Introduction

Django is an open-source web framework that allows developers to build dynamic and scalable web applications quickly and efficiently. With its “batteries-included” philosophy, Django provides a robust set of tools and libraries to streamline many aspects of web development.

This guide will walk you through the process of building your first web application using Django. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a solid understanding of some core Django concepts and how to deploy your application.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• Basic understanding of Python programming
• Python installed on your computer (version 3.6 or later)
• Understanding of HTML/CSS basics
• A code editor (like VSCode, PyCharm, etc.)

Step 1: Setting Up Your Development Environment

The first step is to set up your development environment. For this, we will use venv, which is Python’s built-in module for creating isolated environments.

Creating a Virtual Environment

python -m venv myprojectenv

Activate your virtual environment:

On Windows:

myprojectenv\Scripts\activate

On macOS/Linux:

source myprojectenv/bin/activate

Installing Django

Now that your virtual environment is activated, install Django using pip:

pip install django

Step 2: Creating a New Django Project

With Django installed, it’s time to create your first project.

django-admin startproject myproject

This command creates a new directory called myproject with the following structure:

myproject/

    manage.py

    myproject/

        __init__.py

        settings.py

        urls.py

        asgi.py

        wsgi.py

        

Step 3: Running the Development Server

Change into the project directory and run the development server:

cd myproject

python manage.py runserver

Open your browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:8000 to see your new Django project in action!

Step 4: Creating a Django App

Django projects can contain multiple applications. Let’s create a new app called blog:

python manage.py startapp blog

This will create a new directory structure like this:

blog/

    migrations/

    __init__.py

    admin.py

    apps.py

    models.py

    tests.py

    views.py

Step 5: Defining Models

Now, let’s define a simple model for our blog posts. Open models.py in the blog directory and add the following code:

from django.db import models
class Post(models.Model):

    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    content = models.TextField()

    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
def __str__(self):

        return self.title

Step 6: Registering the Model with Admin

To manage your blog posts via the Django admin interface, you will need to register your model. Open admin.py in the blog directory and add:

from django.contrib import admin

from .models import Post
admin.site.register(Post)

Step 7: Configuring the App

Next, you need to let your project know about the new app. Open settings.py in the myproject directory and add 'blog', to the INSTALLED_APPS list:

INSTALLED_APPS = [

    ...

    'blog',

]

Step 8: Running Migrations

We need to create the database tables for our new model. Run the following commands:

python manage.py makemigrations

python manage.py migrate

Step 9: Creating a Superuser

To access the Django admin site, you need to create a superuser:

python manage.py createsuperuser

Follow the prompts to set a username, email, and password.

Step 10: Running the Server Again

Now that you’ve created your superuser, run the development server again:

python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin and log in with the credentials you just created. You should see your Post model available for you to manage!

Step 11: Creating Views and Templates

Next, let’s create views and templates to display our blog posts on the front end.

Creating a View

Open views.py in the blog directory and add the following code:

from django.shortcuts import render

from .models import Post
def post_list(request):

    posts = Post.objects.all()

    return render(request, 'blog/post_list.html', {'posts': posts})

Creating a Template

Create a directory called templates inside the blog directory, and then create another directory named blog inside that. Finally, create a file called post_list.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">

<head>

    <meta charset="UTF-8">

    <title>Blog Posts</title>

</head>

<body>

    <h1>Blog Posts</h1>

    <ul>

        {% for post in posts %}

            <li><a href="#">{{ post.title }}</a> - {{ post.created_at }}</li>

        {% endfor %}

    </ul>

</body>

</html>

Step 12: Updating URLs

Next, map your view to a URL. Open urls.py in the myproject directory and set up URL routing:

from django.contrib import admin

from django.urls import path

from blog.views import post_list
urlpatterns = [

    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),

    path('', post_list, name='post_list'),

]

Step 13: Test Your Web App

Now that everything is set up, visit http://127.0.0.1:8000 to see the list of blog posts!

Step 14: Deploying Your Application

Finally, once you are happy with your application, you may want to deploy it. There are several options for deploying Django applications:

• Using Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) providers like Heroku
• Using a cloud service like AWS or Google Cloud
• Using shared hosting that supports Django

For simplicity, we recommend starting with Heroku:

1. Install the Heroku CLI.
2. Create a new Heroku app using heroku create.
3. Check your requirements with pip freeze > requirements.txt.
4. Run migrations on Heroku by using heroku run python manage.py migrate.
5. Push your code to Heroku using git push heroku master.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve built your first web application using Django. You learned how to set up your environment, create models, views, templates, and even deploy your app. Django’s modular nature and built-in features make it a powerful choice for developing web applications.

As you continue to explore Django, consider diving deeper into features such as user authentication, REST APIs, and additional third-party libraries that can enhance your projects. With practice, you can leverage Django to create complex and dynamic web applications that cater to various user needs.

Keep building, keep learning, and enjoy the journey of web development!