Django Training

Setup

Follow Getting Started guide.

Starting A Django Project

In this section, you will know how to create a tutorial Django project via some following simple steps:

1. Run the project under a virtual Python environment.

   $ mkvirtualenv tutorial
   

   You should see the following similar messages:

   New python executable in tutorial/bin/python
   Installing setuptools............done.
   Installing pip...............done.
   

   You are now under the tutorial virtual Python environment. Use $ deactive to escape it or $ workon tutorial to be under the tutorial virtual Python environment.

2. Set up the tutorial project:

   $ ws
   $ cd personal
   $ mkdir tutorial
   $ cd tutorial
   $ git init
   $ git remote add djbp https://github.com/teracy-official/django-boilerplate.git
   $ git fetch djbp
   $ git merge djbp/master
   $ pip install -r requirements/dev.txt
   $ python manage.py syncdb
   

   When syncdb, you should create a super account to access the admin page later.

   The project https://github.com/teracy-official/django-boilerplate will help you get project development booted with a Django project template (boilerplate) of the best practices.

3. Run the server now:

   $ python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
   

   You should see the following similar messages:

   Validating models...
   
   0 errors found
   July 01, 2013 - 10:44:01
   Django version 1.5.1, using settings 'settings.dev'
   Development server is running at http://0.0.0.0:8000/
   Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
   

4. Open your browser at http://localhost:8000/admin and login with your created super account.

Sweet, everything is cool now! However, the project does not do anything much yet. You need to create Django applications for it.

Starting A Django Application

This section shows you how to create a Django application named hello to display the Hello World! message when accessing http://localhost:8000.

1. Open the browser at http://localhost:8000.

   You will see a 404 error and it is normal.

2. Install an editor for coding. If you have had it, skip this step.

   At Teracy, you are suggested to use Sublime Text. Download and install it on your computer.

3. Open Sublime Text, add workspace/personal/tutorial project by clicking Project -> Add Folder to Project.

   The tutorial project should be opened and you can start coding now.

4. Open two terminal windows:

   Usually, you need two terminal windows:

   • One is used for running the Django project. Open a new terminal window, change the directory to teracy-dev, then $ vagrant ssh.
   • The other one is used for normal commands.

5. Install teracy-django-html5-boilerplate to your project teracy-django-html5-boilerplate is a Django wrapper application that includes html5-boilerplate assets and provides base.html``for starting any web application with ``html5-boilerplate, so you need to install it on your project.

   • Add the following dependency to requirements/project/dev.txt:

     teracy-django-html5-boilerplate==0.3.0
     

   • Install it:

     pip install -r requirements/dev.txt
     

   You should see something like this:

   Installing collected packages: teracy-django-html5-boilerplate
   Running setup.py install for teracy-django-html5-boilerplate
   
       Skipping installation of /home/vagrant/.virtualenvs/tutorial-new/lib/python2.7/site-packages/teracy/__init__.py (namespace package)
       Skipping installation of /home/vagrant/.virtualenvs/tutorial-new/lib/python2.7/site-packages/teracy/__init__.pyc (namespace package)
       Installing /home/vagrant/.virtualenvs/tutorial-new/lib/python2.7/site-packages/teracy_django_html5_boilerplate-0.1.0-py2.7-nspkg.pth
       Successfully installed teracy-django-html5-boilerplate
       Cleaning up...
   

6. Install the teracy-html5boilerplate application to settings/project/dev.py:

   INSTALLED_APPS += (
    'teracy.html5boilerplate',
     )
   

7. Create the hello application

   Note

   A specific Django application should be put under apps directory.

   $ ws
   $ workon tutorial
   $ cd personal/tutorial/apps
   $ python manage.py startapp hello
   

8. Add the hello application to INSTALLED_APPS on settings/project/dev.py by appending the following configuration:

   INSTALLED_APPS += (
       'teracy.html5boilerplate',
       'apps.hello',
   )
   

9. Create the home.html template under the apps/hello/templates/hello directory with the following content:

   {% extends 'html5boilerplate/base.html' %}
   
   {% block body_content %}
       <h1>Hello World!</h1>
       <h2>Welcome to <strong>teracy-dev</strong> - get development fun!</h2>
   {% endblock %}
   

10. Add HomeTemplateView to apps/hello/views.py:

    from django.views.generic import TemplateView
    
    class HomeTemplateView(TemplateView):
        template_name = 'hello/home.html'
    

11. Create apps/hello/urls.py and configure HomeTemplateView with following content:

    from django.conf.urls import url, patterns
    
    from apps.hello.views import HomeTemplateView
    
    
    urlpatterns = patterns(
        '',
        url(r'^$', HomeTemplateView.as_view(), name='hello_home'),
    )
    

12. Configure the root URL on urls/project/dev.py by adding the following content:

    urlpatterns += (
        url(r'', include('apps.hello.urls')),
    )
    

13. Refresh your browser opening http://localhost:8000 and you should see Hello World! page instead of the 404 error page.

Note

During development, the server could be stopped by some errors and it is normal. The server should be started without any error with the command:

$ python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Congratulations, you have just created a Django application and make it work even though it does nothing other than “Hello World!” page. You should now learn Django by developing many more applications for this tutorial project by adapting Django tutorials at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/.