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First Post

I've finally created my own Django-based blog. It seems like a right of passage for any Django developer to create their own blog. I don't know if I buy into that but I did have a few reasons for wanting my own blog:

  1. I have been working on Satchmo quite a bit and wanted to use another small project to help me build my skills with Django and some of the parts I haven't used much.
  2. Satchmo is really progressing quickly and I felt that there needed to be an official blog to chronicle the process and hopefully keep the community well informed.
  3. I've also been wrestling with how to integrate Satchmo within a bigger site. By creating a blog and running the demo store alongside, I'll get the chance to understand those interactions some more.
  4. I've learned some lessons along the way about developing and hosting Django sites that I'd like to get out to a broader forum so that others can learn from my mistakes.
  5. Finally, the whole process of developing an open source project has been really interesting and I'm hopeful that I can provide some information that might be useful for others who embark down this path.

So, I hope you find this interesting and please pardon any down time as we get this started.

Posted on August 6, 2007 by chris django open-source satchmo

8 Comments

#1 Chris commented, on August 6, 2007 at 8:12 p.m.:

First comment. Just verifying it all works.

Check it all out and enjoy!

#2 Andrew Kember commented, on August 7, 2007 at 5:25 a.m.:

Hello Chris!
I just found Satchmo via DjangoProject's blog (http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2...).

What a wonderful project! In your 'about' section, you say that it's for, "a fairly large number of 'geeks' who are involved in creating web stores for their wives" which hits me fair and square between the eyes.

I've set up http://www.mindfulofchocolate.co.uk/, which is for my wife's hand-made chocolate business. I wrote the site in Ruby on Rails, but I'm a Python man at heart, and I disliked all the smoke-and-mirrors that Rails uses. I think that the Django learning curve is a bit more linear (rather than wiggly-all-over-the-place). Finding a project like this is a real Godsend.

Once I've got my internet connection back (just moved house), I hope I can start using and contributing to Satchmo.

Best wishes,
Andrew.

#3 Chris commented, on August 7, 2007 at 10:01 p.m.:

Thanks for the comments. Welcome to Satchmo and we look forward to your participation.

#4 Richard Zehnal commented, on August 9, 2007 at 4:55 a.m.:

Hello Chris,

I follow Satchmo quite a while and with great help from one Satchmo contributer I'll be able to publish couple Satchmo stores within next few days.

New Satchmo Blog? Great! I agree/understand/follow with you on all 5 reasons.

SIDEBAR: Without any farther explanation for now, I'd like to say: "What a great timing, .... again :-)"

All the best!

PS: RSS?

#5 David Reynolds commented, on August 9, 2007 at 5:44 a.m.:

Congrats on your first Blog post!

#6 Chris commented, on August 9, 2007 at 10:30 a.m.:

Richard,

I hope to get rss set up shortly. I just need to get some time.

#7 Jim commented, on August 10, 2007 at 11:06 a.m.:

Chris,
Great concept! I'm a noob at both Django and Python...been plugging away part time for coming up on a year now, but have been lately feeling like I'm getting the hang of it. Hope we can share ideas and experiences.

I've been watching your site for a few months now. I am developing a site that will have a registration component and include fees for both the event/activity for which a participant is registering as well as processing fees that I will collect. Not quite an online store, more like http://123signup.com or http://active.com. Without having fully investigated all of your information, is Satchmo capable of handling this type of transaction? If not, would you be interested in working together to develop/incorporate this functionality into Satchmo?

Thanks,
Jim

#8 Chris commented, on August 10, 2007 at 12:40 p.m.:

Jim,

I think there are definitely some components that overlap. For instance, I imagine you'll have to collect a lot of demographic info similar to the stock Satchmo checkout process in order to bill someone.

The payment modules would probably also be useful for processing fees.

There would obviously have to be some changes but I'm sure there are things you could leverage. Feel free to post to the google group and we can discuss more.

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