Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions, please join our Pinax Slack channel. Everyone is welcome!

Which starter project should I start with?

If you're wanting to build a new site with a combination of project-specific functionality and a few Pinax apps then you probably want to start with either the Zero starter project (if you don't have users logging in to your site) or the Account starter project (if you do have users logging in to your site).

I've done the Quick Start and set up a project based on the Account starter project. Now what?

You can now start adding your own apps or existing Django apps (whether from Pinax or anywhere else).

I already have an existing Django project. Can I still use Pinax?

A large component of Pinax is just re-usable Django apps. Most make very few assumptions about what else is in your project (although some assume you're using django-user-accounts for user account management). In most cases you can just use an app in the Pinax ecosystem like you would any other Django app.

How do we upgrade a site to a newer Pinax release?

Individual apps generally follow semantic versioning and often have an upgrade path. So they should be upgradable.

If you want to use a starter project, or other collection of Pinax apps, and be able to follow a documented upgrade path, something like Proposal for Pinax Distribution Versioning - pinax issue #84 is needed. It would provide coordinated releases, and make Pinax even more like a Linux distribution, in the way that e.g. Ubuntu creates a coordinated release of an infrastructure along with a variety of applications.

What editor/IDE/etc. do Pinax developers like to use?

Some use Sublime Text, some Atom, some Emacs, some WingIDE. There is nothing Pinax-specific about these editor choices and we recommend that you use the text editor or IDE you are most comfortable using and you enjoy the most.