Django Tutorial for Beginners

Django is a powerful and popular web framework for Python that is widely used for building robust and scalable web applications. In this tutorial you will learn the basics of Django and build a simple web application.

Step 1: Installing Django

Preparation

To work with Django, Python must be installed on your system. You can check this by typing the following command in your terminal or command prompt:

python --version

Make sure you have Python 3.6 or higher.

Install Django

You can easily install Django with pip (the Python package manager). Run the following command:

pip install django

Once Django is installed, you can verify the installation by checking the version number:

django-admin --version

Step 2: Create a Django Project

Create a new project

In Django everything starts with a project. This project is a collection of settings for your website. Create a new directory where you want to save your project and run the following command:

django-admin startproject mijnproject

This creates a new directory called mijnproject with the following structure:

mijnproject/
    manage.py
    mijnproject/
        __init__.py
        settings.py
        urls.py
        asgi.py
        wsgi.py

Explanation of the files:

• manage.py: A command-line utility that allows you to perform various Django management tasks.
• settings.py: This contains all the settings for your Django project.
• urls.py: Here you define the URLs and routes of your project.
• wsgi.py/asgi.py: These files help deploy your project.

Step 3: Starting the Django Development Server

Go to your project's directory and start the development server:

cd mijnproject
python manage.py runserver

You should now see a message stating that the server is running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/. Open your web browser and go to that address to see the standard Django welcome page.

Step 4: Create a Django App

In Django, a project consists of multiple apps. An app is a web component that provides specific functionality (such as a blog or a shopping cart).

Create a new app within your project by running the following command:

python manage.py startapp mijnapp

This creates a new folder mijnapp in your project with the following structure:

mijnapp/
    __init__.py
    admin.py
    apps.py
    models.py
    views.py
    tests.py

Explanation of the files:

• models.py: Here you define the data models (database schemas).
• views.py: Here you define the logic for what the user sees.
• admin.py: Here you manage how your models are visible in the Django admin panel.
• tests.py: Here you can write tests to test your app.

Step 5: Create a Simple View

Now let's create a simple view that says "Hello, world!" displays when we visit a specific URL.

1. Open views.py in your mijnapp folder and add the following code:

   from django.http import HttpResponse
   
   def hallo_wereld(request):
       return HttpResponse("Hallo, wereld!")

2. Now add a URL pointing to this view. Create a file urls.py in the mijnapp folder (this does not exist yet) with the following contents:

   from django.urls import path
   from . import views
   
   urlpatterns = [
       path('', views.hallo_wereld, name='hallo_wereld'),
   ]

3. To make sure this URL is accessible, we need to link the app URLs to the project URL file. Open the urls.py file in the mijnproject root folder and add this code:

   from django.contrib import admin
   from django.urls import include, path
   
   urlpatterns = [
       path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
       path('', include('mijnapp.urls')),  # Verbindt mijnapp.urls
   ]

Step 6: Database Setup and Model Creation

Django uses SQLite as its database by default. To initialize your database, run this command:

python manage.py migrate

Add a model

Now let's create a simple data model. Open models.py in the myapp folder and add the following:

from django.db import models

class Berichten(models.Model):
    titel = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    inhoud = models.TextField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.titel

Then run the following command to make the changes to the database:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Step 7: Working with the Django Admin

To access Django's admin dashboard, we need to register the model in admin.py. Open admin.py and add the following:

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Berichten

admin.site.register(Berichten)

Now create a superuser account for the admin interface:

python manage.py createsuperuser

Enter your username, email address and password.

Restart the server:

python manage.py runserver

Go to 'http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin' and log in with your superuser details. You can now manage the 'Messages' model via the admin interface.

Step 8: Using Templates

Django uses templates to display HTML. Let's add a simple template for our "Hello, World!" page.

1. Create a directory called 'templates' in the 'mijnapp' folder.

2. In this directory, create a file called index.html and add the following content:

   <!DOCTYPE html>
   <html>
   <head>
       <title>Hallo Wereld</title>
   </head>
   <body>
       <h1>{{ bericht }}</h1>
   </body>
   </html>

3. Adjust your view in views.py to use a template:

   from django.shortcuts import render
   
   def hallo_wereld(request):
       context = {
           'bericht': 'Hallo, wereld!'
       }
       return render(request, 'index.html', context)

Now the "Hello, world!" message displayed via a template.

Step 9: Refine and Expand the Django App

Now that you've mastered the basics of Django, you can:

• Create more complex data models in models.py.
• Creating forms and processing user data.
• Create more templates for a dynamic and attractive interface.
• Working with external libraries and APIs.

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