Django Patterns

Project Structure

Organize Django projects with a clear separation between apps, shared utilities, and configuration.

project/
  config/
    settings/
      base.py
      local.py
      production.py
    urls.py
    wsgi.py
  apps/
    users/
      models.py
      serializers.py
      views.py
      services.py
      selectors.py
      urls.py
      tests/
    orders/
      ...
  common/
    models.py
    permissions.py
    pagination.py

Keep business logic in services.py (write operations) and selectors.py (read operations). Views should remain thin.

ORM Optimization

# select_related for ForeignKey / OneToOne (SQL JOIN)
orders = Order.objects.select_related("customer", "customer__profile").all()

# prefetch_related for ManyToMany / reverse FK (separate query)
authors = Author.objects.prefetch_related(
    Prefetch("books", queryset=Book.objects.filter(published=True))
).all()

# Defer fields you don't need
posts = Post.objects.defer("body", "metadata").filter(status="published")

# Use .only() when you need just a few columns
emails = User.objects.only("id", "email").filter(is_active=True)

# Bulk operations
Product.objects.bulk_create(products, batch_size=1000)
Product.objects.bulk_update(products, ["price", "stock"], batch_size=1000)

Always check queries with django-debug-toolbar or connection.queries in tests.

Django REST Framework Serializers

class OrderSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    customer_name = serializers.CharField(source="customer.full_name", read_only=True)
    items = OrderItemSerializer(many=True, read_only=True)
    total = serializers.SerializerMethodField()

    class Meta:
        model = Order
        fields = ["id", "customer_name", "items", "total", "created_at"]
        read_only_fields = ["id", "created_at"]

    def get_total(self, obj):
        return sum(item.price * item.quantity for item in obj.items.all())