Beginner’s Guide to Django – Complete Tutorial

Django is a high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. In this tutorial, we will cover the basics of Django to get you started as a beginner. By the end of this tutorial, you should have a good understanding of how Django works and be ready to start building your own web applications.

1. Setting up Django
   Before you can start using Django, you will need to set up a development environment. You will need Python installed on your computer, as Django is a Python framework. You can download and install Python from the official website.

Once Python is installed, you can install Django using pip, the Python package installer. Open a terminal or command prompt and run the following command:

pip install Django

This will download and install the latest version of Django. Once Django is installed, you can create a new Django project using the following command:

django-admin startproject myproject

Replace myproject with the name of your project. This will create a new directory with the necessary files and folders for your Django project.

1. Creating an App
   In Django, an app is a web application that does something – for example, a blog, a news site, or a database of public records. Each app consists of models, views, templates, and URLs that work together to provide a specific functionality. To create a new app, navigate to the directory where you created your project and run the following command:

python manage.py startapp myapp

Replace myapp with the name of your app. This will create a new directory with the necessary files and folders for your app.

1. Creating Models
   Models are used to define the structure of your database tables. Each model class in Django corresponds to a database table, and each attribute of the model class corresponds to a field in the table. To create a model, open the models.py file in your app directory and define a class that inherits from django.db.models.Model. For example:

from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    content = models.TextField()
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

In this example, we have defined a Post model with three fields – title, content, and created_at.

1. Creating Views
   Views are responsible for handling requests and returning responses. Views are Python functions that take a HttpRequest object as an argument and return a HttpResponse object. To create a view, open the views.py file in your app directory and define a function that takes a HttpRequest object as an argument and returns a HttpResponse object. For example:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def index(request):
    return HttpResponse('Hello, world!')

In this example, we have defined an index view that returns a simple Hello, world! message.

1. Mapping URLs
   URLs in Django are mapped to views using URL patterns. URL patterns are defined in the urls.py file in your project directory. To map a URL to a view, open the urls.py file in your app directory and define a URL pattern that associates a URL pattern with a view. For example:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index, name='index'),
]

In this example, we have defined a URL pattern that maps the root URL (/) to the index view.

1. Running the Server
   Once you have created your app, models, views, and URLs, you can run the Django development server to see your application in action. To start the server, navigate to the directory where your project is located and run the following command:

python manage.py runserver

This will start the Django development server. You can then open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000 to see your application in action.

1. Conclusion
   In this tutorial, we have covered the basics of Django for beginners. We have learned how to set up Django, create an app, define models, create views, map URLs, and run the development server. Django is a powerful web framework that makes it easy to build web applications using Python. With the knowledge you have gained from this tutorial, you should be well-equipped to start building your own web applications with Django.