> But what about web apps where users normally enter, update, and delete the > bulk of the application's data? Is it considered good practice to use the > built-in admin content management functionality as general purpose input > screens?
I can't say if this is "good practice" or not. I'm sure there are going to be some semi-zealous answers to that question. Whether you can use the admin interface depends upon how well it fits your needs. I currently use the admin interface extensively, for the following reasons: 1) All my users are "semi-trusted". They are employees, they just might not know the best way to do things (i.e. none have "Delete" permissions). Django's built in permissions is suitable for those users, but might not be for users you don't know. 2) Many of my models are very simple but quite long. Writing custom forms for these models would have been painful. 3) Most of the time, users will see "wizard"-like screens, that take them through admin change forms step-by-step, or reports (which Django really excels at). However, there are times when they need access to the raw data - it was easier to allow them access through the admin interfaces (limited by permissions, of course) than maintain forms to each item. 4) Look and feel wasn't critical, and with the template system I was able to make fairly minor changes easily. 5) Django's current custom form framework is, IMHO, not very developer friendly. HTH, -rob
