Deprecated

django-node has been deprecated. The core has been split into the following packages:

• python-js-host
• python-nodejs
• python-npm

django-node

django-node provides a way of hosting persistent JS services which are easily accessible from a django application.

Using services opens up a number of possibilites which are difficult or impossible to perform in a typical Django application, for example:

• Server-side rendering of JS (Isomorphic JavaScript)
• Background processes, such as file watchers
• WebSockets

Behind the scenes, django-node will connect to either a pre-existing instance of django-node-server or will create an instance as a subprocess.

Additionally, django-node provides a number of bindings and utilites to assist with integrating Node and NPM into a Django application.

Please note that django-node is a work in progress. In particular, the JS services API is prone to change as issues are identified and fixed.

Basic documentation

• Basic usage
• Installation
• Examples
• Running the tests

API documentation

• JS services
• Managment commands
• NodeServer
• Node
• NPM
• Settings

Basic usage

To create a JS service, define a function and export it as a module.

// my_app/hello_world_service.js

var service = function(request, response) {
	var name = request.query.name;
	response.send(
	    'Hello, ' + name + '!';
	);
};

module.exports = service;

Create a python interface to your service by inheriting from django_node.base_service.BaseService.

# my_app/services.py

import os
from django_node.base_service import BaseService

class HelloWorldService(BaseService):
    # An absolute path to a file containing the JS service
    path_to_source = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'hello_world_service.js')

    def greet(self, name):
        response = self.send(name=name)
        return response.text

Configure django-node to load your service by adding the service's module as a dotstring to the DJANGO_NODE['SERVICES'] setting.

# in settings.py

DJANGO_NODE = {
    'SERVICES': (
    	'my_app.services',
    ),
}

During django-node's initialisation, the modules defined in DJANGO_NODE['SERVICES'] are imported and all of the classes contained which inherit from django_node.base_service.BaseService will be loaded into a django-node-server instance.

You can now send a request to your service and receive a response.

hello_world_service = HelloWorldService()

greeting = hello_world_service.greet('World')

print(greeting)  # prints 'Hello, World!'

Besides JS services, django-node also provides a number of bindings and utilities for interacting with Node and NPM.

import os
from django_node import node, npm

# Run a particular file with Node.js
stderr, stdout = node.run('/path/to/some/file.js', '--some-argument', 'some_value')

# Call `npm install` within the current file's directory
stderr, stdout = npm.install(os.path.dirname(__file__))

Installation

pip install django-node

Add 'django_node' to your INSTALLED_APPS

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    # ...
    'django_node',
)

Examples

The following apps make heavy use of django-node and illustrate how to perform non-trivial tasks.

• django-react
• django-webpack

Running the tests

mkvirtualenv django-node
pip install -r requirements.txt
python runtests.py