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Starting your Django project

You've installed Python and the other utilities (pip, virtualenv, and git) on your computer, right? If not, head here to install.

First thing we need to do is create a folder for your project. I personally use a "projects" folder in my top level user folder on my computer, which contains all my programming projects. If you'd like to do this as well, follow these commands in your terminal to create the projects folder, and a folder within for this individual project:

$ mkdir projects
$ cd projects
projects $ mkdir myhellowebapp
projects $ cd myhellowebapp

If you need a command line review, mkdir creates folders, and cd changes directories into that folder. If you ever get lost, your terminal should show which directory you're in, and running ls (on Mac or Linux, dir on Windows), will list out the contents of the folder you're in. Use cd .. to back up out of a folder.

Start your virtual environment

Now that you're within your empty project folder, create your virtual environment. We'll be using virtualenv, which we installed after we installed Python. (With Conda the instructions are a little different.)

projects/myhellowebapp $ virtualenv venv

And then activate the environment:

projects/myhellowebapp $ source venv/bin/activate

You should see something like this in your command line before the folder structure - the (venv) indicates you're in the virtual environment:

(venv)limedaring@Orion ~/projects/myhellowebapp $

(Orion is my computer's name and limedaring is my username - your exact setup will be different.)

Now you're in your bubble, so we can start installing project-specific utilities. If you ever need to deactivate your environment, run deactivate.

Install Django

Finally, it's Django time! We'll use pip to install Django, so run this in your command line, making sure you're in your project folder and the virtual environment is activated:

$ pip install Django==1.9.6

We're telling pip to install a specific version of Django, in case Django releases a new version that this tutorial doesn't cover.

Start git

We also want to start our version control system. Now that we're in our project folder, run this command to start git:

$ git init

Running this command in your project folder will make the entire folder and its contents part of a new Git repository. For more about git and why we should use it (spoiler: version control is very important and it's needed for deployment to Heroku), see the Git tips page here.

Start your Django project

We installed Django, now we can use Django to build all the starting files we need for our web app. In your command line (again, in your project folder with your environment activated):

$ django-admin.py startproject hellowebapp .

This is going to start a Django project in your currect directory.

  • django-admin.py: The script we'll be running.
  • startproject: The specific utility we're using.
  • hellowebapp: The name we're giving the project.
  • . : The location where we're starting the project, with . denoting the current directory.

startproject will create these files and folders:

myhellowebapp/
    manage.py
    hellowebapp/
        __init__.py
        settings.py
        urls.py
        wsgi.py

The myhellowebapp folder is your top level folder.

  • manage.py: We won't edit this file, but will use this file in the command line to interact with your project. You'll see it in action soon.
  • The inner hellowebapp folder holds your project.
  • __init__.py: Ignorable - tells Python that this is a Python package.
  • settings.py: Aptly named - contains your settings.
  • urls.py: URL declarations for the project. Important and we'll go over this soon.
  • wsgi.py: Not needed at this point until you deploy your project.

Create a Django app

A project can run many apps (all doing something distinct), but we're just going to focus on having one for now, which is all you'll need for a very long time.

In your top level folder (the one with manage.py in it), run this command:

$ django-admin.py startapp collection

Like before, django-admin.py is the script, startapp is the command, and collection is the name we're giving the app, which you can change if you wish.

startapp will create an additional folder and a few files:

myhellowebapp/
    manage.py
    collection/
        __init__.py
        admin.py
        migrations/
        models.py
        tests.py
        views.py
    hellowebapp/
        __init__.py
        settings.py
        urls.py
        wsgi.py

Note the additional "collection" folder in your project.

  • __init__.py: Ignorable.
  • admin.py: Contains admin codebits.
  • models.py: Where you'll define the dynamic data that'll go in your database.
  • tests.py: Tests you'll create to run to test your app automatically.
  • views.py: Where the logic goes that powers your website.

If that's a bit complicated, don't worry about it yet because we'll review it all later when we specifically start working with all those files.

Add your new app to your settings file

We need to tell the project that we've added an app to it. Open up your settings.py file (which is under your hellowebapp folder, see the directory tree above).

Find the INSTALLED_APPS and add the name of your app to the beginning of the list (don't forget the trailing comma):

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'collection', # this is the app we added
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
)

Set up your database

Django has some fancypants utilities built in to keep your database (where all your dynamic information is stored) managable. We need to run the initial migration before we start the app, so in your top level folder (the one with manage.py in it), type this in:

$ python manage.py migrate

It's going to create your database automatically for you and port over some information. Don't worry about understanding this just yet - we'll go over databases and migrations a bit more in the "Adding Dynamic Data" chapter of Hello Web App.

Start your Django web app

Want to see if everything worked? In your terminal, head over to your top level myhellowebapp folder (make sure you're in the folder with manage.py) and run this command:

$ python manage.py runserver

...and you'll see the local Django development server starting, which'll serve your project to your computer.

Validating models...

0 errors found
March 26, 2014 - 15:50:53
Django version 1.7.8, using settings 'mysite.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

Now just head to your favorite web browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:8000, where you'll see a "Welcome to Django" page. Congrats on starting Django!