How to Change User's Password in Django: A Friendly Guide

Hey there, Django developers! Whether you’re building a robust web application or a simple website, user authentication is a crucial feature. One essential part of user authentication is allowing users to change their passwords. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to implement a password change feature in Django. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Setting Up Your Django Project

pip install Django

Create a new Django project and app if you haven't already:

django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject
django-admin startapp myapp

Don’t forget to add your app to the INSTALLED_APPS list in myproject/settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'myapp',
]

Step 2: Adding URL Patterns
To enable password change functionality, we need to add some URL patterns. Create a urls.py file in 'myapp'.
Open myapp/urls.py and include the following:

from django.urls import path
from django.contrib.auth import views as auth_views

urlpatterns = [
    path('password_change/', auth_views.PasswordChangeView.as_view(template_name='password_change.html'), name='password_change'),
    path('password_change/done/', auth_views.PasswordChangeDoneView.as_view(template_name='password_change_done.html'), name='password_change_done'),
]

Make sure you also include myapp.urls in your main myproject/urls.py:

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

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

Step 3: Creating Templates
Django’s built-in PasswordChangeViewand PasswordChangeDoneViewrequire templates to render the forms and success messages. Create a directory called templatesinside your app folder, and then create two HTML files: password_change.html and password_change_done.html.

Here’s a basic example for password_change.html:

<!-- templates/password_change.html -->
{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block content %}
  <h2>Change Password</h2>
  <form method="post">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {{ form.as_p }}
    <button type="submit">Change Password</button>
  </form>
{% endblock %}

For password_change_done.html:

<!-- templates/password_change_done.html -->
{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block content %}
  <h2>Password Change Successful</h2>
  <p>Your password has been changed successfully!</p>
{% endblock %}

Step 4: Do not forget to update the templates directory in Settings
Ensure you have the following settings in myproject/settings.py to manage your templates and authentication:

# Template settings
TEMPLATES = [
    {
        ...
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'templates'],
        ...
    },
]

# Authentication settings
LOGIN_URL = 'login'
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = 'home'
LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL = 'login'

Step 5: Test the Password Change Functionality
Start your Django development server:

python manage.py runserver

Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/password_change/ and you should see the password change form. Enter your current password, new password, and confirm the new password. If everything is set up correctly, you should be redirected to the password change success page.

Conclusion
And that’s it! You’ve successfully implemented a password change feature in your Django application. This feature enhances the security of your application by allowing users to update their passwords regularly.

Feel free to customize the templates and views to better fit your project’s design and functionality. If you have any questions or run into any issues, don’t hesitate to reach out. Happy coding!

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