Django 5 By Example E-Book

Antonio Mele

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 922

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

If you want to learn Django by doing, this book is for you.

Django 5 By Example is the fifth edition of the best-selling franchise that helps you build real-world web apps. This book will walk you through planning and creation, solving common problems, and implementing best practices using a step-by-step approach.

You’ll cover a wide range of web application development topics through four different projects: a blog application, a social website, an e-commerce application, and an e-learning platform. Pick up what’s new in Django 5 as you build end-to-end Python web apps, follow detailed project plans, and understand the hows and whys of Django.

This is a practical and approachable book that will have you creating web apps quickly.

Leseprobe

Django 5 By Example

Fifth Edition

Build powerful and reliable Python web applications from scratch

Antonio Melé

Django 5 By Example

Fifth Editon

Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

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Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

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First published: November 2015

Second edition: May 2018

Third edition: March 2020

Fourth edition: August 2022

Fifth edition: April 2024

Production reference: 1250424

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Grosvenor House

11 St Paul’s Square

Birmingham

B3 1RB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80512-545-7

www.packt.com

To my mother, Lola.

Foreword

“Django is a high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.”

This is the description of Django that you find on its website and in its Git repository, and I think it defines it in a concise but complete way.

In the almost 20 years since the first Django release, there have been many new web frameworks that have arisen and grown rapidly, based on Python and other languages, occupying their specific niches and exploiting new technologies.

Despite everything, Django has continued its growth. It has improved its functionality, ensured its stability, and innovated in an iterative but inexorable way, version after version, all the way up to its latest release.

I started using Django from version 1.3, after having used Zope and Plone, and I was immediately impressed by how much it helped me build real-world applications in a fast yet effective way. Over the years, the characteristics of the web applications I have created have changed, but Django has always remained a valid tool for responding to technical challenges.

Over the years, I have tried writing down my experiences of the Django features that I appreciate most, trying to demonstrate them with examples. When I discovered this book, I immediately saw myself in Antonio’s approach, which supplements your discovery of Django with concrete applications that you create along the way.

In addition to the many commonly used Django features, I appreciate how this book presents useful packages, such as Django REST framework and the Django Debug Toolbar, and that there are also examples of using more advanced features, such as full-text search with PostgreSQL (which I’m very fond of) and cache integration with Redis.

Furthermore, in this new edition, you will find many of the new features introduced in Django 5.0, such as database-computed default values, admin facets, and simplified templates for form field rendering.

The projects from the old edition have also been revisited with Python 3.12, updated third-party packages, and updated setup instructions. I found nice additions like explanatory diagrams and advanced DRF functionality.

When I was young, I started learning HTML, trying to edit web pages I visited with a text editor, and I have remained fond of a hands-on approach to learning technologies. I like getting my hands dirty before studying a technology and I like doing it by trying to create something concrete. I recommend this approach to you, too.

This book will take you on a similar journey, in which you will alternate between the study of Django functionalities and their use in concrete examples. Get ready to get your hands dirty!

– Paolo Melchiorre

Python developer / Django contributor

www.paulox.net

Contributors

About the author

Antonio Melé serves as Engineering Director at Backbase, a fintech leader in digital transformation for financial institutions. He joined Backbase in 2023, following its acquisition of Nucoro, a digital wealth management platform that he co-founded.

Antonio has been developing Django projects since 2006 for clients across several industries. In 2009 Antonio founded Zenx IT, a development company specialized in building digital products. He has been working as a CTO and technology consultant for multiple technology-based startups and he has managed development teams building projects for large digital businesses. Antonio holds an MSc in Computer Science from Universidad Pontificia Comillas and completed the Advanced Management Program at MIT Sloan. His father inspired his passion for computers and coding.

I couldn’t have done this without an incredible group of Python enthusiasts and experts who took the time to dive into the early versions of this book. A huge thanks to everyone who reviewed the book and read the beta drafts. Your insights, corrections, and enthusiasm really brought this project to life.

