At the time I am uploading this repo, I am giving my first steps with django framework. The version used for this small project was Django 1.8 when the current version at the time I am uploading this repo is Django 2.2.

I started this project by following the tutorial found in Python Crash Course book. Because I was getting troubles with the differences with the syntaxes between versions 2.2 and 1.8, I decided to use the same version of the book in order to get familiar with the process.

The purpose of this markdown document is summarize the process followed in the book in order to be consulted it for future projects.

• Creating a Virtual Environment:

$ virtualenv my_env --python=python3

• Activate the Virtual Environment:

$ source my_env/bin/activate

• Create a source directory and cd into it (optional):

(my_env)my_env$ mkdir -v src
(my_env)my_env$ cd src

• Install Django:

(my_env)my_env/src$ pip install Django==1.8

• Start a Django project:

(my_env)my_env/src$ django-admin startproject my_project .

• Create the database:

(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py migrate

• Run the development server:

(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py runserver

1. Creating first app:

(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py startapp my_app

2. You have to create your models in the models.py file located in my_env/src/my_app/models.py

3. Activate your models by adding them to the settings.py file, where INSTALLED_APPS list is located. You can find this file at my_env/src/my_project/settings.py.

4. Every time you make changes to the models.py file and settings.py file, you will have to apply migrations:

(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py makemigrations
(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py migrate

• Create the admin user (also called superuser):

(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py createsuperuser

• Register your models in the admin.py file located at my_env/src/my_app/admin.py

During this process, if you want to add more things to your project you will find yourself playing with the models.py file located whithin your app directory.Make sure you apply migrations every time you change the content of the models.py file, and then register your models to the admin.py file.

You also can create more apps whithin your project, but make sure to add them in the settings.py file in order to activate them.

Once you're done with registering your models in the admin.py file, you will be able to get access to the admin site and see the result of your models.

1. Here you decide what URLs are needed in the project. The home page is the base because this is the URL that people use to access to the project. Before you start creating other pages, edit the urls.py file located at my_env/src/my_project/urls.py, here is where you set up the home page.

2. Create a second urls.py file at my_env/src/my_app/, the urls.py located at the project level must match with this file for the home page.

3. At this point, it's time to write the views. In order to do that you have to edit the vews.py file located whithin the app directory.

1. Inside the directory my_env/src/my_app/ create directory called templates, then in templates create another directory with the same name of the app (in this case my_app).

2. Make a file called index.html and write the template for the home page there. Once it's done, run the development server to see if it's working. This was a test template in the tutorial.

1. Make a file called base.html in the same directory as index.html, this will be the parent template. You will have to apply template inheritance in order to create more pages.

2. You may have to edit the index.html if needed to apply the concept of inheritance.

3. You will have to write a template per view or page you want to create.

In conclusion, the files you're going to play with most of the time are:

1. Project Level:

   • settings.py file located at the project level for activating your apps and probably for modifying your databases (for example: changing sqlite for postgresql).

   • urls.py file, the one that is located at the project level to set up the home page.

2. App Level:

   • models.py, to define the data that your web app is going to contain.

   • urls.py, to set up the apps urls.

   • views.py, to show the content of the pages.

   • templates, to create the pages.

Making web pages with Django consists of three stages:

1. Defining URLs.

2. Writing views.

3. Writing templates.

1. Object Oriented Programming with Python.

2. HTML.

3. Bootstrap.

4. Javascript.

5. CSS.

6. Database (MySQL, PostgeSQL, Cassandra, MariaDB, etc).

In case you forget your admin password, run the following command to change it:

(my_env)my_env/src$ python manage.py changepassword <user_name>