Django Spectator

Two Django apps:

• One to track book and periodical reading, including start and end dates, authors, and cover images.
• One to track events attended (movie, plays, gigs, exhibitions, comedy, dance, classical), including date, venue (with maps), people/organisations involved, and images of tickets.

For Django 3.2, 4.1, 4.2 and 5.0, running on Python 3.8 upwards.

It has URLs, views and templates to create a site displaying all the data, and Django admin screens to add and edit them. The templates use Bootstrap v4.

There are also template tags for displaying data in your own templates (see below).

This is used on my personal website (with custom templates): reading and events.

Contents

1. Installation
2. Settings
3. Overview
4. Creators
5. Reading
6. Events
7. Template tags
8. Core template tags
9. Reading template tags
10. Events template tags
11. Local development
12. Environment variables
13. pre-commit
14. Running tests locally
15. Making a new release
16. Adding a new Event kind
17. Adding a new Work kind
18. Contact

1. Installation

Install Pillow or PIL (used by ImageKit to create thumbnail images).

Install with pip:

pip install django-spectator

Add these apps to your project's INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "imagekit",
    "spectator.core",
    "spectator.events",
    "spectator.reading",
]

While spectator.core is required, you can omit either spectator.events or spectator.reading if you only want to use one of them.

imagekit is required to handle uploaded publication cover and event ticket images.

Run migrations:

./manage.py migrate

Add to your project's urls.py:

urlpatterns = [
    # ...
    path("spectator/", include("spectator.core.urls")),
]

You can change the initial path ("spectator/") to whatever suits you. e.g. use "" to have Spectator's home page be the front page of your site.

Then, go to Django Admin to add your data.

Settings

There are a few optional settings that can be used in your project's settings.py file. This is the full list, with their defaults. Descriptions of each are below:

SPECTATOR_MAPS = {"enable": False}

SPECTATOR_SLUG_ALPHABET = "abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz23456789"

SPECTATOR_SLUG_SALT = "Django Spectator"

SPECTATOR_DATE_FORMAT = "%-d %b %Y"

SPECTATOR_THUMBNAIL_DETAIL_SIZE = (320, 320)

SPECTATOR_THUMBNAIL_LIST_SIZE = (80, 160)

SPECTATOR_EVENTS_DIR_BASE = "events"

SPECTATOR_READING_DIR_BASE = "reading"

Map Settings

Venues can have their location displayed on a map and, in the Admin, have their location set by clicking on a map. You can use either Google or Mapbox maps, both of which require an API key.

To use Google, get a Google Maps JavaScript API key and create a billing account. Then set SPECTATOR_MAPS to this:

SPECTATOR_MAPS = {
    "enable": True,
    "library": "google",
    "tile_style": "roadmap",
    "api_key": "YOUR-API-KEY"
}

The tile_style value can be one of the basic map styles.

To use Mapbox sign up and get an API key for Mapbox GL JS. Then set SPECTATOR_MAPS to this:

SPECTATOR_MAPS = {
    "enable": True,
    "library": "mapbox",
    "tile_style": "mapbox://styles/mapbox/streets-v11",
    "api_key": "YOUR-API-KEY"
}

The tile_style value can be one of the pre-defined map styles, listed under options.styles.

Setting "enable" to False in the above dicts will prevent maps appearing.

Slug settings

URLs for all objects include automatically-generated slugs, which are based on Hashids of the object's ID. You can change which characters are used in these slugs with this setting. e.g.:

SPECTATOR_SLUG_ALPHABET = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890"

You can also change the salt value used to encode the slugs. While the slugs don't provide complete security (i.e. it's not impossible to determine the ID on which a slug is based), using your own salt value can't hurt. e.g.:

SPECTATOR_SLUG_SALT = "My special salt value is here"

Date settings

You can change the format used for the dates of Events and for the titles of some sidebar cards in templates, using strftime formatting:

SPECTATOR_DATE_FORMAT = "%Y-%m-%d"

