Building your MVP with Django: Lessons Learned Building and Launching a SaaS

A presentation given at DjangoCongress 2018 discussing lessons learned when building kwoosh.com with Django. Includes methods and techniques for helping you improve the maintainability of your Django service.

Transcript

1. Building your MVP with Django
   Lessons Learned Building and Launching a
   SaaS
   @jamesvandyne
   

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2. Agenda
   1. Introduction
   2. What is a SaaS / MVP?
   3. Django Backend Lessons
   4. Django Frontend Lessons
   5. Q&A
   

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3. James Van Dyne
   ϰΝϯμΠϯɾδΣʔϜε
   @jamesvandyne
   BeProud, Inc.
   

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4. Why should you listen to
   me?
   

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5. Why should you listen to me?
   4 Been working with Django since around 1.0-ish
   4 Worked on some of the largest Django sites in the US
   

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6. 4 Full Remote OK
   4 7.5 Hour Standard Work Day
   4 Great co-workers
   4 Work-life balance
   

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7. Slack Reminders
   

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8. Python Professional
   Programming 3
   Coming soon
   

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9. work with me
   beproud.jp/careers/en/
   

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10. Goals
    4 Avoid the same mistakes I made
    4 Help you make your code base more maintainable
    4 Share some techniques that work well for me
    

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11. Software As A Service
    Minimum Viable Product
    

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12. What is an MVP
    

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13. image: anoda.mobi
    

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14. image: anoda.mobi
    

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15. What is your MVP?
    It depends
    

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16. Project Management for Software Teams
    kwoosh.com
    

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18. Django has batteries
    (use them)
    

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19. Proper implementations are
    still a lot of work
    

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20. User
    

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21. What NOT to do
    

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22. # models.py
    class UserProfile(models.Model):
    user = models.OneToOneField(User)
    accounts = models.ManyToManyField(CompanyAccount)
    title = models.CharField(max_length=32, blank=True, null=True)
    TZ_CHOICES = [(tz, tz) for tz in common_timezones]
    timezone = models.CharField(max_length=30, default='UTC', choices=TZ_CHOICES)
    

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23. # monkey_patches.py
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User
    from company_accounts.models import UserProfile
    def user_profile(self):
    return UserProfile.objects.get(pk=self.pk)
    User.profile = user_profile
    

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24. # apps.py
    class CompanyAccountConfig(AppConfig):
    name = 'company_accounts'
    def ready(self):
    import company_accounts.monkey_patches
    

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25. A better way
    from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser
    class User(AbstractBaseUser):
    email = models.EmailField(_('email address'), max_length=254, unique=True)
    first_name = models.CharField(_('first name'), max_length=30, blank=True)
    last_name = models.CharField(_('last name'), max_length=30, blank=True)
    is_confirmed = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    title = models.CharField(max_length=32, blank=True, null=True)
    timezone = models.CharField(max_length=30, default='UTC', choices=TZ_CHOICES)
    USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
    class Meta:
    db_table = 'users'
    

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26. ManyToManyField
    

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27. 4 2 Examples:
    1. User Account Access
    2. Task Assignees
    

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28. User Account Access
    

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29. Before
    class UserProfile(models.Model):
    user = models.OneToOneField(User)
    accounts = models.ManyToManyField(CompanyAccount)
    

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30. After
    from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
    from accounts.models import Account
    class AccountAccess(StatusMixin, models.Model):
    account = models.ForeignKey(Account)
    user = models.ForeignKey(get_user_model(), on_delete=models.CASCADE,
    related_name='user_%(class)s')
    class Meta:
    unique_together = ('user', 'account',)
    db_table = 'account_access'
    

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31. class StatusMixin(BaseMixin):
    ACTIVE = 1
    INACTIVE = 0
    DELETED = -1
    STATUS_CHOICES = (
    (ACTIVE, _('Active')),
    (INACTIVE, _('Inactive')),
    (DELETED, _('Deleted')),
    )
    status = models.IntegerField(choices=STATUS_CHOICES, default=ACTIVE)
    objects = StatusMixinManager()
    all_objects = models.Manager()
    class Meta:
    abstract = True
    

