/docs/glossary.txt

 1.. _glossary:
 2
 3========
 4Glossary
 5========
 6
 7.. glossary::
 8
 9    field
10        An attribute on a :term:`model`; a given field usually maps directly to
11        a single database column.
12
13        See :doc:`/topics/db/models`.
14
15    generic view
16        A higher-order :term:`view` function that provides an abstract/generic
17        implementation of a common idiom or pattern found in view development.
18
19        See :doc:`/ref/generic-views`.
20
21    model
22        Models store your application's data.
23
24        See :doc:`/topics/db/models`.
25
26    MTV
27        "Model-template-view"; a software pattern, similar in style to MVC, but
28        a better description of the way Django does things.
29
30        See :ref:`the FAQ entry <faq-mtv>`.
31
32    MVC
33        `Model-view-controller`__; a software pattern. Django :ref:`follows MVC
34        to some extent <faq-mtv>`.
35
36        __ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
37
38    project
39        A Python package -- i.e. a directory of code -- that contains all the
40        settings for an instance of Django. This would include database
41        configuration, Django-specific options and application-specific
42        settings.
43
44    property
45        Also known as "managed attributes", and a feature of Python since
46        version 2.2. From `the property documentation`__:
47
48            Properties are a neat way to implement attributes whose usage
49            resembles attribute access, but whose implementation uses method
50            calls. [...] You
51            could only do this by overriding ``__getattr__`` and
52            ``__setattr__``; but overriding ``__setattr__`` slows down all
53            attribute assignments considerably, and overriding ``__getattr__``
54            is always a bit tricky to get right. Properties let you do this
55            painlessly, without having to override ``__getattr__`` or
56            ``__setattr__``.
57
58        __ http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.2/descrintro/#property
59
60    queryset
61        An object representing some set of rows to be fetched from the database.
62
63        See :doc:`/topics/db/queries`.
64
65    slug
66        A short label for something, containing only letters, numbers,
67        underscores or hyphens. They're generally used in URLs. For
68        example, in a typical blog entry URL:
69
70        .. parsed-literal::
71
72            http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2008/apr/12/**spring**/
73
74        the last bit (``spring``) is the slug.
75
76    template
77        A chunk of text that acts as formatting for representing data. A
78        template helps to abstract the presentation of data from the data
79        itself.
80
81        See :doc:`/topics/templates`.
82
83    view
84        A function responsible for rending a page.