Thumbnail settings

There are two sizes of thumbnail images used throughout the site and admin pages: those used on "detail" pages (e.g. showing information about a single publication) and those used on "list" pages (e.g. listing many Publications). Each thumbnail's maximum size is defined as a tuple of width and height. The original image will be resized to fit within these limits, without being cropped. To make them both bigger than the default you might use:

SPECTATOR_THUMBNAIL_DETAIL_SIZE = (400, 400)

SPECTATOR_THUMBNAIL_LIST_SIZE = (150, 200)

When images are uploaded for Publications and Events (see below), they are stored within named directories within your Django project's MEDIA_ROOT. e.g. a Publication with a slug of pzov6 would have its cover uploaded to a path like /media/reading/publications/pzov6/my_cover.jpg. The reading part is defined by the SPECTATOR_READING_DIR_BASE setting. You could change the defaults like this:

SPECTATOR_EVENTS_DIR_BASE = "my-events"

SPECTATOR_READING_DIR_BASE = "my-reading"

2. Overview

There are two main parts to Spectator: Reading and Events (movies, gigs, etc). They both share Creators.

Creators

Creators are the authors of books, directors of movies, actors in plays, groups who perfom at gigs, etc.

A Creator has a name and a kind, of either "individual" (e.g. "Anthony Sher") or "group" (e.g. "Royal Shakespeare Company").

A Creator is associated with books, movies, events, etc. through roles, which include an optional role_name such as "Author", "Illustrator", "Director", "Playwright", "Company", etc. The roles can be given an order so that the creators of a thing will be listed in the appropriate order (such as the director before a movie's actors).

See spectator/models/core.py for these models.

Reading

A Publication is a thing that's been read, and has a kind of either "book" or "periodical". A Publication can optionally be part of a PublicationSeries. e.g. a Publication "Vol. 3 No. 7 September 2005" could be part of the "The Believer" PublicationSeries.

A Publication can have zero or more Readings. A Reading can have a start_date and end_date. If the start_date is set but the end_date isn't, the Publication is currently being read. When a Reading has been completed, and an end_date added, it can be marked as is_finished or not. If not, it's because you gave up on the Publication before getting to the end.

Both start_date and end_date indicates a specific day by default. If you don't know the day, or the month, a granularity can be specified indicating whether the reading started/ended sometime during the month or year.

See spectator/reading/models.py for these models.

Events

An Event specifies a date on which you saw a thing at a particular Venue.

A Venue has a name and, optionally, location details.

Each Event can have zero or more Creators associated directly with it. e.g. the performers at a gig, the comedians at a comedy event. These can be in a specific order, and each with an optional role. e.g:

• The Wedding Present
• Role: "Headliner"
• Order: 1
• Buffalo Tom
• Role: "Support"
• Order: 2

Events can be different kinds, e.g. "gig", "cinema", "theatre". This is only used for categorising Events into different lists - it doesn't restrict the kinds of Works that can be associated with it. You could have a "cinema" Event that has a movie, play and dance piece associated with it.

Each Event can have zero or more Works associated with it: movies, plays, classical works or dance pieces. Each Work can have zero or more Creators, each with optional roles, associated directly with it. e.g. "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer)", "William Shakespeare (Playwright)" or "Steven Spielberg (Director)":

Events can be given an optional title (e.g. "Glastonbury Festival"). If a title isn't specified one is created automatically when needed, based on any Works associated with it, or else any Creators associated with it.

See spectator/events/models.py for these models.

There is a Django management command (generate_letterboxd_export) that will generate a CSV file of movies seen (Works of kind "movie") suitable for importing into a Letterboxd.com account.

3. Template tags

Each app, core, events and reading, has some template tags.

Core template tags

To use any of these in a template, first:

{% load spectator_core %}

Most Read Creators

To get a QuerySet of Creators with the most Readings associated with them:

{% most_read_creators num=10 %}

Each Creator will have a num_readings attribute. It will only include Creators whose role on a publication was "Author" or was left blank. i.e. Creators who were "Illustrator" or "Translator" will not be included.

To display this as a chart in a Bootstrap card:

{% most_read_creators_card num=10 %}

This will exclude any Creators with only 1 Reading.

