Question

I’m doing my first project with Django and I’m beginning to think about regrouping all common resources like all my custom template tags, context processors, generic views, … in one application, like so:

- project
  + templates
  + media
  + static
  - common // <- the common resources directory
    - template_tags
        __init__.py
      views.py
      context_processors.py
  + app1
  + app2
  + app3

I know that an application is supposed to be a reusable component and in this case it would be the most project specific application.

Is it a good practice ? Should it be considered as an application in my settings ? How should I proceed ?

Answer 1

The “reusable apps” debate has been going on as long as Django has existed, and predates Django in many ways. The only answer you’re ever going to get with any weight is do what makes sense for your project.

It’s not uncommon for “reusable apps” to depend on other apps to function, so that part is really not a problem. The true goal is always DRY (don’t repeat yourself). If you’re developing functionality that can be used in multiple places in your project or even in other projects you might work on, then it should be as self-contained as possible.

I wouldn’t willy-nilly move all template tags and such into one app. But if it’s a template tag that is multi-use, then it actually makes sense to put it in its own app. That’s actually fairly common. However, if the template tag is specific to a particular app, it belongs with that app. The same mantra applies to the rest of the things you mentioned.