2degrees Developers

Looking for Senior/Mid-Level Developers to Change the World!

Fri, 08 May 2015 09:00:00 +0000

2degrees, the world’s leading collaboration platform for sustainable business, are currently looking for disciplined software developers to build and maintain Python/Django applications.

We’re fundamentally looking for team players who are able to produce well-crafted software (e.g., elegant design, self-explanatory code), whether or not they have prior experience with our stack (which we’d consider a big plus).

To learn more about the software that we build, have a look at the Free Software projects that we host on our GitHub account. Recent projects include hubspot-contacts and python-recaptcha.

Telecommuting 2-3 days a week is possible, as long as the successful candidates are able to work in our Oxford office the rest of the time.

To learn more about these vacancies, head over to our careers page.

Announcing hubspot-connection and hubspot-contacts

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

We’re pleased to announce the release of two new Python packages:

hubspot-connection provides a lightweight abstraction layer for making requests to the HubSpot API.
hubspot-contacts is a high-level library for HubSpot API methods in the Contacts, Contact Lists and Contact Properties APIs.

Both packages come bundled with testing utilities to help you test code written on top of them.

Get them while they’re hot!

Announcing django-pastedeploy-settings: A Maintainable Way to Define Django Settings

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:33:00 +0000

We’re happy to announce the first beta release of django-pastedeploy-settings, a more maintainable way to define and override Django settings. Its features include:

Simple, Python-free configuration files. The format used is INI because configuration files should be declarative, not scripts.
Settings can be inherited. For example, you can define your base settings in your project’s repository, while overriding some from a separate file outside your repository.
Setting values are defined with JSON.
Variable substitution, allowing you to define a value once and reuse it in different settings.
Integration with Buildout, so that you can expose your Django settings to Buildout parts.
Integration with Nose, so that you can easily set the settings to be used by your test suites.Under the hood, this library uses Paste Deployment, a widely-used system which has the sole purpose of enabling developers and sysadmins to configure WSGI applications (like Django) and WSGI servers.

In spite of this being the first public release of this library, its code is based on twod.wsgi v1, a library which we’ve been maintaining and using in production for over 3 years.

Example

You can keep the following file in your project’s repository:

# base.ini

[DEFAULT]
django_settings_module = your_django_project.settings

[app:main]
use = egg:django-pastedeploy-settings
DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
        "NAME": "%(sqlite_db_path)s",
        }
    }

And then have two separate files, one for development and the other for production, both of which will extend base.ini:

# development.ini

[DEFAULT]
debug = true
sqlite_db_path = /dev/your-project.db

[app:main]
use = /your-project-repository/base.ini
SECRET_KEY = "weak key"
DEBUG_PROPAGATE_EXCEPTIONS = true

# production.ini

[DEFAULT]
debug = false
sqlite_db_path = /production/your-project.db

[app:main]
use = /your-project-repository/base.ini
SECRET_KEY = "str0ng k3y"

Alternatively, you can keep it all in one file:

# settings.ini

[DEFAULT]
django_settings_module = your_django_project.settings

[app:base]
use = egg:django-pastedeploy-settings
DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
        "NAME": "%(sqlite_db_path)s",
        }
    }

[app:development]
use = base
set debug = true
set sqlite_db_path = /dev/your-project.db

SECRET_KEY = "weak key"
DEBUG_PROPAGATE_EXCEPTIONS = true

[app:production]
use = base
set debug = false
set sqlite_db_path = /production/your-project.db

SECRET_KEY = "str0ng k3y"

Get it while it’s hot!

Announcing WSGI X-Sendfile: High-Performance File Transfer for Python/WSGI Applications

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:50:00 +0000

I’m pleased to announce the first public release of WSGI X-Sendfile, a library that lets your Python/WSGI application serve static files via your Web server.

Modern Web servers like Nginx are generally able to serve files faster, more efficiently and more reliably than any Web application they host. These servers are also able to send to the client a file on disk as specified by the Web applications they host. This feature is commonly known as X-Sendfile.

