Table Of ContentDjango for Beginners
Build websites with Python & Django
William S. Vincent
Thisbookisforsaleathttp://leanpub.com/djangoforbeginners
Thisversionwaspublishedon2020-10-12
ThisisaLeanpubbook.LeanpubempowersauthorsandpublisherswiththeLeanPublishing
process.LeanPublishingistheactofpublishinganin-progressebookusinglightweighttools
andmanyiterationstogetreaderfeedback,pivotuntilyouhavetherightbookandbuild
tractiononceyoudo.
©2018-2020WilliamS.Vincent
Also By William S. Vincent
DjangoforAPIs
DjangoforProfessionals
Contents
Introduction 1
WhyDjango 2
WhyThisBook 3
BookStructure 3
BookLayout 5
OfficialSourceCode 6
Conclusion 6
Chapter1:InitialSetUp 7
TheCommandLine 7
InstallPython3 9
VirtualEnvironments 10
InstallDjango 11
InstallGit 15
TextEditors 16
Conclusion 16
Chapter2:HelloWorldApp 17
InitialSetUp 17
CreateAnApp 22
URLs,Views,Models,Templates 24
Hello,World! 27
Git 28
GitHub 29
SSHKeys 32
CONTENTS
Conclusion 33
Chapter3:PagesApp 34
InitialSetUp 34
Templates 36
Class-BasedViews 38
URLs 39
AboutPage 41
ExtendingTemplates 42
Tests 45
GitandGitHub 47
LocalvsProduction 47
Heroku 48
Deployment 51
Conclusion 53
Chapter4:MessageBoardApp 54
InitialSetUp 54
Createadatabasemodel 57
Activatingmodels 58
DjangoAdmin 59
Views/Templates/URLs 64
AddingNewPosts 69
Tests 70
GitHub 73
HerokuConfiguration 74
HerokuDeployment 75
Conclusion 76
Chapter5:BlogApp 78
InitialSetUp 78
DatabaseModels 81
Admin 82
CONTENTS
URLs 86
Views 87
Templates 88
StaticFiles 90
IndividualBlogPages 95
Tests 100
Git 101
Conclusion 102
Chapter6:Forms 103
Forms 103
UpdateForm 112
DeleteView 117
Tests 122
Conclusion 124
Chapter7:UserAccounts 126
LogIn 126
UpdatedHomepage 129
LogOutLink 130
SignUp 133
GitHub 138
StaticFiles 139
HerokuConfig 142
HerokuDeployment 143
Conclusion 145
Chapter8:CustomUserModel 146
InitialSetUp 146
CustomUserModel 148
Forms 151
Superuser 154
Conclusion 156
CONTENTS
Chapter9:UserAuthentication 157
Templates 157
URLs 160
Admin 164
Conclusion 168
Chapter10:Bootstrap 169
PagesApp 169
Tests 171
Bootstrap 174
SignUpForm 179
Conclusion 185
Chapter11:PasswordChangeandReset 186
PasswordChange 186
CustomizingPasswordChange 188
PasswordReset 190
CustomTemplates 193
Conclusion 197
Chapter12:Email 198
SendGrid 198
CustomEmails 207
Conclusion 211
Chapter13:NewspaperApp 212
ArticlesApp 212
URLsandViews 217
Edit/Delete 221
CreatePage 226
Conclusion 232
Chapter14:PermissionsandAuthorization 233
ImprovedCreateView 233
CONTENTS
Authorizations 234
Mixins 236
LoginRequiredMixin 238
UpdateViewandDeleteView 239
Conclusion 241
Chapter15:Comments 242
Model 242
Admin 243
Template 249
Conclusion 253
Chapter16:Deployment 255
EnvironmentVariables 256
.gitignore 257
DEBUG&ALLOWEDHOSTS 258
SECRET_KEY 261
DATABASES 262
StaticFiles 263
DeploymentChecklist 265
Git&GitHub 266
HerokuDeployment 267
Conclusion 269
Conclusion 271
DjangoForProfessionals 271
DjangoforAPIs 271
3rdPartyPackages 272
LearningResources 272
PythonBooks 273
Feedback 273
Introduction
WelcometoDjangoforBeginners,aproject-basedapproachtolearningwebdevelopmentwith
the Django1 web framework. In this book you will build five progressively more complex web
applications,startingwithasimpleHello,Worldapp,progressingtoaPagesapp,aMessageBoard
app,aBlogappwithformsanduseraccounts,andfinallyaNewspaperappthatusesacustom
usermodel,emailintegration,foreignkeys,authorization,permissions,andmore.Bytheendof
thisbookyouwillfeelconfidentcreatingyourownDjangoprojectsfromscratchusingcurrent
bestpractices.
Django is a free, open source web framework written in the Python2 programming language.
A“webframework”issoftwarethatabstractsawaymanyofthecommonchallengesrelatedto
buildingawebsite,suchasconnectingtoadatabase,handlingsecurity,useraccounts,andso
on.Thesedaysmostdevelopersrelyonwebframeworksratherthantryingtobuildawebsite
trulyfromscratch.Djangoinparticularwasfirstreleasedin2005andhasbeenincontinuous
development since then. Today, it is one of the most popular web frameworks available, used
by the largest websites in the world–Instagram, Pinterest, Bitbucket, Disqus–but also flexible
enoughtobeagoodchoiceforearly-stagestartupsandprototypingpersonalprojects.
ThisbookisregularlyupdatedandfeaturesthelatestversionsofbothDjangoandPython.Italso
usesPipenv3formanagingPythonpackagesandvirtualenvironments,thoughusingPip4works
fineaswell.Throughoutwe’llbeusingmodernbestpracticesfromtheDjango,Python,andweb
developmentcommunitiesincludingthethoroughuseoftesting.
1https://djangoproject.com
2https://www.python.org/
3https://pipenv-fork.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
4https://github.com/pypa/pip
Introduction 2
Why Django
A web framework is a collection of modular tools that abstracts away much of the difficulty–
andrepetition–inherentinwebdevelopment.Forexample,mostwebsitesneedthesamebasic
functionality: the ability to connect to a database, set URL routes, display content on a page,
handlesecurityproperly,andsoon.Ratherthanrecreateallofthisfromscratch,programmers
over the years have created web frameworks in all the major programming languages: Django
andFlask5inPython,Rails6inRuby,andExpress7inJavaScriptamongmany,manyothers.
DjangoinheritedPython’s“batteries-included”approachandincludesout-of-theboxsupport
forcommontasksinwebdevelopment,including:
• userauthentication
• testing
• databasemodels,forms,URLroutes,andtemplates
• admininterface
• securityandperformanceupgrades
• supportformultipledatabasebackends
Thisapproachallowswebdeveloperstofocusonwhatmakesawebapplicationuniquerather
thanreinventingthewheeleverytimeforstandard,securewebapplicationfunctionality.
Incontrast,severalpopularframeworks–mostnotablyFlaskinPythonandExpressinJavaScript–
adopta“microframework”approach.Theyprovideonlythebareminimumrequiredforasimple
web page and leave it up to the developer to install and configure third-party packages to
replicate basic website functionality. This approach provides more flexibility to the developer
butalsoyieldsmoreopportunitiesformistakes.
Asof2019Djangohasbeenunderactivedevelopmentforover14yearswhichmakesitagrizzled
veteran in software years. Millions of programmers have already used Django to build their
websites,whichisundeniablyagoodthing.Webdevelopmentishard.Itdoesn’tmakesenseto
5http://flask.pocoo.org/
6http://rubyonrails.org/
7https://expressjs.com/