Most Visited Venues

To get a QuerySet of Venues with the most Events associated with them:

{% most_visited_venues num=10 %}

Each Venue will have a num_visits attribute.

To display this as a chart in a Bootstrap card:

{% most_visited_venues_card num=10 %}

This will exclude any Venues with only 1 Event.

Reading template tags

To use any of these in a template, first:

{% load spectator_reading %}

In-progress Publications

To get a QuerySet of Publications currently being read use in_progress_publications:

{% in_progress_publications as publications %}

{% for pub in publications %}
  <p>{{ pub }}<br>
    {% for role in pub.roles.all %}
      {{ role.creator.name }}
      {% if role.role_name %}({{ role.role_name }}){% endif %}
      <br>
    {% endfor %}
  </p>
{% endfor %}

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card:

{% in_progress_publications_card %}

Publications being read on a day

To get a QuerySet of Publications that were being read on a particular day use day_publications. If my_date is a python date object:

{% day_publications date=my_date as publications %}

And display the results as in the above example.

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card:

{% day_publications_card date=my_date %}

Years of reading

To get a QuerySet of the years in which Publications were being read:

{% reading_years as years %}

{% for year in years %}
  {{ year|date:"Y" }}<br>
{% endfor %}

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card, with each year linking to the ReadingYearArchiveView:

{% reading_years_card current_year=year %}

Here, year is a date object indicating a year which shouldn't be linked.

Annual reading counts

For more detail than the reading_years tag, use this to get the number of Books, and Periodicals (and the total) finished per year:

{% annual_reading_counts as years %}

{% for year_data in years %}
  {{ year_data.year }}:
  {{ year_data.book }} book(s),
  {{ year_data.periodical }} periodical(s),
  {{ year_data.total }} total.<br>
{% endfor %}

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card, with each year linking to ReadingYearArchiveView:

{% annual_reading_counts_card current_year=year kind='all' %}

Here, year is a date object indicating a year which shouldn't be linked.

And kind can be one of "all" (default), "book" or "periodical". If it's "all", then the result is rendered as a table, with a column each for year, book count, periodical count and total count. Otherwise it's a list of years with the book/periodical counts in parentheses.

Events template tags

To use any of these in a template, first:

{% load spectator_events %}

Recent Events

To get a QuerySet of Events that happened recently:

{% recent_events num=3 as events %}

{% for event in events %}
  <p>
    {{ event }}<br>
    {{ event.venue.name }}
  </p>
{% endfor %}

If num is not specified, 10 are returned by default.

Or to display as a Boostrap card:

{% recent_events_card num=3 %}

Events on a day

To get a QuerySet of Events that happened on a particular day, use day_events. If my_date is a python date object:

{% day_events date=my_date as events %}

And display the results as in the above example.

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card:

{% day_events_card date=my_date %}

Years of Events

To get a QuerySet of the years in which Events happened:

{% events_years as years %}

{% for year in years %}
  {{ year|date:"Y" }}<br>
{% endfor %}

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card, with each year linking to the EventYearArchiveView:

{% events_years_card current_year=year %}

Here, year is a date object indicating a year which shouldn't be linked.

Annual Event Counts

To include counts of Events per year:

{% annual_event_counts as years %}

{% for year_data in years %}
  {{ year_data.year|date:"Y" }}: {{ year_data.total }} event(s)<br>
{% endfor %}

Restrict to one kind of Event:

{% annual_event_counts kind='cinema' as years %}

Or to display as a Bootstrap 4 card, with each year linking to EventYearArchiveView:

{% annual_event_counts_card current_year=year kind='all' %}

Here, year is a date object indicating a year which shouldn't be linked.

Most Seen Creators

To get a QuerySet of Creators involved with the most Events:

{% most_seen_creators num=10 event_kind='gig' %}

Each Creator will have a num_events attribute.

event_kind can be omitted, or be None to include all kinds of Event.

To display this as a chart in a Bootstrap card:

{% most_seen_creators_card num=10 event_kind='gig' %}

This will exclude any Creators with only 1 Event.

