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The developers behind the Django Project are getting ready to start work on the next version of the popular web development framework. Although Django 1.2, as the next release will be known, won’t be available in final form until March 2010, the project is currently voting on which proposed new features will be included in the next release.

Django is a powerful open-source web framework, written in Python. Compared to other open-source (or even proprietary) frameworks for building specialized, database-driven websites, Django makes the core tasks remarkably easy and fast.

Django already powers numerous high-profile websites, from the geo-aware EveryBlock to Google’s App Engine tools. In a testament to Django’s rapid development capabilities, developers Concentric Sky recently rebuilt the high-traffic michaelmoore.com using Django. From proposal to launch was a mere five weeks; you can read more about building the site over at the Concentric Sky website.

With Django gaining in popularity and more high-profile websites using the framework, the release of Django 1.2 in 2010 will be an important milestone for the framework.

Proposed new features for Django 1.2 include some features clearly geared at larger sites — support for multiple databases as well as a number of new database backend options will no doubt be a boon to developers should they make the final list. Other proposals include adding some more options to the Admin user interface and providing better built-in cross-site forgery protection. A complete list of proposals can be found on the Django wiki.

So far, no decisions have been made regarding any of the proposed features. Voting will continue until October 20, after which time an official list of what’s to come in Django 1.2 will be released.

If you’d like to contribute (and voting for a feature means committing to contribute to it) head over the the Django wiki and read through the guide to Contributing to Django.

See Also:

• Do Frameworks Have a Place in Web Development’s Future?
• Django 1.1 Arrives Just in Time for DjangoCon 2009
• Flush With Choices, Developers Still Dig Django the Most

The developers behind the Django Project are getting ready to start work on the next version of the popular web development framework. Although Django 1.2, as the next release will be known, won’t be available in final form until March 2010, the project is currently voting on which proposed new features will be included in the next release.

Django is a powerful open-source web framework, written in Python. Compared to other open-source (or even proprietary) frameworks for building specialized, database-driven websites, Django makes the core tasks remarkably easy and fast.

Django already powers numerous high-profile websites, from the geo-aware EveryBlock to Google’s App Engine tools. In a testament to Django’s rapid development capabilities, developers Concentric Sky recently rebuilt the high-traffic michaelmoore.com using Django. From proposal to launch was a mere five weeks; you can read more about building the site over at the Concentric Sky website.

With Django gaining in popularity and more high-profile websites using the framework, the release of Django 1.2 in 2010 will be an important milestone for the framework.

Proposed new features for Django 1.2 include some features clearly geared at larger sites — support for multiple databases as well as a number of new database backend options will no doubt be a boon to developers should they make the final list. Other proposals include adding some more options to the Admin user interface and providing better built-in cross-site forgery protection. A complete list of proposals can be found on the Django wiki.

So far, no decisions have been made regarding any of the proposed features. Voting will continue until October 20, after which time an official list of what’s to come in Django 1.2 will be released.

If you’d like to contribute (and voting for a feature means committing to contribute to it) head over the the Django wiki and read through the guide to Contributing to Django.

See Also:

• Do Frameworks Have a Place in Web Development’s Future?
• Django 1.1 Arrives Just in Time for DjangoCon 2009
• Flush With Choices, Developers Still Dig Django the Most

Google has announced a major update to its Maps service which adds detailed data from several U.S. government databases and improves the system for users to report errors and make corrections.

With this week’s update, Google Maps has added more detailed map information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Census Bureau to more accurately show map results in non-road areas, including parks, college campuses, hiking trails and bike routes.

Google Maps has also made it easier for its users to report problems, taking a step in the direction of crowdsourced projects like OpenStreetMap. Of course OpenStreetMap, which offers wiki-style, user-editable maps, is well ahead of Google when it comes to letting users to contribute roads, locations, routes, place-names and photos to maps. The new Google Maps feature stops short of allowing you to do the actual editing of street-level data. Rather, it simply gives you a channel through which you can report a problem, which is then edited by someone at Google.

To alert Google of an error or problem on a map, just right-click on the area in question and the drop-down menu will have a new option to “report a problem.” It’s not nearly as slick as OpenStreetMaps, which allows you to simply correct the problem right then and there, but Google does promise to resolve any reported issue within a month.

