Best pinax questions in May 2012

Django-Pinax : How do you use a pinax app apart from what you get with a pinax base project?

Asked on Sun, 13 May 2012 by Yugal Jindle python django apps pinax django-1.3
9 votes

I am trying to understand Pinax and plan to use it in my next project.

I have started with a pinax basic project, and now I have something to go with runserver.

Now, I understand that I can customize the initial setup that I got from pinax and customize the profiles, themes, etc as per my requirements.

But is that all that pinax provides ?

I am very confused here, like I want to use the pinax phileo app in my project, so how does pinax helps me do that ?

My Effort :

  • I searched and found that I have to install it with pip install phileo
  • Then, add it to INSTALLED_APPS and use it as required.

But what did pinax do in this ?

Pinax has phileo featured on its website, but why ? Since I could have used it just like any other app on my non-pinax django project.

So, my question in a nutshell is :

What does pinax provide after a base project and default templates that come with pinax ?

Right, now it feels like pinax just provides a base project with some apps already working with some default templates. [ That's it ? ]

Then, what about other apps featured on pinax's website that do not come with base projects ?

Please, help clear up the confusion !

Update My question is somewhat - What is the significance of pinax-ecosystem when we already have them listed somewhere like djangopackages.com ?

Answered by NoviceCoding

Pinax is just django with a blend of other django plugins. You have to enable them and set them up individually. To use each individual app within pinax, you have to read that specific app's documentation and set it up appropriately (list of apps and repos which likely contain documentation here: http://pinaxproject.com/ecosystem/)

Some people like pinax but I find that its more of a hassel than a solution. In the end pinax doesn't work out of the box. You have to customize everything, but at the same time you position yourself into using a bundle you dont need. I suggest instead starting a project and installing the packages you need individually, and even finding more here: http://djangopackages.com/. Especially, if its a big project because then if you bundle/setup everything on your own you will know the ins and outs of it all.