[python-uk] hexagonal Django

[Mike de Plume]

On Tue, 2012-12-04 at 14:46 +0000, Jonathan Hartley wrote:
> I haven't, yet, but I'm thinking of refactoring a vertical slice of
> our monster Django app into this style, and I'd love to hear if you
> think it's crazy / brilliant / obvious / old-hat, etc. 

All three, I suspect.

Abstraction and properly designed APIs are always good, and I
guess the layered structure occurs quite naturally. (or, perhaps,
_should_ occur quite naturally?) My own difficulty with these
structures comes from the business logic part. There's four
aspects of this - the choice of what goes on the form presented
to the user, the validation of user input, the logic of what
happens when a button is pressed (calculations and storage), and
the choice of what the user sees next (business process). The
middle two can clearly be devolved to a business object, and the
outer two can be _supported_ by a business object, but, it seems
to me, there is always something 'businessy' in the user
interface parts. My experience here is, admittedly, limited, so
I'm probably missing something.

I'm currently using a version of MVC, with components. I
partition the source along business lines with appropriate
parts (components) going under the headings of M, V, or C as
appropriate. Creating a new business object or process can be a
bit mind bending, but, generally, the bits fall into the places
where you might expect them. None of this (for certain values of
None) generates html directly, so, in principle, and within
limits, I can customise what the user sees.

So, I think I have separated concerns where this is possible, and
not done so where it's just too difficult. Business logic is
packaged in a way that makes it accessible, and, at the same
time, recognises that the presentation is a factor. My
conclusion, for what it's worth, is: layering is good, but don't
be officious :-)

Mike S.