About the reviewer

Mark Walker has previously developed e-learning software in the government and defense sectors. Beginning Django development with a niche offline application, he moved on to develop projects for the world’s biggest running events. He then branched out into DevOps, load testing, and securing applications for penetration testing. In recent years, he has become the technical lead for the Django CMS Association and a Django Software Foundation member. He has also worked for fantasy sports games, shifting from AWS to GCP. Over the years Mark has become a maintainer for several packages and a navigator of the Djangonaut space program, which aims to mentor developers who want to become contributors in the Django ecosystem.

About the beta readers

The following list comprises readers from our beta program who kindly guided the development of this edition through their feedback. We would like to thank the following individuals for their valuable assistance reviewing this edition:

Adewunmi OladeleAshkan Ranjbar BeyranvandAshraf Ibrahim MohamedAttila SebőkChedjou Soffo RocelinEduardo Andrés Muñoz MuñozEmmanuel AidooFlorian BautryGladys García GranadilloHenry UkomahIsmir KullolliKaren StingelMelissa StrongMohammad Ahmad Mohammad AbdelSalamMoustapha DiarraOleg BelovRasa LazovicSafwan Samsudeen Sergio Delgado QuinteroTakahiro KatoYardley Luther Estiverne Estiverne

Join us on Discord!

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https://packt.link/Django5ByExample

Contents

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Share your thoughts

Download a free PDF copy of this book

Building a Blog Application

Installing Python

Creating a Python virtual environment

Installing Django

Installing Django with pip

Django overview

Main framework components

The Django architecture

New features in Django 5

Creating your first project

Applying initial database migrations

Running the development server

Project settings

Projects and applications

Creating an application

Creating the blog data models

Creating the Post model

Adding datetime fields

Defining a default sort order

Adding a database index

Activating the application

Adding a status field

Adding a many-to-one relationship

Creating and applying migrations

Creating an administration site for models

Creating a superuser

The Django administration site

Adding models to the administration site

Customizing how models are displayed

Adding facet counts to filters

Working with QuerySets and managers

Creating objects

Updating objects

Retrieving objects

Filtering objects

Using field lookups

Chaining filters

Excluding objects

Ordering objects

Limiting QuerySets

Counting objects

Checking if an object exists

Deleting objects

Complex lookups with Q objects

When QuerySets are evaluated

More on QuerySets

Creating model managers

Building list and detail views

Creating list and detail views

Using the get_object_or_404 shortcut

Adding URL patterns for your views

Creating templates for your views

Creating a base template

Creating the post list template

Accessing our application

Creating the post detail template

The request/response cycle

Management commands used in this chapter

Summary

Additional resources

Join us on Discord!

Enhancing Your Blog and Adding Social Features

Functional overview

Using canonical URLs for models

Creating SEO-friendly URLs for posts

Modifying the URL patterns

Modifying the views

Modifying the canonical URL for posts

Adding pagination

Adding pagination to the post list view

Creating a pagination template

Handling pagination errors

Building class-based views

Why use class-based views

Using a class-based view to list posts

Recommending posts by email

Creating forms with Django

Handling forms in views

Sending emails with Django

Working with environment variables

Sending emails in views

Rendering forms in templates

Creating a comment system

Creating a model for comments

Adding comments to the administration site

Creating forms from models

Handling ModelForms in views

Creating templates for the comment form

Adding comments to the post detail view

Adding comments to the post detail template

Using simplified templates for form rendering

Summary

Additional resources

Extending Your Blog Application

Functional overview

Implementing tagging with django-taggit

Retrieving posts by similarity

Creating custom template tags and filters

Implementing custom template tags

Creating a simple template tag

Creating an inclusion template tag

Creating a template tag that returns a QuerySet

Implementing custom template filters

Creating a template filter to support Markdown syntax

Adding a sitemap to the site

Creating feeds for blog posts

Adding full-text search to the blog

Installing Docker

Installing PostgreSQL

Dumping the existing data

Switching the database in the project

Loading the data into the new database

Simple search lookups

Searching against multiple fields

Building a search view

Stemming and ranking results

Stemming and removing stop words in different languages

Weighting queries

Searching with trigram similarity

Summary

Expanding your project using AI

Additional resources

Building a Social Website

Functional overview

Creating a social website project

Starting the social website project

Using the Django authentication framework

Creating a login view

Using Django’s built-in authentication views

Login and logout views

Change password views

Reset password views

User registration and user profiles

User registration

Extending the user model

Installing Pillow and serving media files

Creating migrations for the profile model

Using a custom user model

Summary

Additional resources

Join us on Discord!

