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Day Four of My Django Bootcamp: Crafting the Structure of My Django Project

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Day Four of My Django Bootcamp: Crafting the Structure of My Django Project

Today is the fourth day of my Django bootcamp, and it has been an exciting journey so far! I focused on creating and structuring my Django project while learning a lot about apps, templates, and URL configurations. Here’s a friendly walkthrough of how I accomplished it using Git Bash as my terminal.

1. Starting the Django Project 🚀

The first step was to create a new Django project named dijango. This project would serve as the foundation for everything else. Using Git Bash, I navigated to my desired directory and set up a virtual environment:

mkdir dijango
cd dijango
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # For Linux/macOS
venv\Scripts\activate   # For Windows
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Next, I installed Django and created the project:

pip install django
django-admin startproject dijango .
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Here’s what the structure looked like at this point:

  • manage.py: The project’s control center.
  • dijango/: A directory containing core files like settings.py, urls.py, and others.

2. Creating Applications 🛠️

Django encourages splitting functionality into smaller units called apps. I created two apps, REE1 and REE2, to separate different functionalities:

python manage.py startapp REE1
python manage.py startapp REE2
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Each app came with its own files, like views.py and models.py. To make Django recognize these apps, I added them to the INSTALLED_APPS section in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'REE1',
    'REE2',
]
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3. Setting Up Templates 🎨

Templates define how the front-end of the app looks. Using Git Bash, I created a templates directory in the root folder and added subfolders for each app:

mkdir templates
mkdir templates/REE1
mkdir templates/REE2
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In settings.py, I updated the TEMPLATES configuration to include the new directory:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'templates'],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]
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4. Configuring URLs 🌐

URL configurations connect specific views to URLs. Since Django doesn’t create urls.py files for apps by default, I manually added them for REE1 and REE2.

For REE1/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index, name='ree1_index'),
]
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For REE2/urls.py:
jy

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.home, name='ree2_home'),
]
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I then updated the main project’s urls.py to include these app-specific routes:

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

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('ree1/', include('REE1.urls')),
    path('ree2/', include('REE2.urls')),
]
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5. Adding Views and Templates 🖼️

In Django, views determine what gets displayed for each URL. I created simple views for both apps:

For REE1/views.py:

from django.shortcuts import render

def index(request):
    return render(request, 'REE1/index.html')
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For REE2/views.py:

from django.shortcuts import render

def home(request):
    return render(request, 'REE2/home.html')
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Next, I added basic HTML templates:

templates/REE1/index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>REE1 Index</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Hello I am Rinnah. Welcome to REE1 app index page.</h1>
</body>
</html>
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templates/REE2/home.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>REE2 Home</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Welcome to REE2!</h1>
</body>
</html>
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This is the outcome of after testing

Image description

Using Git Bash throughout this process made it easy to execute commands and navigate between directories. As I continue exploring Django, I look forward to building more complex projects and honing my skills. If you’re on a similar journey, let’s connect and share our progress!

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