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Searching for Django help and inspiration

Posted July 18th, 2011 in Python by Florentin

docs.djangoproject.com

The most important resource which will answer most of your questions is the manual.
1. You can either use the built in search:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/search/?q=forms&release=5
2. Or search the documentation though Google (my preference):
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&q=forms%20site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fdocs.djangoproject.com/en/dev%2F

stackoverflow.com

This is the second biggest resource of information regarding Django development.
There are several ways to search for answers:
1. Use the search form and look for the terms "django" and the topic you are interested in (e.g. "forms"):
http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=django%20forms
2. Search for the tag "django" and your topic of interest (e.g. "forms")
http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=[django]+forms

The first form yields many more results than the second, but the relevance of the second type of search is higher.
Furthermore, you can sort your results by "relevance", "newest", "votes" and "active". I recommend using "votes" when searching for a high level topic like "forms".

Google

If the first 2 methods don’t help, you may need to ask the big boss:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&q=django%20forms

You may have to remember to use "+" or "*" inside your queries if you are looking for something very specific.

djangosnippets.org

Small fragments of code that you can use or get inspiration from.

pypi.python.org

Search for Python modules. Try your search with and without the "django" term added to the query.
Example: http://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=search&term=django%20forms
A nicer list of Django packages with details about usage, contributions and others is http://djangopackages.com/

others

If you are used to IRC channels, mailing lists or forums this page gives some indications:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/faq/help/

search with firefox shortcuts

One last trick for Firefox users, "Add a keyword for this search" improves your query rate a lot. Some of my settings:

Location: http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%s
Keyword: so

Location: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&q=%s%20site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fdocs.djangoproject.com/en/dev%2F
Keyword: dj

Location: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s%20site%3Adjangosnippets.org
Keyword: djsnip

Location: http://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=search&term=%s
Keyword: pip

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