As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Andreas Stuhlmueller has proposed a general REST API for Django, and as his ideas and mine seemed very compatible, we began talking about collaborating on a joint solution. Unfortunately, that collaboration won’t be quite what I had originally hoped, as Andreas’ project has recently been accepted by Google for their “Summer of Code” program, and the rules prohibit this kind of collaboration.

While I’m obviously disappointed, this is ultimately a very good development on many levels. Its a wonderful opportunity for Andreas to contribute to Django, and no doubt, its better that he is developing this from scratch, with a fresh outlook and without the prejudices of an existing block of code. Andreas is also much more experienced than I am with Django, so he will likely develop a better integrated solution more quickly than I could have done. And with Google’s backing, Andreas’ REST API will probably be reviewed by more people during development and will be more readily embraced by the Django community than my attempt would have been.

For all these reasons, I have decided to stop development on my code base and support Andreas’ efforts, which might involve giving feedback on the code as its being developed, contributing documentation, or similar.

Andreas is planning to write about his project on the django-users list soon (if he hasn’t already and I’ve missed it), so I’d obviously encourage everyone to read what he has to say and support his work.