GIVING BACK

This site is meant, in part, to repay the kindness of strangers.  Very few succeed on their own.  Often, we learn from the experience (and patience) of others.  Some knowledge is hard-won.  And there are times when you think, "Gee; if I'd only known that sooner."  Well, this is your forewarning, at least with regard to django and web development.  (If you need life coaching, we can't help you.  We have enough problems adapting to own own lifestyles.)

So, there you go.  That's our mission.  (Not exactly corporate-like, is it?  We're fine with that.  Hope you are, too.) 

 

A NOTE on our site style...

Through out the site, Odder (me) will be spewing as fast as he can...  frequently misspelling and "bad gramaratizing" as he goes.  Initially, almost the entire site will be in my "handwriting".  The FootPad will eventually come along and fix all the little details - like making it all make sense to "normal people".  ;)  As FootPad does this - the font will change from the handwritten font you see here, to the more legible font that (hopefully) the rest of the site is in.  Eventually, only the blogging posts that FootPad has not converted to static and readable pages will be in this font. 

--Odder "The Odd Otter"

Welcome to our Django Start Page

This is the Home page.  This is typical of a starting site just created in Django-CMS.  We will add/edit/modify content here frequently and this site will always be in a constant state of flux.  Please do not confuse "flux" with "under construction" - which indicates a general "unreadiness" to provide stable content.  Rather, these pages will be evolving and growing as we define more of our purpose and goal for the site.  Initially, we will focus on current Odd Otter Co projects but we will most likely expand the content to include general tips and tricks for developing with HTML, CSS, Jquery, Django and Python.

What is Django?

And how can it help you or me?  Well, simply stated (and purloined directly from the source site) it is "a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design".  It is built with Python and has an amazingly helpful and friendly community supporting it.  It is fairly easy to start out in, generally has a low learning curve and is incredibly flexible.  It also runs on almost any OS, and easily connects to almost any datbase back-end.

Awesom features, and they are already built-in:

Some built-in features we include in our "soup-mix" that you may want to know about (for a more complete list, please see , Django-CMS and Django-CMS Extensions):

  1. Templating (multiple layouts, that can be easily changed - even after content has been added) 
  2. Page Heirarchy and ordering.  Easily change the order and positioning of your pages within the sitemap and menus.
  3. Content Management - adding and modifying content was never easier or more flexible!

Modules and Addons:

Many additional modules, features and addons which are already installed and ready for you to use in your site. Below is a short list and description of some of the more popular ones which we provide by default.

  1. Admin Tools - direct access to all of the functions and features within your site - including the database!
  2. Additional command extensions for simplifying and automating many common tasks while developing and also during maintenance are provided via "django_extensions".
  3. Improved WYSIWYG editor.  When you edit content, you will be using TinyMCE, and editor built on recognizable industry standards for a GUI - it's like using your typical wordprocessor!
  4. Content management - Django-CMS.  Solid, powerful and amazingly extensible.  You can merge content with fully developed application scenarios from small implementations to enterprise level functionality.
  5. Rapid templat language extension using "native_tags" allows not only prtotyping of new features, but also production solutions - rapidly and simply.
  6. Advanced handling of file, image, video, flash and more - using Django-Filer.  You can easily add or modify files on your site at your convienience.
  7. With Easy Thumbnails, you can upload uncropped images and they will automatically size to fit the page layout that your theme expects.  No more manual editing before uploading. 
  8. QRCode - One of the fastest growing methods of linking and distributing information across devices in todays market.  You can generate QRCode for your pages and objects by using builtin template tags that simply take the data and convert it to QRCode for you dynamicly!
  9. SiteMaps - we all know that to get very far in any search engine;s standing you have to have a sitemap.  With this enabled, yours is automaticly generated and published - with permissions and privacy automatically implemented as well.
  10. Social Authentication - if you want to create a membership based site, SocialAuth is amazing!  Your viewers can login and create accounts using their existing accounts on other social networks such as Facebook, Google, Linked-IN, Twitter, and many more.  No need to memorize yet-one-more-account for them!
  11. Custom Profile system - you can have expanded profile information for each of your users via the Profiles addon and a small amount of configuration.  This allows you to extend many featres and customise each users experience within your site.
  12. Webdesign tools - random content generators for testing layouts (think "ipsum lorem")
  13. Django form utils - 
  14. humanize
  15. djalog
  16. sorting
  17. pagination
  18. simple_translation
  19. djangocms_utils
  20. tagging
  21. inline_ordering

CMS Plugins:

Additionally there are several CMS specific plugins that are also already installed and available:

  1. text
  2. flash
  3. link
  4. googlemap
  5. twitter
  6. inherit
  7. file
  8. folder\u00a0
  9. teaser
  10. video
  11. facebook
  12. feed
  13. embeddedmenu
  14. faq
  15. smartsnippets
  16. gallery

Coming soon:

Need more?

If you need more options that what is already here, feel free to look at what is already available out-in-the-wild at places like the following:

  1.  https://www.django-cms.org/en/extensions/

If you still need something and can not find an existing module for us to install for you, feel free to contact us and request a quote for a custom app.