[mattdeboard]

What is a JSON api? Anyway, your entire wish list is out of the scope of the document. If you want to know how to build a hypermedia API (which I think is what you meant by json api) what does that have to do with "effective Django"? That would be "building effective hypermedia APIs using Django".

[gojomo]

A JSON API is the methods & options that are available for (de)serializing your native Python or Django objects into useful JSON.

Perhaps there's a more narrow 'scope' defined for this project, but simply from the title, it seems an 'effective' Django developer would appreciate guidance for the best ways to do AJAXy things (including, especially, RESTy web services for backing AJAXy front-ends).