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32. Task Assignees
    

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33. Before
    class Task(ItemData):
    cache_key = "task_"
    _clearing = False
    _assignees_on_create = None
    assigned_to = models.ManyToManyField('auth.User', blank=True, related_name='related_name')
    state = models.IntegerField(choices=STATE_CHOICES, default=TODO)
    is_priority = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    class Meta:
    verbose_name_plural = "Tasks"
    

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34. After
    # models.py
    class Task(StatusMixin, models.Model):
    assigned_to = models.ManyToManyField(get_user_model(),
    through='AssignedTo',
    through_fields=(
    'task',
    'user'))
    class AssignedTo(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(get_user_model(), on_delete=models.CASCADE,
    related_name='user_%(class)s')
    task = models.ForeignKey('tasks.Task', on_delete=models.CASCADE,
    related_name='task_%(class)s')
    

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35. Class Based Views
    

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36. What are Class Based Views?
    #views.py
    from django.views.generic.detail import DetailView
    class UserProfileView(DetailView):
    model = User
    # urls.py
    urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^(?P\d+)/$', UserProfileView.as_view(), name='user-profile'),
    ]
    

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37. The Promise
    4 Write simpler, shorter code
    4 Reuse existing components for quicker development
    4 Easily mix in new functionality
    

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38. Do Class Based Views
    Deliver?
    

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39. It depends
    

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40. Before
    class BasicProfileView(KwooshModelFormView, ProfilePageNav, AccountBasicFilterbar):
    form_class = KwooshProfileForm
    template_name = "users/profile_basic.html"
    page_template = "users/parts/basic.html"
    active_pagenav = "profile"
    active_filterbar = 'profile'
    page_id = "profile"
    def get_form(self, form_class=None):
    if form_class is None:
    form_class = self.form_class
    return form_class(self.request.POST or None, **self.get_form_kwargs())
    def get_form_kwargs(self):
    self.object = get_object_or_404(User, pk=self.kwargs['pk'])
    if UserAccountAccess.objects.filter(user=self.object, account__pk__in=self.request.accounts).exists():
    return {
    'instance': self.object,
    'request': self.request
    }
    else:
    raise exceptions.PermissionDenied
    

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41. def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
    if 'form' not in kwargs:
    kwargs['form'] = self.get_form()
    # context updating
    return context
    def form_invalid(self, form):
    context = self.get_context_data(form=form)
    return self.render_to_response(context)
    def form_valid(self, form):
    form.save()
    context = self.get_context_data(form=form)
    messages.success(self.request, "Saved Profile Successfully", extra_tags="local")
    return self.render_to_response(context)
    

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42. After
    @authenticated
    @set_instance_object('users.models.User')
    def user(request, pk):
    # Show user
    def get(request, pk):
    form = EditUser(request=request, instance=request.instance)
    ...
    return response
    # Edit user
    @ensure_csrf_cookie
    @owns_instance_user
    def post(request, pk):
    # Create/Process the form
    return response
    return resolve_http_method({'get': get, 'post': post}, request, pk=pk)
    

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43. Templates
    

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44. Server Side Rendering
    4 Simple and well documented
    4 I can spend more time in Python (!)
    

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45. Don't Repeat Yourself
    
    
    {% for task in tasks %}
    {% include "task_item.html" }
    {% endfor %}
    
    
    
    
    {{ task.title }}
    {% for assignee in task.assignees %}
    {% include "user_icon.html" %}
    {% endfor %}
    
    
    

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47. Template Issues
    4 Unexpected database calls
    4 Cache invalidation
    

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48. Too slow for complex apps
    

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49. Include
    {% for x in loops %}
    {% include "inner.html" }
    {% endfor %}
    
    Hello, {{x}}
    

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50. Inline
    {% for x in loops %}
    Hello, {{x}}
    {% endfor %}
    

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51. Results
    run include inline
    1 0.09034180641174316 0.030562877655029297
    2 0.08458805084228516 0.032724857330322266
    3 0.08182239532470703 0.03140902519226074
    4 0.08819007873535156 0.03286027908325195
    Avg 86.24ms Avg: 31.89
    

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52. 270% faster
    

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53. !
    

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54. After
    

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55. Take Aways
    

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56. 1. Build Less
    Build Better
    

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57. 2. Think through your
    models
    

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58. 3. Avoid Class Based Views
    

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59. 4. Consider Rendering in
    the Client
    

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60. 5. Sometimes ! is the
    right solution
    

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61. Thank you
    kwoosh.com
    

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