Django Getting Started

If you are just getting started, it's better to start with the right foot.

Download Python

Python Download

Tips:

While installing python make sure to check the add to path option Otherwise you have to set python path in environment variable manually

This insure that you are on latest version of pip

pip install --upgrade pip

Create a folder where you want your project

If you want folder name same as Project name

then run

django-admin startproject project_name

This will create a project inside a same name folder

else

just create a folder and change to that directory

mkdir folder_name

Now change to the directory

cd folder_name

Create Virtual Environment:

give a folder name followed by virtual env

virtualenv virtualenvironment_folder_name

for example

virtualenv vme

Here you get detail guide on Pipenv & Virtual Environments

To select currunt virtualenvironment in VSCode

open project_folder in vscode

ctrl+shift+p

python interpreter

then select currunt vme (this will create a .vscode file so next time you press ctrl+shift+`

(i.e when you open terminal)

this will automatically activate you virtualenv)

you can manually create it by createing a settings.json file inside a .vscode folder and put following line inside settings.json .vscode\settings.json

{
    "python.pythonPath": "vme\\Scripts\\python.exe"
}

Activate your virtual environment

First way

type on terminal here virtualenvironment_folder_name is the name of your virtual environment created folder name

virtualenvironment_folder_name\scripts\activate

for example

on window

vme\Scripts\activate

on linux

source vme/bin/activate

Second way

As you have already selected you VirtualEnvironment in vs code

just close the terminal and reopen it by pressing ctrl+shift+`

Now your virtualenv is ready

Download Django

Here Django 3.2 is recommended as it is the long-term support (LTS) Version

Here you get further details

so if you want long-term support (LTS) Version of Django

pip install Django==3.2

else if you want Latest Version of Django

pip install Django

Download Django REST framework (In case you are building Web APIs)

Here you get more info on DRF Django REST framework

pip install djangorestframework

VS Code use the pep 8 to style your code

Style Guide for Python Code

pip install autopep8

Here you get more customization of vscode for you django project

click here

some optional:

if you going to work with images or filefield

Django Model filefield

then install Pillow

pip install Pillow

Here you get more info on Pillow Pillow

save this to one txt file so that in case other need to install same versions of libraries

pip freeze > requirements.txt

So If anyone wants to install all required libraries, the can run following command

pip install -r requirements.txt

Create project:

django-admin startproject project_name .

(here . will not create a extra nested folder)

create App:

python manage.py startapp accounts

tips:

keep app name plural and model name singular

If you want default name for template static and media folder then

mkdir templates static media

It's good to keep your static files in organized mannered

mkdir static\css static\js static\img

in one shot

mkdir templates media static\css static\js static\img

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates'), ],
        ........

# in new version

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'templates'],
        ........

STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),]


# in new version
STATICFILES_DIRS = [BASE_DIR / 'static']

MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')

# in new version
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR /  'media'


STATICFILES_DIRS = [BASE_DIR / "static"]
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'static_cdn'

To get the media and static working add following to main project urls.py

from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.conf import settings

urlpatterns = [
                ......
               ]

# media dir works in main project url.py only

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
    urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)

now in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'django.contrib.humanize',
    'rest_framework',
    'feelingsApp.apps.FeelingsappConfig',
    'users.apps.UsersConfig',
    'posts.apps.PostsConfig',
    'comments.apps.CommentsConfig',
    'crispy_forms',
]




TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates"), ],
        ........


STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),]


MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')

LOGIN_URL = '/users/login'
LOGIN_URL_REDIRECT = '/'
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/'
# LOGOUT_URL = '/users/login'
LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL = '/'

ACCOUNT_EMAIL_REQUIRED = False




# on default debug is True
# DEBUG = True

# ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

# to see you images and media on debug False
# some more additional changes are this
# DEBUG = False


# ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']     or
# ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['0.0.0.0', '127.0.0.1']

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR),
                           "static_cdn", "static_root")


MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR),
                          "static_cdn",
                          "media_root")


PROTECTED_ROOT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(BASE_DIR),
                              "static_cdn", "protected_media")



EMAIL_BACKEND = "django.core.mail.backends.filebased.EmailBackend"
EMAIL_FILE_PATH = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "sent_emails")

# now set this in your main project urls.py
from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns = urlpatterns + \
        static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
    urlpatterns = urlpatterns + \
        static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)


# where users is app name and CustomUser is model name
AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'users.CustomUser'  # new

CRISPY_TEMPLATE_PACK = 'bootstrap3'

urls.py:

from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.conf import settings

urlpatterns = [
                ......
               ]

# media dir works in main project url.py only
if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL,
                          document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

admin.py:

class PostsAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    # list_display = ('title', 'slug', 'blog_image', 'status', 'created_on')
    # list_filter = ("status",)
    # search_fields = ['title', 'content']
    # prepopulated_fields = {'slug': ('title',)}
    list_display = ('title', 'body', 'created_by', 'feeling_cat', 'is_public', 'allow_comment')
    search_fields = ('title', 'body')
    list_filter = ("feeling_cat",'created_by')
    exclude = ['slug', 'curr_time', 'rand_id', 'post_len']

admin.site.register(Post, PostsAdmin)

models.py:

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    body = models.TextField()
    slug = models.SlugField(null=False)
    created_by = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    created_on = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    feeling_cat = models.CharField(
        max_length=32, choices=add_emotions(), blank=False, default=0)
    is_public = models.BooleanField(default=True)
    allow_comment = models.BooleanField(default=True)


    def get_post_url(self):
        return reverse("view-post", kwargs={'slug': self.slug})

Some Important imports

import json
from os import listdir
from random import choice
from django import forms
from django.conf import settings
from django.contrib import admin, messages
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login
from django.contrib.auth.forms import (AuthenticationForm, UserChangeForm,
                                       UserCreationForm, UsernameField)
from django.contrib.auth.mixins import LoginRequiredMixin
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractUser, Group
from django.contrib.auth.views import LoginView, LogoutView
from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
from django.contrib.messages.views import SuccessMessageMixin
from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
from django.core.serializers.json import DjangoJSONEncoder
from django.db import models
from django.db.models import Count, Q
from django.db.models.functions import TruncDay
from django.db.models.signals import pre_save, post_save
from django.db.utils import OperationalError
from django.http import (Http404, HttpResponse, HttpResponseRedirect,
                         JsonResponse)
from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404, redirect, render
from django.template.defaultfilters import slugify
from django.urls import path, reverse, reverse_lazy
from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _
from django.views.generic import (
    CreateView, DeleteView, DetailView, FormView, ListView, UpdateView)
from django.views.generic.edit import CreateView, View

User = settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL

To customize you VSCode for django click here