Caktus Blog

Sometimes we inherit code that doesn't follow the style guidelines we prefer when we're writing new code. We could just run flake8 on the whole codebase and fix everything before we continue, but that's not necessarily the best use of our time.

Updated December 2020.

This holiday season, there’s more online activity than ever, from shopping to Zoom sessions with family and friends, not to mention remote work and school. But during all this online activity, how much do you think about your computer security? (We know, there are way more important things on your mind these days!) But a security breach could wreak havoc on your business or personal life. Just think, is your password different for every shopping site or app that you use? If not, it should be!

Photo by Bartek Pawlik.

DjangoCon 2018 attracted attendees from around the world, including myself and several other Cakti (check out our DjangoCon recap post). Having attended a number of DjangoCons in the past, I looked forward to reconnecting with old colleagues and friends within the community, learning new things about our favorite framework, and exploring San Diego.

Above: Hundreds of happy Djangonauts at DjangoCon 2018. (Photo by Bartek Pawlik.)

That’s it, folks — another DjangoCon in the books! Caktus was thrilled to sponsor and attend this fantastic gathering of Djangonauts for the ninth year running. This year’s conference ran from October 14 - 19, in sunny San Diego. ☀️

If you want to build a list page that allows filtering and pagination, you have to get a few separate things to work together. Django provides some tools for pagination, but the documentation doesn't tell us how to make that work with anything else. Similarly, django_filter makes it relatively easy to add filters to a view, but doesn't tell you how to add pagination (or other things) without breaking the filtering.

Pictured from left: Caktus team members Vinod Kurup, Karen Tracey, and David Ray.

The Caktus team includes expert developers, sharp project managers, and eagle-eyed QA analysts. However, you may not know that there’s more to them than meets the eye. Here’s a peek at how Cakti spend their off-hours.

If you’re building or updating a website, you’re probably wondering about which content management system (CMS) to use. A CMS helps users — particularly non-technical users — to add pages and blog posts, embed videos and images, and incorporate other content into their site.

Above: Caktus Account Manager Tim Scales gears up for DjangoCon.

We’re looking forward to taking part in the international gathering of Django enthusiasts at DjangoCon 2018, in San Diego, CA. We’ll be there from October 14 - 19, and we’re proud to attend as sponsors for the ninth year! As such, we’re hosting a mini golf event for attendees (details below).

I recently looked into whether I could use pip-tools to improve my workflow around projects' Python dependencies. My conclusion was that pip-tools would help on some projects, but it wouldn't do everything I wanted, and I couldn't use it everywhere. (I tried pip-tools version 2.0.2 in August 2018. If there are newer versions, they might fix some of the things I ran into when trying pip-tools.)

Pictured: Simone Sequeira, Senior Product Manager of GetCalFresh, with event attendees at Caktus.

On August 11, I attended the National Day of Civic Hacking hosted by Code for Durham. More than 30 attendees came to the event, hosted in the Caktus Group Tech Space, to collaborate on civic projects that focus on the needs of Durham residents.