The proper way to create a Django project is by using the Django command-line utility, django-admin, which is automatically installed when you install Django.
Steps to create a new Django project:
- Open a terminal or command prompt window.
Navigate to the directory where you want to create your new Django project.
Run the following command:
django-admin startproject myproject
This command creates a new directory called myproject in the current directory, which contains the basic file structure for a new Django project. The myproject directory contains a manage.py file and a subdirectory with the same name, which contains the settings.py, urls.py, asgi.py and wsgi.py files.
- Once you've created the project, you can navigate into the project directory
cd myproject
- Run the development server to check if everything is working
python manage.py runserver
This will start the development server on port 8000 by default, you can visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ to see the default welcome page.
- And you can create an app inside your project:
python manage.py startapp myapp
This will create a new directory called myapp in the project directory, which will contain the basic file structure for a new Django app.
Note that myproject and myapp are placeholders and you can use any name you want for your project and app.
Additionally, you can use the django-admin startproject --template option to use a project template, or you can use a package like "cookiecutter" to create a Django project with a pre-configured structure and settings.
It's also important to note that you need to have Python and Django installed in your computer before creating a project with django-admin.
Virtual Environments
A virtual environment is a way to create an isolated Python environment where you can install and manage different versions of Python packages without interfering with other projects. It is a recommended practice to create a virtual environment for each of your Django projects.
Here are the steps to set up a virtual environment for a Django project:
- Open a terminal or command prompt window.
- Navigate to the directory where you want to create your virtual environment.
- Run the following command to create a new virtual environment:
python -m venv myenv
This command creates a new directory called myenv in the current directory, which contains the necessary files for an isolated Python environment.
- Once the virtual environment is created, activate it by running the following command:
source myenv/bin/activate
On Windows, the command is:
myenv\Scripts\activate.bat
- After the virtual environment is activated, you can verify that you are using the correct version of Python by running
python --version
- Next, you can install Django in the virtual environment by running:
pip install django
Once you've created the virtual environment, you can navigate into the project directory
cd myproject
Now that you have the virtual environment setup, you can install any additional packages your project needs using pip, for example:
pip install requests
And you can run the development server to check if everything is working
python manage.py runserver
When you're done working on your project and want to exit the virtual environment, you can deactivate it by running the command:
deactivate
It's worth noting that virtual environments are optional but highly recommended, they allow you to keep your projects isolated and prevent conflicts between different versions of libraries and packages.
Pip Tools
pip-tools is a package that allows you to easily manage the packages and dependencies of your Django project. It includes two main tools: pip-compile and pip-sync, which help you to create and manage a requirements.txt file, that lists all the packages and versions that your project depends on.
Here are the steps to install and use pip-tools for your Django project:
First, activate your virtual environment, if you have one set up, by running the command:
source myenv/bin/activate
On Windows, the command is:
myenv\Scripts\activate.bat
Next, install pip-tools by running:
pip install pip-tools
Once pip-tools is installed, you can create a new file called requirements.in in the root of your project directory. This file will list all the packages and versions that your project depends on. For example:
Django==3.2
requests==2.24.0
Now you can use pip-compile to create the requirements.txt file, which will include all the packages and versions including the ones that are dependencies of your packages.
pip-compile requirements.in
To update or add new packages to your project, you can edit the requirements.in file and then re-run pip-compile to update the requirements.txt file.
To install the packages listed in the requirements.txt file, you can use the pip-sync command.
pip-sync
If you need to add a new package and its dependencies to your project, you can use the pip install command, and then use pip-compile to update the requirements.txt file.
pip install new_package
pip-compile requirements.in
Once you have the requirements.txt file, you can use it to set up your development or production environment by running pip install -r requirements.txt.
Using pip-tools is an easy way to manage the dependencies of your project, it allows you to keep track of the packages and versions that your project depends on, and to easily reproduce your development or production environments.
Pipenv
pipenv is another tool that can be used to manage the packages and dependencies of your Django project. It provides a more advanced and user-friendly interface compared to pip and pip-tools. Here are the steps to install and use pipenv for your Django project:
First, you need to install pipenv by running:
pip install pipenv
Once pipenv is installed, you can use it to create a new virtual environment for your project by running:
pipenv install --python 3.11
This will create a new virtual environment and install the latest version of python 3.11 in it.
Once the virtual environment is created, you can activate it by running:
pipenv shell
Now you can use pipenv to install the packages that your project depends on. For example, to install Django, you can run:
pipenv install django==4.1
pipenv will automatically update the Pipfile and Pipfile.lock files which are used to manage the packages and dependencies of your project. The Pipfile file lists all the packages and versions that your project depends on, while the Pipfile.lock file lists all the packages and versions that were actually installed, including their dependencies.
To add more packages to your project, you can use the pipenv install command. For example, to install the requests package, you can run:
pipenv install requests==2.24.0
To check the packages that are currently installed in your virtual environment, you can use the pipenv graph command.
You can use the pipenv lock command to lock the current versions of packages, so that they can be used in another environment.
To install all the packages listed in the Pipfile and Pipfile.lock files, you can use the pipenv install --ignore-pipfile command.
To remove a package from your virtual environment and from the Pipfile and Pipfile.lock files, you can use the pipenv uninstall command.
Using pipenv is an easy way to manage the dependencies of your project, it allows you to keep track of the packages and versions that your project depends on, and to easily reproduce your development or production environments.It also allows you to easily switch between different python versions, and use different environment variables for different projects.
Top comments (1)
Hey, this article seems like it may have been generated with the assistance of ChatGPT.
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Erin Bensinger for The DEV Team ・ Dec 19 '22 ・ 4 min read