This simple library makes it easy for any WSGI application to use X-Sendfile, so that they can control whether a file can be served or what else to do when a file is served, without writing server-specific extensions. Use cases include:

Restrict document downloads to authenticated users.
Log who’s downloaded a file.
Force a file to be downloaded instead of rendered by the browser, or serve it with a name different from the one on disk, by setting the Content-Disposition header.This code has been used in production for three years in our Django application, but is now being released as beta in case there are bugs that haven’t become evident in our systems.

Get it while it’s hot!

Integrating reCAPTCHA

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Recently we’ve been looking into using reCAPTCHA for a form on the 2degrees site. We took a look at the python libraries out there and found that they either didn’t meet our requirements or weren’t sufficiently documented to allow a quick integration with our software.

So, we’ve developed a couple of open-source libraries to allow easy communication with the reCAPTCHA service:

python-recaptcha is an alternative to the client that google suggest. We’ve created a fully-tested and well-documented alternative which allows access to the whole API. The main advantage here, is the ability to access the different themes on offer.
django-recaptcha-field is a small library which contains a factory for generating a Django form with a reCAPTCHA field in. All the other libraries we found worked around passing the client IP address to the reCAPTCHA service. Given that the API documentation states that this is a mandatory field, we’ve ensured that this is sent.

If you have any suggestions for future improvement in these libraries, we’d love to hear from you. Of course, if you’d like to make the changes yourself you can always fork the libraries on github!

Agile team seeks talented Software Developer

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:06:00 +0000

Are you a recent Software Engineering graduate looking to join an Agile team? Or do you have 3 years industry experience and a passion for learning?

We’re a fast-paced, well-funded Web 2.0 business looking for a pro-active software developer to join our talented, self-organizing software development team.

About you

You are hungry to learn: You actively seek change — always looking for opportunities to improve professionally, and to help your team develop. You read software-related publications, welcome criticism of your work and offer your colleagues honest feedback.
You’re willing to try new things: Want to try your hand at requirements gathering or UI design? If the idea of becoming a Generalizing Specialist appeals, this could be the right job for you.
You have excellent communication skills: You’re comfortable communicating verbally, graphically or in written text, and you’re happy explaining technical concepts to non-technical people.
You’re qualified and/or experienced: You have a Software Engineering degree, an equivalent certificate from a leading organization (e.g.: IEEE-CS, BCS) or have at least 3 years experience.
You appreciate a sociable, friendly and supportive working environment: We value technical expertise and encourage developers to exercise their initiative and engage with the business as a whole.This is primarily a Web Development role. Experience or knowledge of Python, Django, GNU/Linux, Git, jQuery, Solr, Postgres and Agile development methodologies</b> is a big plus, but is not required. We simply want someone with the right attitude and we’ll help you get up to speed with anything you’re not familiar with!

About 2degrees

2degrees is the world leading online community for sustainability professionals. We aim to help businesses accelerate their implementation of sustainability and carbon reduction strategies on a global scale.

With offices in Oxford, UK and New York City, we work with leading companies including HSBC, Coca-Cola, BASF, Sony, Marks & Spencer, BP, Shell, Eurostar, Sainsbury’s, Hewlett Packard and Royal Mail.

Working for 2degrees, you’ll enjoy:

A nice office in a great location in Oxford, full of people who are free to be themselves.
Managers and business people who appreciate technical staff.
Support in your continuing professional development.
A competitive salary (dependent upon experience).

About the Software Development Team

We’re in the process of adopting Scrum and have successfully embedded Agile techniques such as Pair Programming, Test-Driven Development and daily stand up meetings.
We contribute to the Free Software we use and publish our own on GitHub.
Our recent and current projects include surfacing popular content, simplification of our sign-up process, generation of business reports on site usage, and a major rework of content access permissions which allows us to expose valuable content to non-authenticated users.
Future projects include a content recommendation system, integration with the Campaign Monitor mailing service, a re-work of our subscription model, user tracking and metrics, and major design and UX improvements across the whole site.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please send us your CV and tell us why you think you’re the right person for this job (don’t forget to mention any Free Software contributions you’ve made).