Building a Modern LMS with Django, HTMX, and Tailwind CSS — Introducing JakIja

Source: Dev.to

What Is JakIja?

JakIja is an open‑source Learning Management System (LMS) designed to support multi‑vendor learning platforms. It focuses on providing essential LMS features without unnecessary complexity, making it easier to extend and maintain.

Instead of relying on heavy frontend frameworks, JakIja embraces a server‑driven approach using Django and HTMX, resulting in a simpler architecture and better performance.

Supported User Roles

• Admin
• Instructor
• Learner
• Partner
• Subsection
• Curation
• Finance

Each role has its own permissions and dashboard experience.

JakIja includes support for paid courses and subscriptions, with examples of payment‑gateway integration (e.g., Tripay for Indonesia). This makes it suitable not only for educational institutions but also for commercial learning platforms.

Design Philosophy

JakIja is built around a few core principles:

• Minimalism: only essential LMS features are included.
• Extensibility: clean codebase that is easy to customize.
• Server‑driven UI: leverages Django + HTMX for fast, interactive pages without a heavyweight JavaScript framework.

Technology Stack

• Backend: Django
• Frontend interactivity: HTMX
• Styling: Tailwind CSS

This combination keeps development fast while maintaining long‑term maintainability.

Quick Installation Guide

To try JakIja locally:

git clone https://github.com/johansantri/jakija.git
cd jakija
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runserver

After the server starts, open your browser at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Why JakIja Is Interesting for Developers

• Discussion forums – easy to integrate or extend.
• More payment gateways – flexible payment integration points.
• API integrations – ready for external services and custom extensions.

Conclusion

JakIja demonstrates how a modern LMS can be built using a clean, server‑driven architecture with Django, HTMX, and Tailwind CSS. Whether you’re building an educational platform, exploring HTMX, or contributing to open‑source, JakIja is definitely worth checking out.