DEV Community

Cover image for Getting Started with Django
Jeff Odhiambo
Jeff Odhiambo

Posted on

Getting Started with Django

#django #programming #beginners #python

What is Django?

Django —pronounced “Jango,” was named after the famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and is a high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Built by experienced developers, it takes care of much of the hassle of web development, so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel. It’s free and open source.

Django History

Django was design and developed by Lawrence journal world in 2003 and publicly released under BSD license in July 2005. Currently, DSF (Django Software Foundation) maintains its development and release cycle.

Importance of Django

1.Ridiculously fast as it was designed to help developers take applications from concept to completion as quickly as possible.
2.Secure as it takes security seriously and helps developers avoid many common security mistakes.
3.Scalable:- Some of the busiest sites on the web leverage Django’s ability to quickly and flexibly scale.
More

Installing and Setting up Django

In this article I'll be using the Unix operation system, for windows might be slightly different.
We will require the following before getting started

  1. Python,
  2. Pip that will help us also install Django and other packages that we will use.
  3. Virtualenv

Install Python

Install python by running the command sudo apt install
python3 or for more you might follow my previous article Python 101: Introduction to Modern Python

Install pip

Thereafter check if pip is installed by running the command pip --version or pip3 --version on the terminal. If it return the version as shown below then it is installed otherwise we will install it by running the command sudo apt install pip or sudo apt install pip3.

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ pip --version
pip 20.3.4 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.9)
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

or

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ pip3 --version
pip 20.3.4 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.9)
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Install Virtualenv

We will use virtualenv to create a separate and isolated virtual environment for our project.
Run the command virtualenv --version, if its version is returned then it is installed else we will need to install it using pip or pip3 by running pip install virtualenv or pip3 install virtualen

Output if virtualenv exist

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ virtualenv --version                                                      
virtualenv 20.10.0 from /home/jeff/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/virtualenv/__init__.py
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

After installing the 3 basic we can now get started.

1.Create a directory for your project in a location of your choice either using the GUI or through the terminal using the command mkdir <directory name> e.g mkdir learn_django.

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop]
└─$ mkdir learn_django
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2.Change directory into the created directory using cd command. cd <directory name> e.g cd learn_django

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop]
└─$ cd learn_django
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

3.Create a virtual environment inside it using command virtualenv <environment name> e.g virtualenv env

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ virtualenv env                                                      
created virtual environment CPython3.9.9.final.0-64 in 2105ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/home/jeff/Desktop/learn_django/env, clear=False, no_vcs_ignore=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/home/jeff/.local/share/virtualenv)
    added seed packages: pip==21.3.1, setuptools==60.5.0, wheel==0.37.1
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,NushellActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

4.Activate the environment running source <environment name>/bin/activate e.g source env/bin/activate

┌──(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ source env/bin/activate
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

5.Install Django into the environment running pip install django

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ pip install django
Collecting django
  Using cached Django-4.0.2-py3-none-any.whl (8.0 MB)
Collecting sqlparse>=0.2.2
  Using cached sqlparse-0.4.2-py3-none-any.whl (42 kB)
Collecting asgiref<4,>=3.4.1
  Using cached asgiref-3.5.0-py3-none-any.whl (22 kB)
Installing collected packages: sqlparse, asgiref, django
Successfully installed asgiref-3.5.0 django-4.0.2 sqlparse-0.4.2
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

6.Start your project using the command django-admin startproject Django_Project .. If you ls you'll be able to see project files and manage.py file

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ django-admin startproject Django_Project .

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ls
Django_Project  env  manage.py
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

7.Make migrations and migrate to create the required tables and columns into the database using ./manage.py makemigrations followed by ./manage.py migrate

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ./manage.py makemigrations
No changes detected

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ./manage.py migrate
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK
  Applying admin.0003_logentry_add_action_flag_choices... OK
  Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
  Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
  Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
  Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
  Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK
  Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0009_alter_user_last_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0010_alter_group_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0011_update_proxy_permissions... OK
  Applying auth.0012_alter_user_first_name_max_length... OK
  Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

8.Run server and check if your site is running using ./manage.py runserver which by default will run on port 8000, you can either specify the port by providing it e.g if you would like your project to run on port 7000 run ./manage.py runserver 7000.

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ./manage.py runserver
Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
February 10, 2022 - 05:02:16
Django version 4.0.2, using settings 'Django_Project.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

When you visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ you see a page similar to the one below.

Django default page
Other option is running the server on a shared ip address to enable people within the same network to view your project.
a) Check on the ip and interphase by running ifconfig.

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ifconfig
eth0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether d8:9d:67:cb:cf:96  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 17931  bytes 4982556 (4.7 MiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 17931  bytes 4982556 (4.7 MiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

usb0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.42.220  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.42.255
        inet6 fe80::70d8:a7f:4daf:43f7  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 2a:52:c0:42:23:3b  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 764  bytes 205457 (200.6 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 828  bytes 165938 (162.0 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

b) Copy the ip address of the interphase where you would like to share it through. in this case ill use the usb0 interphase whose ip address is 192.168.42.220
c) Run manage.py runserver <ip address>:<port number> e.g ./manage.py runserver 192.168.42.220:80

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ./manage.py runserver 192.168.42.220:80                                 130 ⨯
Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
February 10, 2022 - 05:07:08
Django version 4.0.2, using settings 'Django_Project.settings'
Starting development server at http://192.168.42.220:80/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

9.Create a superuser using the command ./manage.py createsuperuser or python3 manage.py craetesuperuser and fill the required fields. This will enable you to access the Django admin panel for your project.

┌──(env)─(jeff㉿kali)-[~/Desktop/learn_django]
└─$ ./manage.py createsuperuser                                             
Username (leave blank to use 'jeff'): admin
Email address: admin@gmail.com
Password: 
Password (again): 
Superuser created successfully.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You'll be able to access it through 'http:127.0.0.1:/admin' e.g for the default http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Login admin page
Admin login page

Admin Page
Admin Page

For more on various apps developments visit Writing your first Django app, part 1 or visit my next article where we will be building a learning management system.

Top comments (0)

Read next

dev007777 profile image

Python beats Javascript, Next.js Leap & the AI Coding Wars

TheDev -

mcsee profile image

Code Smell 279 - Loop Premature Optimization

Maxi Contieri -

talenttinaapi profile image

Exploring Test Automation in Embedded Systems Testing

talent -

chipm0nk profile image

From Concept to Code: Building a Simple Endless Runner Game

Chipm0nk -