Far more useful than correcting Google’s mistakes is the additional data that’s been added to the maps, pulling in information on public parks, trails and paths. Even better, the Google Lat/Long blog says the new trails and paths data and the new cycling directions will eventually be added to Google Maps’ route planning features. Google Maps has also added building maps for many college campuses and now offers parcel maps in many U.S. cities.

It’s encouraging to see Google and the U.S. Government collaborating to make Google Maps more complete. But while the new features are incredibly useful in some context — finding all the bike paths in a nearby park, for example — the sheer amount of data being gathered into Google Maps verges on overwhelming.

In fact, that’s one of the primary reasons many developers are turning to solutions like OpenStreetMaps.

While Google’s new features are a welcome addition, the maps offered by Google lack much of the flexibility found in OpenStreetMaps. Unlike Google, which provides all its geographic data in a single layer, which is then displayed on the map, OpenStreetMaps allows you to pick and choose which layers are displayed in your maps. For example, if your map application needs to show trails, you can highlight that layer. If you’re just interested in streets, then you can omit the trail data.

The result is a cleaner, more customizable map that provides only the data that interests your users. The trade-off is a more complex interface, though projects like TileDrawer are helping to make OpenStreetMaps more accessible to developers.

See Also:

• ‘Tile Drawer’ Makes Hosting Your Own OpenStreetMap Server Dead Simple
• Where’d You Go Last Summer? Flickr Allows OpenStreetMap, FourSquare Geotags
• Google Maps’ New ‘Place Pages’ Break Usefulness of Local Search
• Google Maps V3 Offers Easier, Faster API

Google has announced a major update to its Maps service which adds detailed data from several U.S. government databases and improves the system for users to report errors and make corrections.

With this week’s update, Google Maps has added more detailed map information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Census Bureau to more accurately show map results in non-road areas, including parks, college campuses, hiking trails and bike routes.

Google Maps has also made it easier for its users to report problems, taking a step in the direction of crowdsourced projects like OpenStreetMap. Of course OpenStreetMap, which offers wiki-style, user-editable maps, is well ahead of Google when it comes to letting users to contribute roads, locations, routes, place-names and photos to maps. The new Google Maps feature stops short of allowing you to do the actual editing of street-level data. Rather, it simply gives you a channel through which you can report a problem, which is then edited by someone at Google.

To alert Google of an error or problem on a map, just right-click on the area in question and the drop-down menu will have a new option to “report a problem.” It’s not nearly as slick as OpenStreetMaps, which allows you to simply correct the problem right then and there, but Google does promise to resolve any reported issue within a month.

Far more useful than correcting Google’s mistakes is the additional data that’s been added to the maps, pulling in information on public parks, trails and paths. Even better, the Google Lat/Long blog says the new trails and paths data and the new cycling directions will eventually be added to Google Maps’ route planning features. Google Maps has also added building maps for many college campuses and now offers parcel maps in many U.S. cities.

It’s encouraging to see Google and the U.S. Government collaborating to make Google Maps more complete. But while the new features are incredibly useful in some context — finding all the bike paths in a nearby park, for example — the sheer amount of data being gathered into Google Maps verges on overwhelming.

In fact, that’s one of the primary reasons many developers are turning to solutions like OpenStreetMaps.

While Google’s new features are a welcome addition, the maps offered by Google lack much of the flexibility found in OpenStreetMaps. Unlike Google, which provides all its geographic data in a single layer, which is then displayed on the map, OpenStreetMaps allows you to pick and choose which layers are displayed in your maps. For example, if your map application needs to show trails, you can highlight that layer. If you’re just interested in streets, then you can omit the trail data.

The result is a cleaner, more customizable map that provides only the data that interests your users. The trade-off is a more complex interface, though projects like TileDrawer are helping to make OpenStreetMaps more accessible to developers.

See Also:

• ‘Tile Drawer’ Makes Hosting Your Own OpenStreetMap Server Dead Simple
• Where’d You Go Last Summer? Flickr Allows OpenStreetMap, FourSquare Geotags
• Google Maps’ New ‘Place Pages’ Break Usefulness of Local Search
• Google Maps V3 Offers Easier, Faster API