Wrestling with the source code of AgBiz Logic has been a phenomenal experience in discovering the structure of a big, foreign codebase. The first few spelunking expeditions into the project were akin to wandering around the New York subway system with a blindfold on. I attempted to trace information as it wound its way through the Django backend, across multiple modules, models, serializers, views, and templates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slowly, and after quite a few meetings with our project leader, a method to the madness began to take shape. Django lets developers implement quite robust versions of the classic Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern. The framework itself puts a bit of a spin on MVC though, which took me some time to untangle. Rather than using a Django ViewSet as a method of displaying content, the framework uses Templates to serve up information that should be displayed. The ViewSet, instead, becomes a type of controller, wherein the logic for interacting with the application’s database is housed. This confusing relationship often leads to Django’s design paradigm being labeled as Model-View-Template (MVT). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understanding this structure, and how the project’s AngularJS frontend can make API calls to Django, was key to my recent development progress. Currently, I’m working on a ViewSet function which queries the AgBiz database for agricultural chemicals used in a given farm plan. While it sounds simple enough, the next great hurdle will be to come to grips with the database schema. Then, working with the Models in the project, I will be able to query my way to the desired information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chance to dive headfirst into a fully functional, industry software project has been wonderful. Though completely overwhelming at times, the experience will help to further hone my burgeoning development skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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