.. _glossary:

========
Glossary
========

.. glossary::

    field
        An attribute on a :term:`model`; a given field usually maps directly to
        a single database column.
        
        See :ref:`topics-db-models`.

    generic view
        A higher-order :term:`view` function that provides an abstract/generic
        implementation of a common idiom or pattern found in view development.
        
        See :ref:`ref-generic-views`.

    model
        Models store your application's data.
        
        See :ref:`topics-db-models`.

    MTV
        See :ref:`mtv`.

    MVC
        `Model-view-controller`__; a software pattern. Django :ref:`follows MVC
        to some extent <mtv>`.

        __ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller

    project
        A Python package -- i.e. a directory of code -- that contains all the
        settings for an instance of Django. This would include database
        configuration, Django-specific options and application-specific
        settings.

    property
        Also known as "managed attributes", and a feature of Python since
        version 2.2. From `the property documentation`__:
        
            Properties are a neat way to implement attributes whose usage
            resembles attribute access, but whose implementation uses method
            calls. [...] You
            could only do this by overriding ``__getattr__`` and
            ``__setattr__``; but overriding ``__setattr__`` slows down all
            attribute assignments considerably, and overriding ``__getattr__``
            is always a bit tricky to get right. Properties let you do this
            painlessly, without having to override ``__getattr__`` or
            ``__setattr__``.

        __ http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.2/descrintro/#property

    queryset
        An object representing some set of rows to be fetched from the database.
        
        See :ref:`topics-db-queries`.

    slug
        A short label for something, containing only letters, numbers,
        underscores or hyphens. They're generally used in URLs. For
        example, in a typical blog entry URL:
        
        .. parsed-literal::
        
            http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2008/apr/12/**spring**/
            
        the last bit (``spring``) is the slug.

    template
        A chunk of text that acts as formatting for representing data. A
        template helps to abstract the presentation of data from the data
        itself.
        
        See :ref:`topics-templates`.
        
    view
        A function responsible for rending a page.