Django Fundamentals Setting Up Your First Project

Django is a powerful web framework for building web applications using the Python programming language. Setting up your first Django project involves several steps. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:

Install Django

Before creating a Django project, you need to install Django. Open a terminal or command prompt and run the following command:

pip install Django

Create a Django Project

Now that Django is installed, you can create your first project. In the terminal, navigate to the directory where you want to create your project and run:

django-admin startproject yourprojectname

Replace “yourprojectname” with the desired name for your project. This command will create a directory with the same name containing the initial project structure.

Navigate to the Project Directory

Change into the project directory by using the following command:

cd yourprojectname

Run Migrations

Django uses a database to store information about your application. To set up the initial database structure, run the following commands:

python manage.py migrate

Create an Admin User (Optional)

Django provides a built-in admin interface. You can create a superuser account to manage the admin interface:

python manage.py createsuperuser

Follow the prompts to create a username, email (optional), and password for the superuser.

Run the Development Server

Start the development server to see if everything is set up correctly:

python manage.py runserver

By default, the development server will run on http://127.0.0.1:8000/. Open your web browser and go to that address to see the default Django welcome page.

Create Your First App

Django projects are made up of one or more apps. An app is a self-contained module that does something specific. To create an app, run:

python manage.py startapp yourappname

Replace “yourappname” with the desired name for your app.

Register Your App

Open the settings.py file in your project directory and add your app to the INSTALLED_APPS list:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
# ...
'yourappname',
]

Create a View

Inside your app directory, open the views.py file and define a simple view:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def index(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello, World! This is your first view.")

Create a URL Pattern

Create a urls.py file inside your app directory and define a URL pattern for your view:

from django.urls import path
from .views import index

urlpatterns = [
    path('', index, name='index'),
]

Include App URLs in Project URLs

Open the urls.py file in your project directory and include your app’s URLs:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('yourappname/', include('yourappname.urls')),

Test Your App

Restart the development server:

python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/yourappname/ in your web browser. You should see the message from your view.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up your first Django project and created a simple app with a view and URL pattern. From here, you can continue building your web application by defining models, templates, and additional views. Explore the Django documentation for more in-depth information on each component.

Django Fundamentals: Setting Up Your First Project