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Getting Started with Django#

Complete guide to setting up a Django project from scratch.

🚀 Project Setup#

Create Project#

# Create Django project
django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject

# Project structure
myproject/
├── manage.py          # Django management script
└── myproject/
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── settings.py    # Project settings
    ├── urls.py        # Root URL configuration
    ├── wsgi.py        # WSGI config for deployment
    └── asgi.py        # ASGI config for async

Create App#

# Create app within project
python manage.py startapp myapp

# App structure
myapp/
├── __init__.py
├── admin.py          # Admin configuration
├── apps.py           # App configuration
├── models.py         # Database models
├── views.py          # View functions/classes
├── urls.py           # App URL patterns (create this)
├── forms.py          # Forms (create this)
├── tests.py          # Tests
└── migrations/       # Database migrations

Register App in INSTALLED_APPS#

# myproject/settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',

    # Your apps
    'myapp',  # Add your app here
]

⚙️ Initial Configuration#

Basic Settings#

# myproject/settings.py

# Security
SECRET_KEY = 'your-secret-key-here'  # Use environment variable in production
DEBUG = True  # False in production
ALLOWED_HOSTS = []  # Add domains in production: ['example.com']

# Database (default SQLite)
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3',
    }
}

# Timezone
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_TZ = True

# Language
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

# Install python-decouple
pip install python-decouple

# myproject/settings.py
from decouple import config

SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
DEBUG = config('DEBUG', default=False, cast=bool)
ALLOWED_HOSTS = config('ALLOWED_HOSTS', default='', cast=lambda v: [s.strip() for s in v.split(',')])

# .env file (create in project root)
SECRET_KEY=django-insecure-your-secret-key-here
DEBUG=True
ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1

🗄️ Initial Database Setup#

# Create initial migrations
python manage.py migrate

# This creates tables for:
# - auth (users, groups, permissions)
# - sessions
# - admin
# - contenttypes
# - etc.

Create Superuser#

# Create admin user
python manage.py createsuperuser

# Follow prompts:
# Username: admin
# Email: admin@example.com
# Password: (enter secure password)

🏃 Run Development Server#

# Run server
python manage.py runserver

# Run on specific port
python manage.py runserver 8000

# Run on specific IP and port
python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Visit: - http://localhost:8000 - Your site - http://localhost:8000/admin - Admin interface

📁 Project Structure Best Practices#

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── .env                    # Environment variables (gitignored)
├── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
├── myproject/
│   ├── settings/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── base.py        # Base settings
│   │   ├── development.py # Dev settings
│   │   └── production.py  # Prod settings
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── ...
├── myapp/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── forms.py
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── templates/
│   │   └── myapp/
│   │       ├── base.html
│   │       └── index.html
│   └── static/
│       └── myapp/
│           ├── css/
│           ├── js/
│           └── images/
├── static/                 # Project-wide static files
├── media/                  # User uploads
└── templates/              # Project-wide templates

🔧 Common Commands#

# Create migrations
python manage.py makemigrations

# Apply migrations
python manage.py migrate

# Show migration status
python manage.py showmigrations

# Create superuser
python manage.py createsuperuser

# Start shell
python manage.py shell

# Collect static files (production)
python manage.py collectstatic

# Run tests
python manage.py test

# Check for issues
python manage.py check

📦 Requirements File#

# Generate requirements.txt
pip freeze > requirements.txt

# Install from requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements.txt

Example requirements.txt:

Django==5.0.1
python-decouple==3.8
psycopg2-binary==2.9.9

✅ Next Steps#

  1. ✅ Create your first app
  2. ✅ Register app in INSTALLED_APPS
  3. ✅ Create a simple model (see Models)
  4. ✅ Create migrations and migrate
  5. ✅ Create a view and URL (see Views, URLs & Templates)
  6. ✅ Create a template to display data

Pro Tip: Use python manage.py shell to interact with your models and test queries before writing views!