asset managers for django - choose which one?

Question

I would like to bundle up css and javascript files. I also want to send far-future expire headers to clients, so I need file versioning.

A quick search across the Internet has shown there are several asset managers developed for Django. Here is a list of those that I could reach:

1. django-compress
2. django-assets
3. django-assetpackager
4. django-media-bundler
5. django-mediacat
6. django-site-assets
7. django-static-management
8. django-compressor

They seem to perform more or less the same job. django-compress, django-compressor and django-site-assets seem to be especially promising at the first glance. I will appreciate if someone provides feedback on any of them that will help me choose between them.

Answer 1

As you have already noticed, they all do the same thing (more or less). I decided to go ahead with django_compressor.

Also, I prefer to set expire headers or apply on-the-fly compression at the web server level. IMHO these operations should not be performed by the application itself, because sometimes it can lead to some issues, for instance setting Cache-Control or expiration headers on error pages etc. The *mod_expires* module is very easy to configure according to your needs. For on-the-fly compression using the DEFLATE output filter, I have used this mod_deflate configuration as is.

Answer 2

I've been using django-compress and I'm happy with it, especially because I can specify the back-end compressor (YUI works best with my JS for example).

I will probably consider switching to django_compressor in the future, but it's too low priority atm.

I would also point out that django-media-bundler has one feature the others don't... automatic building of image sprites. I haven't used it live, so I'm not sure how well it is implemented but that's pretty neat. You can use it just for the sprites and leave css/js for one of the other compressors.

Answer 3

Among the contenders I have chosen django-compressor because it is incredibly simple to use. Just put one or two tags (typical scenario: one for css and another for js) in the template and for most cases you are done without modifying anything; you don't even have to declare or modify settings, its default settings are good.