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Zabby
Zabby

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From CRUD to Craft: My First Django Build.

How Django taught me more than just CRUD and gave me a framework for thinking like a builder.

The Beginning

When I first ran django-admin startproject, I had no idea I was entering a full-blown ecosystem. I thought I’d be stitching together a few forms and models turns out I was architecting a universe.

Here’s how I got from zero to a functional Django app and why CRUD was just the appetizer.

Step-by-Step Build

1. Setting Up the Skeleton 

django-admin startproject expense_tracker
cd expense_tracker
python manage.py startapp transactions
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Key decisions:

  • I chose a project name that reflected real utility “Expense Tracker” because I wanted my learning to feel practical.
  • Started with a single app for clean scope.

2. Building Models First

Inside transactions/models.py:

from django.db import models

class Expense(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    amount = models.DecimalField(max_digits=10, decimal_places=2)
    date = models.DateField()

    def __str__(self):
        return f"{self.name}: {self.amount}"
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What I learned:

  • Django’s ORM makes database tables feel intuitive.

  • Modeling isn’t just technical it’s philosophical. What does an “expense” mean in my world?

3. Migrating and Admin Setup 

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
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Then in transactions/admin.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Expense

admin.site.register(Expense)
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Suddenly I had a beautiful admin panel. It felt like cheating in the best way.

4. Views, Forms, and Templates

Function-based views were my go-to:

def add_expense(request):
    if request.method == "POST":
        form = ExpenseForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            return redirect("list_expenses")
    else:
        form = ExpenseForm()
    return render(request, "add.html", {"form": form})
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Aha moments:

  • POST vs GET finally made sense once I wired them into views.

  • Forms gave me a crash course in validation and user experience

5. URLs and App Routing

In transactions/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path("add/", views.add_expense, name="add_expense"),
    path("", views.list_expenses, name="list_expenses"),
]
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Then I included this in the main project’s urls.py:

path("expenses/", include("transactions.urls")),
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Modular routing hit home here it felt like Django was teaching me how to design scalable software.

Lessons From My First Django App

  • The admin panel is more than a dashboard it’s a real tool for feedback and iteration.
  • Views and forms are where UX and logic shake hands.
  • Modular thinking starts early, even in urls.py.

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