Implementing Social Authentication

Functional overview

Technical requirements

Using the messages framework

Building a custom authentication backend

Preventing users from using an existing email address

Adding social authentication to your site

Running the development server through HTTPS

Authentication using Google

Creating a profile for users that register with social authentication

Summary

Additional resources

Sharing Content on Your Website

Functional overview

Creating an image bookmarking website

Building the image model

Creating many-to-many relationships

Registering the image model in the administration site

Posting content from other websites

Cleaning form fields

Installing the Requests library

Overriding the save() method of a ModelForm

Building a bookmarklet with JavaScript

Creating a detail view for images

Creating image thumbnails using easy-thumbnails

Adding asynchronous actions with JavaScript

Loading JavaScript on the DOM

Cross-site request forgery for HTTP requests in JavaScript

Performing HTTP requests with JavaScript

Adding infinite scroll pagination to the image list

Summary

Additional resources

Tracking User Actions

Functional overview

Building a follow system

Creating many-to-many relationships with an intermediate model

Creating list and detail views for user profiles

Adding user follow/unfollow actions with JavaScript

Creating an activity stream application

Using the contenttypes framework

Adding generic relations to your models

Avoiding duplicate actions in the activity stream

Adding user actions to the activity stream

Displaying the activity stream

Optimizing QuerySets that involve related objects

Using select_related()

Using prefetch_related()

Creating templates for actions

Using signals for denormalizing counts

Working with signals

Application configuration classes

Using Django Debug Toolbar

Installing Django Debug Toolbar

Django Debug Toolbar panels

Django Debug Toolbar commands

Counting image views with Redis

Installing Redis

Using Redis with Python

Storing image views in Redis

Storing a ranking in Redis

Next steps with Redis

Summary

Expanding your project using AI

Additional resources

Building an Online Shop

Functional overview

Creating an online shop project

Creating product catalog models

Registering catalog models on the administration site

Building catalog views

Creating catalog templates

Building a shopping cart

Using Django sessions

Session settings

Session expiration

Storing shopping carts in sessions

Creating shopping cart views

Adding items to the cart

Building a template to display the cart

Adding products to the cart

Updating product quantities in the cart

Creating a context processor for the current cart

Context processors

Setting the cart in the request context

Registering customer orders

Creating order models

Including order models in the administration site

Creating customer orders

Creating asynchronous tasks

Working with asynchronous tasks

Workers, message queues, and message brokers

Using Django with Celery and RabbitMQ

Monitoring Celery with Flower

Summary

Additional resources

Join us on Discord!

