> 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
