django-seo-js is a drop-in app that provides full SEO support for angular, backbone, ember, famo.us, and other SPA apps built with django.
It's simple to set up, configurable to use multiple services, and easy to customize.
Quick-links:
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Pip install:
pip install django-seo-js
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Add to your
settings.py:# If in doubt, just include both. Details below. MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = ( 'django_seo_js.middleware.EscapedFragmentMiddleware', # If you're using #! 'django_seo_js.middleware.UserAgentMiddleware', # If you want to detect by user agent ) + MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES INSTALLED_APPS += ('django_seo_js',) # If you're using prerender.io (the default backend): SEO_JS_PRERENDER_TOKEN = "123456789abcdefghijkl" # Really, put this in your env, not your codebase.
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Add to your
base.html{% load django_seo_js %} <head> {% seo_js_head %} ... </head> -
That's it. :) Your js-heavy pages are now rendered properly to the search engines. Have a lovely day.
Want more advanced control? Keep reading.
For the most part, you shouldn't need to override these - we've aimed for sensible defaults.
# Backend to use
SEO_JS_BACKEND = "django_seo_js.backends.PrerenderIO" # Default
# Whether to run the middlewares and update_cache_for_url. Useful to set False for unit testing.
SEO_JS_ENABLED = True # Defaults to *not* DEBUG.
# User-agents to render for, if you're using the UserAgentMiddleware
# Defaults to the most popular. If you have custom needs, pull from the full list:
# http://www.useragentstring.com/pages/Crawlerlist/
SEO_JS_USER_AGENTS = [
"Googlebot",
"Yahoo",
"bingbot",
"Badiu",
"Ask Jeeves",
]
# Urls to skip the rendering backend, and always render in-app.
# Defaults to excluding sitemap.xml.
SEO_JS_IGNORE_URLS = [
"/sitemap.xml",
]
SEO_JS_IGNORE_EXTENSIONS = [
".xml",
".txt",
# See helpers.py for full list of extensions ignored by default.
]
# Whether or not to pass along the original request's user agent to the prerender service.
# Useful for analytics, understanding where requests are coming from.
SEO_JS_SEND_USER_AGENT = Truedjango-seo-js defaults to using prerender.io because it's both open-source if you want to run it yourself, and really reasonably priced if you don't.
To use prerender.io,
# Prerender.io token
SEO_JS_PRERENDER_TOKEN = "123456789abcdefghijkl"You don't need to set SEO_JS_BACKEND, since it defaults to "django_seo_js.backends.PrerenderIO".
If you're hosting your own instance of prerender, (there are docker images, for those inclined,) configuration is similar
SEO_JS_BACKEND = "django_seo_js.backends.PrerenderHosted"
SEO_JS_PRERENDER_URL = "http://my-prerenderapp.com/" # Note trailing slash.
SEO_JS_PRERENDER_RECACHE_URL = "http://my-prerenderapp.com/recache"If it's a backend for a public service, please consider submitting your backend as a PR, so everyone can benefit!
Backends must implement the following methods:
class MyBackend(SEOBackendBase):
def get_response_for_url(self, url, request=None):
"""
Accepts a fully-qualified url.
Optionally accepts the django request object, so that headers, etc. may be passed along to the prerenderer.
Returns an HttpResponse, passing through all headers and the status code.
"""
raise NotImplementedError
def update_url(self, url):
"""
Force an update of the cache for a particular URL.
Returns True on success, False on fail.
"""
raise NotImplementedErrorIf you're hitting an http endpoint, there's also the helpful RequestsBasedBackend, which has a build_django_response_from_requests_response method that transforms a python-requests response to a django HttpResponse, including headers, status codes, etc.
If you know a page's contents have changed, some backends allow you to manually update the page cache. django-seo-js provides helpers to make that easy.
from django_seo_js.helpers import update_cache_for_url
update_cache_for_url("/my-url")So, for instance, you might want something like:
def listing_changed(sender, instance, created, **kwargs):
update_cache_for_url("%s%s" % ("http://example.com/", reverse("listing_detail", instance.pk))
post_save.connect(listing_changed, sender=Listing)If you need to customize the fully-qualified URL, you can subclass any backend and override the build_absolute_uri() method.
class MyBackend(SEOBackendBase):
def build_absolute_uri(self, request):
"""Strip out all query params:"""
return '{scheme}://{host}{path}'.format(
scheme=self.scheme,
host=self.get_host(),
path=self.path,
)If you're looking for a big-picture explanation of how SEO for JS-heavy apps is handled, the clearest explanation I've seen is this StackOverflow answer.
If even that's TL;DR for you, here's a bullet-point summary:
- If requests come in with an
_escaped_fragment_querystring or a particular user agent, a pre-rendered HTML response is served, instead of your app. - That pre-rendered HTML is generated by a service with a headless browser that runs your js then caches the rendered page.
- Said service is generally a third party (there are many: prerender.io, Brombone, seo.js, seo4ajax.) You can also run such a service yourself, using prerender, or re-invent your own wheel for fun.
PRs with additional backends, bug-fixes, documentation and more are definitely welcome!
Here's some guidelines on new code:
- Incoming code should follow PEP8 (there's a test to help out on this.)
- If you add new core-level features, write some quick docs in the README. If you're not sure if they're needed, just ask!
- Add your name and attribution to the AUTHORS file.
- Know you have everyone's thanks for helping to make django-seo-js even better!
Anyone is welcome to contribute to django-seo-js, regardless of skill level or experience. To make django-seo-js the best it can be, we have one big, overriding cultural principle:
Be kind.
Simple. Easy, right?
We've all been newbie coders, we've all had bad days, we've all been frustrated with libraries, we've all spoken a language we learned later in life. In discussions with other coders, PRs, and CRs, we just give each the benefit of the doubt, listen well, and assume best intentions. It's worked out fantastically.
This doesn't mean we don't have honest, spirited discussions about the direction to move django-seo-js forward, or how to implement a feature. We do. We just respect one other while we do it. Not so bad, right? :)