basic knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and Python, this book would be the best choice. It covers basic and advanced concepts in-depth, including integration with other technologies like Celery and Radis. The author explains many coding examples and covers wide range of topics. We may need Django official documentation to learn understand more methods. We can consider this book to read basic about Django. The author assumes that you have no prior knowledge of Django.
7. Two Scoops of Django 1.11: Best Practices for the Django Web Framework
Amazon – Two Scoops of Django
This book is written by Daniel Roy Greenfeld. This book is best if someone has worked on a Django project and has basic idea of Django. This book is written for the both types of reader beginners and professionals. It includes tips and valuable suggestions for the best practices. This book includes plenty of informative diagrams that keep us hooked on the book. Writing style of this book is able to maintain a friendly tone. Each chapter is independent than the other so we can skip chapters and them as we like. We will also learn to deploy our application to the cloud(PaaS). The author is shared their experience in the form of tips, code, sample, tricks, and techniques.
8. Django for Professionals: Production websites with Python & Django
Amazon – Django for Professionals
This book is written by William S. Vincent. This is an extension of the Django for beginners’ book. We will learn concepts with the practical approach. In the basic version, we will build simple websites. In this book, we will find many useful tips and tricks to build production apps. We will get many other useful tools in each chapter. The author has chosen very wisely. We need to have basic knowledge of the Python language. The author assumes that the reader do not know any others – Bootstrap, PostgreSQL, Docker, etc. This book also includes a complete guide to building a website covering all the concepts that we will need to become a pro in Django.
9. Django for Beginners: Build Websites with Python and Django
Amazon – Django for Beginners
This book is also written by William S. Vincent. This is the easiest way to start learning Django. The author makes sure that readers don’t feel boring while reading this book. This book is fast-paced and has easy flow to explain the topics. The transition of concepts from easy to difficult is smooth from chapter to chapter. We don’t need to have prior knowledge of Python and Django to learn from this book. The author has explained each topic in detail that encourages us to create basic applications. We wouldn’t need to read from other resources after buying this book. This book includes hello app to complex websites tutorial, and it follows an engaging structure and us seeking more.
10. Practice Django 2 and Channels 2
Amazon – Practice Django 2 and Channels 2
This book is written by Federico Marani. The best part of this book is for all learners. This book includes step and step guild that we can use to develop web applications. The author focuses on the make the boring technical topic interesting and includes large amount of information. This book understands the mindset perfectly. We may have doubts while this book, but it will be cleared as the book’s next thing. The author explores various aspects, such as e-commerce, banking, and finance. He also provides the use cases from each of these domains that developer can use guidance in their projects. In this book, we finds the Django channels that helps to solve problems related to event-driven programming using Redis, WebSocket, and Bootstrap. There are errors while doing code, but debugging is the best way to self-learn. We can find the complete working code on Github, so errors are not so big deal. It is good investment of money; we will get the complete information related to Django.
Django Books for Advance Programmers
We have listed above few excellent Django books for beginners as well as experienced readers. The above books are quite effective to learn Django’s core concepts. However, we are defining few advance books for the programmers or have basic knowledge of Django. These books are given below.
1. Build Your First Websites with Python and Django 1st Edition
Amazon – Build Your First Websites
This book is written by Nigel George. This is the best book for programmers who work on Python and Django. This book is worth to build a solid foundation in Python. We will need many other resources because it doesn’t have much detail regarding topics. This is one of the best books for those who want to switch on Python and Django. Each topic is explained very nicely and includes many practical examples. In this book, we find step by step guidance to building a simple website.
2. Learn Web Development with Python
Amazon – Learn Web Development
This book is a comprehensive book to learn Python and Django simultaneously. The author covers simple topic firsts then moves to the complex topics of Django. In this book, we learn how to build a REST APIs and also learn how to build web application using Django. This book follows the practical approach to describe the topics. The author includes a step by step guide to develop a production website. If the reader belongs to a non-programmer background, he can take a short tutorial and start work with Django.
Conclusion
This article covers all excellent, effective, and useful books to learn Django with Python. Django has an extensive community across the world that solves many problems. Django also has the great-written documentation, but sometimes hard to follow. Good Books are the good option to enhance the knowledge of Django. We have figured out some excellent books for all types of learners. Some books have a very detailed explanation of topics and few have a full practical approach to describe the topics. You can choose any of books above mention to start learning Django.