Django Polls Application

This is a web-based application created using Django framework that allows users to view and vote in polls.

Features

1. Users can view the list of polls.
2. Users can vote in each poll.
3. Users can view the results of each poll.
4. The application has an admin panel that allows managing (create, update, delete) the polls.

Technology

1. Python 3
2. Django Framework
3. MySQL Database

Installation

Before you start, make sure you have Python and pip installed on your machine.

1. clone the repository to your local machine: git clone https://github.com/yourusername/yourrepository.git

2. Navigate to the project directory: cd django_polls_app

3. Install the required modules: pip install -r requirements.txt

Running the Application

To start the application navigate to the project directory and run: python manage.py runserver

This will start the server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/polls to use the application.

Installing Python dependencies

1. This project uses pip to manage Python dependencies.

2. Navigate to the base directory of the project, the same location as the requirements.txt file.

3. Run pip install -r requirements.txt to install all Python dependencies.

   The requirements.txt file includes mysqlclient, which is the MySQL client library that Django uses to interact with the MySQL database. It was installed with the command pip install mysqlclient.

   Note: <version> should be replaced with the version of mysqlclient you're using. If you're unsure, running pip show mysqlclient in your terminal will display information about your installed mysqlclient package, including the version.

Managing Environment Variables in Django with python-dotenv

This project uses python-dotenv to load environment variables from a .env file. In order to run this project locally, you'll need to create your own .env file in the root directory of the project and define the following variables:

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DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=<your Django secret key>
DB_NAME=<your database name>
DB_USER=<your database user>
DB_PASSWORD=<your database password>
DB_HOST=<your database host>
DB_PORT=<your database port>

Please replace the placeholders with your actual values.

Do not include your .env file in any version control system. It contains sensitive data that should not be shared. If you're using git, the .env file is already included in the .gitignore file and will not be tracked.

The use of environment variables and .env files is a common practice to manage project settings. It provides a few benefits:

Security: It prevents sensitive data from being shared publicly. Flexibility: It allows each developer to have their own settings. This is particularly useful when working in a team where each developer might have their own database setup. Organization: It helps keep configuration values separate from the codebase, which is a best practice in software development.

Enjoy the app!