.. _glossary:

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

.. glossary::

    field
        An attribute on a :term:`model`; a given field usually maps directly to
        a single database column.

        See :doc:`/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 :doc:`/topics/class-based-views/index`.

    model
        Models store your application's data.

        See :doc:`/topics/db/models`.

    MTV
        "Model-template-view"; a software pattern, similar in style to MVC, but
        a better description of the way Django does things.

        See :ref:`the FAQ entry <faq-mtv>`.

    MVC
        `Model-view-controller`__; a software pattern. Django :ref:`follows MVC
        to some extent <faq-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. This is a neat way to implement attributes whose usage
        resembles attribute access, but whose implementation uses method calls.

        See :func:`property`.

    queryset
        An object representing some set of rows to be fetched from the database.

        See :doc:`/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::

            https://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 :doc:`/topics/templates`.

    view
        A function responsible for rendering a page.
