.. -*- ispell-local-dictionary: "british" -*-

************
Introduction
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Django is a great framework that eases application development. The
aim of the ``dja_skel`` tool is to further ease the development
process by pushing the idea behind the ``startproject`` and
``startapp`` commands one step further.

Let's suppose that you need to create a new class based view in the
``views`` package, this involves:

#. create a new module with some common imports

#. subclass the appropriate class view

#. overwrite some methods and define some attributes

#. add an import in the ``__init__.py`` module

#. add an URL definition to the ``urls.py`` module

#. create a template

Here's a lot of repetitive work that should be avoided in order to
focus on the real problem we are trying to solve.

Steps 1, 2 and, to some extent, 6 can be streamlined using
templates. Steps 4 and 5 require some *intelligence* that modifies
existing files. Such a combination of templates and intelligence (in
the form of python code) is what ``dja_skel`` calls an *skeleton*.

The project's goal is not to provide a set of skeletons, since every
programmer has developed his own patterns, instead it focuses on
providing building blocks to ease the creation of new skeletons and
the customisation of existing ones. It does provide a couple of simple
skeletons just for demonstration purposes.

Once created and registered the skeletons become available either
through the ``dja_skel`` script or the ``skel`` management command,
ready for use.

Take a look at the :ref:`chapter_tutorial` to have a grasp on how all
of this works.