Managing Payments and Orders

Functional overview

Integrating a payment gateway

Creating a Stripe account

Installing the Stripe Python library

Adding Stripe to your project

Building the payment process

Integrating Stripe Checkout

Testing the checkout process

Using test credit cards

Checking the payment information in the Stripe dashboard

Using webhooks to receive payment notifications

Creating a webhook endpoint

Testing webhook notifications

Referencing Stripe payments in orders

Going live

Exporting orders to CSV files

Adding custom actions to the administration site

Extending the administration site with custom views

Generating PDF invoices dynamically

Installing WeasyPrint

Creating a PDF template

Rendering PDF files

Sending PDF files by email

Summary

Additional resources

Extending Your Shop

Functional overview

Creating a coupon system

Building the coupon model

Applying a coupon to the shopping cart

Applying coupons to orders

Creating coupons for Stripe Checkout

Adding coupons to orders on the administration site and to PDF invoices

Building a recommendation engine

Recommending products based on previous purchases

Summary

Additional resources

Adding Internationalization to Your Shop

Functional overview

Internationalization with Django

Internationalization and localization settings

Internationalization management commands

Installing the gettext toolkit

How to add translations to a Django project

How Django determines the current language

Preparing your project for internationalization

Translating Python code

Standard translations

Lazy translations

Translations including variables

Plural forms in translations

Translating your own code

Translating templates

The {% translate %} template tag

The {% blocktranslate %} template tag

Translating the shop templates

Using the Rosetta translation interface

Fuzzy translations

URL patterns for internationalization

Adding a language prefix to URL patterns

Translating URL patterns

Allowing users to switch language

Translating models with django-parler

Installing django-parler

Translating model fields

Integrating translations into the administration site

Creating migrations for model translations

Using translations in QuerySets

Adapting views for translations

Format localization

Using django-localflavor to validate form fields

Expanding your project using AI

Summary

Additional resources

Building an E-Learning Platform

Functional overview

Setting up the e-learning project

Serving media files

Building the course models

Registering the models in the administration site

Using fixtures to provide initial data for models

Creating models for polymorphic content

Using model inheritance

Abstract models

Multi-table model inheritance

Proxy models

Creating the Content models

Creating custom model fields

Adding ordering to Module and Content objects

Adding authentication views

Adding an authentication system

Creating the authentication templates

Summary

Additional resources

Join us on Discord!

Creating a Content Management System

Functional overview

Creating a CMS

Creating class-based views

Using mixins for class-based views

Working with groups and permissions

Restricting access to class-based views

Managing course modules and their contents

Using formsets for course modules

Adding content to course modules

Managing modules and their contents

Reordering modules and their contents

Using mixins from django-braces

Summary

Additional resources

Rendering and Caching Content

Functional overview

Displaying the catalog of courses

Adding student registration

Creating a student registration view

Enrolling in courses

Rendering course contents

Accessing course contents

Rendering different types of content

Using the cache framework

Available cache backends

Installing Memcached

Installing the Memcached Docker image

Installing the Memcached Python binding

Django cache settings

Adding Memcached to your project

Cache levels

Using the low-level cache API

Checking cache requests with Django Debug Toolbar

Low-level caching based on dynamic data

Caching template fragments

Caching views

Using the per-site cache

Using the Redis cache backend

Monitoring Redis with Django Redisboard

Summary

Additional resources

Building an API

Functional overview

Building a RESTful API

Installing Django REST framework

Defining serializers

Understanding parsers and renderers

Building list and detail views

Consuming the API

Extending serializers

Adding additional fields to serializers

Implementing serializer method fields

Adding pagination to views

Building the course serializer

Serializing relations

Creating nested serializers

Creating ViewSets and routers

Building custom API views

Handling authentication

Implementing basic authentication

Adding permissions to views

Adding additional actions to ViewSets

Creating custom permissions

Serializing course contents

Consuming the RESTful API

Summary

Additional resources

Building a Chat Server

Functional overview

Creating a chat application

Implementing the chat room view

Real-time Django with Channels

Asynchronous applications using ASGI

The request/response cycle using Channels

Installing Channels and Daphne

Writing a consumer

Routing

Implementing the WebSocket client

Enabling a channel layer

Channels and groups

Setting up a channel layer with Redis

Updating the consumer to broadcast messages

Adding context to the messages

Modifying the consumer to be fully asynchronous

Persisting messages into the database

Creating a model for chat messages

Adding the message model to the administration site

Storing messages in the database

Displaying the chat history

Integrating the chat application with existing views

Summary

Additional resources

Going Live

Creating a production environment

Managing settings for multiple environments

Local environment settings

Running the local environment

Production environment settings

Using Docker Compose

Installing Docker Compose via Docker Desktop

Creating a Dockerfile

Adding the Python requirements

Creating a Docker Compose file

Configuring the PostgreSQL service

Applying database migrations and creating a superuser

Configuring the Redis service

Serving Django through WSGI and NGINX

Using uWSGI

Configuring uWSGI

Using NGINX

Configuring NGINX

Using a hostname

Serving static and media assets

Collecting static files

Serving static files with NGINX

Securing your site with SSL/TLS

Checking your project for production

Configuring your Django project for SSL/TLS

Creating an SSL/TLS certificate

Configuring NGINX to use SSL/TLS

Redirecting HTTP traffic over to HTTPS

Configuring Daphne for Django Channels

Using secure connections for WebSockets

Including Daphne in the NGINX configuration

Creating a custom middleware

Creating subdomain middleware

Serving multiple subdomains with NGINX

Implementing custom management commands

Summary

Expanding your project using AI

Additional resources

Join us on Discord!