Creators With Most Works

To get a QuerySet of Creators that have the most Works (e.g, movies, plays, etc):

{% most_seen_creators_by_works num=10 work_kind='movie', role_name='Director' %}

Each Creator will have a num_works attribute.

work_kind can be omitted and all kinds of Work will be counted.

role_name can be omitted and all roles will be counted.

The above example would, for each Creator, only count movie Works on which their role was 'Director'.

To display this as a chart in a Bootstrap card:

{% most_seen_creators_by_works_card num=10 work_kind='movie', role_name='Director' %}

This will exclude any Creators with only 1 Work.

Most Seen Works

To get a QuerySet of Works involved with the most Events:

{% most_seen_works num=10 kind='movie' %}

Each Work will have a num_views attribute.

kind can be omitted, or be None to include all kinds of Work.

To display this as a chart in a Bootstrap card:

{% most_seen_works_card num=10 kind='movie' %}

This will exclude any Works with only 1 Event.

4. Local development

devproject/ is a basic Django project to use the app locally.

I set things up locally, having installed virtualenv and pyenv, like this:

$ cd devproject
$ virtualenv --prompt spectator-devproject venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
(spectator-devproject)$ pyenv local 3.11
(spectator-devproject)$ python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Then run migrations and start the server:

(spectator-devproject)$ ./manage.py migrate
(spectator-devproject)$ ./manage.py runserver

Environment variables

You can add a .env file in devproject/ and its environment variables will be read in devproject/devproject/settings.py. e.g.:

SPECTATOR_MAPBOX_API_KEY="your-api-key-here" DJANGO_SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key" DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL="INFO"

pre-commit

pre-commit will run flake8, black, isort and prettier across all files on commit. I think you just need to do this first:

$ pre-commit install

Running tests locally

Run tests with tox, from the top-level directory (containing setup.py). Install it with:

$ pip install tox

Run all tests in all environments like:

$ tox

To run tests in only one environment, specify it. In this case, Python 3.11 and Django 5.0:

$ tox -e py311-django50

To run a specific test, add its path after --, eg:

$ tox -e py311-django50 -- tests.core.test\_models.CreatorTestCase.test\_ordering

Running the tests in all environments will generate coverage output. There will also be an htmlcov/ directory containing an HTML report. You can also generate these reports without running all the other tests:

$ tox -e coverage

Making a new release

So I don't forget...

1. Put new changes on main.
2. Update the __version__ in spectator.__init__.py.
3. Update CHANGELOG.md.
4. Do python setup.py tag.
5. Do python setup.py publish.

Adding a new Event kind

If it's simple (like, Gigs, Comedy, etc.) and doesn't require any specific kind of Works, then:

• In spectator.events.models.Event add it in Kind and Kind.slugs().
• Possibly add a special case for it in Event.get_kind_name_plural().
• Add a simple factory for it in spectator.events.factories.
• In tests.events.test_models.EventTestCase:
• Add it to:
  • test_get_kind()
  • test_valid_kind_slugs()
  • test_kind_slug()
  • test_kind_name()
  • test_kind_name_plural()
  • test_get_kinds_data()
• Add a test_absolute_url_*() test for this kind.

Adding a new Work kind

• In spectator.events.models.Work add it in Kind and Kind.slugs().
• On the Event model add a new method similar to get_classical_works() for this new kind of Work.
• On the spectator.core.models.Creator model add a new method similar to get_classical_works() for this new kind of Work.
• Add a simple factory for it in spectator.events.factories.
• In spectator/events/templates/spectator_events/event_detail.html add an include to list the works.
• In spectator/core/templates/spectator_core/creator_detail.html add an include to list the works.
• In tests/ add equivalents of:
• core.test_models.CreatorTestCase.test.get_classical_works()
• events.test_models.EventTestCase.test_get_classical_works()
• events.test_models.WorkTestCase.test_absolute_url_classicalwork()
• events.test_models.WorkTestCase.test_get_list_url_classicalwork()

5. Contact

• Phil Gyford
• phil@gyford.com
• @philgyford on Twitter