AngularJS + Django - Main advantages and disadvantages

2
votes

I've developed a couple of apps in Django and need to develop a moderately complex new app now. I've heard about AngularJS and I'm considering to use it in my new web app.

From research I have done so far, it seems like the main benefit of using Angular compared to plain Django is a better user experience. Are there any other major benefits that I need to take into account?

I would imagine the disadvantage of this is increased development time. Assuming I get past the Angular learning curve, how much longer will it take to develop the app in Django + Angular than purely in Django? (For instance 150% longer)

One last question is about using Django as the API framework. Effectively, I'm not using all of Django's features, but only a subset. Given this, is Django a good framework to create the API in? What are other alternatives should I consider?

1
pythonangularjsdjangodjango-rest-framework
You actually CAN think of them de-coupled. You are creating the client experience in static HTML + Angular javascript. The back-end is arbitrary. I happen to enjoy Django and Tastypie so 10/10 would recommend it for the data models and REST endpoints. :) – pztrick

1 Answers

2
votes

Currently using a similar architecture for an app.

Backend is in Django and I'm using Django Rest Framework (DRF) to create REST resources. It's a highly powerful and customisable REST framework to create API resources.

From my understanding and experience, DRF works very well with any abstracted front end. So you can use the same APIs for any client be it browser or mobile apps. You can also serve the front end content in the same context as the Django backend or even separated. DRF has authentication methods for both types.

Resources: http://www.django-rest-framework.org/

As for learning curve, AngularJS isn't that difficult if you have basic understanding of the concepts of MV* as well as JavaScript. I won't be able to give you an exact time estimate but for me both methods would have lasted as long as each other.