Other Books You May Enjoy

Index

Landmarks

Cover

Index

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1

Building a Blog Application

In this book, you will learn how to build professional-grade web projects using Django. This initial chapter will guide you through the essential building blocks of a Django application, from installation to deployment. If you haven’t set up Django on your machine yet, the Installing Django section will walk you through the installation process.

Before starting our first Django project, let’s go over what you are about to learn. This chapter will give you a general overview of the framework. It will guide you through the different major components to create a fully functional web application: models, templates, views, and URLs. You will gain an understanding of how Django works and how the different framework components interact.

You will also learn the difference between Django projects and applications, and you will learn about the most important Django settings. You will build a simple blog application that allows users to navigate through all published posts and read individual posts. You will also create a simple administration interface to manage and publish posts. In the next two chapters, you will extend the blog application with more advanced functionalities.

Consider this chapter as your roadmap for constructing a fully-fledged Django application. Don’t be concerned if some components or concepts appear unclear at first. The different framework components will be explored in detail throughout this book.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

Installing PythonCreating a Python virtual environmentInstalling DjangoCreating and configuring a Django projectBuilding a Django applicationDesigning data modelsCreating and applying model migrationsSetting up an administration site for your modelsWorking with QuerySets and model managersBuilding views, templates, and URLsUnderstanding the Django request/response cycle

You will start by installing Python on your machine.

The source code for this chapter can be found at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Django-5-by-example/tree/main/Chapter01.

All Python packages used in this chapter are included in the requirements.txt file in the source code for the chapter. You can follow the instructions to install each Python package in the following sections, or you can install all the requirements at once with the command python -m pip install -r requirements.txt.

Installing Python

Django 5.0 supports Python 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12. In the examples in this book, we will use Python 3.12.

If you’re using Linux or macOS, you probably have Python installed. If you’re using Windows, you can download a Python installer from the python.org website. You can download Python for your OS from https://www.python.org/downloads/.

Open the command-line shell prompt of your machine. If you are using macOS, press Command + spacebar to open Spotlight and write Terminal to open Terminal.app. If you are using Windows, open the Start menu and type powers into the search box. Then, click on the Windows PowerShell application to open it. Alternatively, you can use the more basic command prompt by typing cmd into the search box and clicking on the Command Prompt application to open it.

Verify that Python 3 is installed on your machine by typing the following command in the shell prompt:

python3 --version

If you see the following, then Python 3 is installed on your computer:

Python 3.12.3

If you get an error, try the python command instead of python3. If you use Windows, it’s recommended that you replace python with the py command.

If your installed Python version is lower than 3.12, or if Python is not installed on your computer, download Python 3.12 from https://www.python.org/downloads/ and follow the instructions to install it. On the download site, you can find Python installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Throughout this book, when Python is referenced in the shell prompt, we will use the python command, though some systems may require using python3. If you are using Linux or macOS and your system’s Python is Python 2, you will need to use python3 to use the Python 3 version you installed. Note that Python 2 reached end-of-life in January 2020 and shouldn’t be used anymore.

In Windows, python is the Python executable of your default Python installation, whereas py is the Python launcher. The Python launcher for Windows was introduced in Python 3.3. It detects what Python versions are installed on your machine and it automatically delegates to the latest version.

If you use Windows, you should use the py command. You can read more about the Windows Python launcher at https://docs.python.org/3/using/windows.html#launcher.

Next, you are going to create a Python environment for your project and install the necessary Python libraries.

Creating a Python virtual environment

When you write Python applications, you will usually use packages and modules that are not included in the standard Python library. You may have Python applications that require a different version of the same module. However, only a specific version of a module can be installed system-wide. If you upgrade a module version for an application, you might end up breaking other applications that require an older version of that module.

To address this issue, you can use Python virtual environments. With virtual environments, you can install Python modules in an isolated location rather than installing them system-wide. Each virtual environment has its own Python binary and can have its own independent set of installed Python packages in its site-packages directory.

