Help for Developers Migrating from Django

Sahana Eden is developed using ​Web2Py.

Web2Py was inspired by Django, amongst others, but redesigned to improve on it:

• ​http://web2py.com/examples/static/web2py_vs_others.pdf
• ​from Django to web2py
• ​Coding Django "polls" tutorial in web2py

The basic MVC approach is the same with Models, Views & Controllers.

Web2Py is easier to create new pages in:

• Automatic database migrations (by default, can be disabled)
• No need to explicitly add routes to controller functions without arguments
• No need to import core modules in each page - they are automatically available

The execution model is:

• All Models are loaded, in alphabetical order
• The Controller is loaded
• The View is parsed with a Dict of vars you pass to it & the Global vars (Session/Request/Response)

Web2Py uses DAL instead of an ORM - this is lower-level with more SQL-like syntax.

• it is possible to use ​SQLAlchemy models with Web2Py but this isn't recommended within Sahana Eden

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DeveloperGuidelines