Since version 3.3, Python comes with the venv library, which provides support for creating lightweight virtual environments. By using the Python venv module to create isolated Python environments, you can use different package versions for different projects. Another advantage of using venv is that you won’t need any administrative privileges to install Python packages.

If you are using Linux or macOS, create an isolated environment with the following command:

python -m venv my_env

Remember to use python3 instead of python if your system comes with Python 2 and you installed Python 3.

If you are using Windows, use the following command instead:

py -m venv my_env

This will use the Python launcher in Windows.

The previous command will create a Python environment in a new directory named my_env. Any Python libraries you install while your virtual environment is active will go into the my_env/lib/python3.12/site-packages directory.

If you are using Linux or macOS, run the following command to activate your virtual environment:

source my_env/bin/activate

If you are using Windows, use the following command instead:

.\my_env\Scripts\activate

The shell prompt will include the name of the active virtual environment enclosed in parentheses, like this:

(my_env) zenx@pc:~ zenx$

You can deactivate your environment at any time with the deactivate command. You can find more information about venv at https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html.

Installing Django

If you have already installed Django 5.0, you can skip this section and jump directly to the Creating your first project section.

Django comes as a Python module and thus can be installed in any Python environment. If you haven’t installed Django yet, the following is a quick guide to installing it on your machine.

Installing Django with pip

The pip package management system is the preferred method of installing Django. Python 3.12 comes with pip preinstalled, but you can find pip installation instructions at https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/.

Run the following command at the shell prompt to install Django with pip:

python -m pip install Django~=5.0.4

This will install Django’s latest 5.0 version in the Python site-packages directory of your virtual environment.

Now we will check whether Django has been successfully installed. Run the following command in a shell prompt:

python -m django --version

If you get an output that starts with 5.0, Django has been successfully installed on your machine. If you get the message No module named Django, Django is not installed on your machine. If you have issues installing Django, you can review the different installation options described at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/intro/install/.

All Python packages used in this chapter are included in the requirements.txt file in the source code for the chapter, mentioned above. You can follow the instructions to install each Python package in the following sections, or you can install all requirements at once with the command pip install -r requirements.txt.

Django overview

Django is a framework consisting of a set of components that solve common web development problems. Django components are loosely coupled, which means they can be managed independently. This helps separate the responsibilities of the different layers of the framework; the database layer knows nothing about how the data is displayed, the template system knows nothing about web requests, and so on.

Django offers maximum code reusability by following the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principle. Django also fosters rapid development and allows you to use less code by taking advantage of Python’s dynamic capabilities, such as introspection.

You can read more about Django’s design philosophies at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/misc/design-philosophies/.

Main framework components

Django follows the MTV (Model-Template-View) pattern. It is a slightly similar pattern to the well-known MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern, where the template acts as the view and the framework itself acts as the controller.

The responsibilities in the Django MTV pattern are divided as follows:

Model: This defines the logical data structure and is the data handler between the database and the view.Template: This is the presentation layer. Django uses a plain-text template system that keeps everything that the browser renders.View: This communicates with the database via the model and transfers the data to the template for viewing.

The framework itself acts as the controller. It sends a request to the appropriate view, according to the Django URL configuration.

When developing any Django project, you will always work with models, views, templates, and URLs. In this chapter, you will learn how they fit together.

The Django architecture

Figure 1.1 shows how Django processes requests and how the request/response cycle is managed with the different main Django components – URLs, views, models, and templates:

Figure 1.1: The Django architecture

This is how Django handles HTTP requests and generates responses:

A web browser requests a page by its URL and the web server passes the HTTP request to Django.Django runs through its configured URL patterns and stops at the first one that matches the requested URL.Django executes the view that corresponds to the matched URL pattern.The view potentially uses data models to retrieve information from the database.Data models provide data definitions and behaviors. They are used to query the database.The view renders a template (usually HTML) to display the data and returns it with an HTTP response.

We will get back to the Django request/response cycle at the end of this chapter in the The request/response cycle section.

Django also includes hooks in the request/response process, which are called middleware. Middleware has been intentionally left out of this diagram for the sake of simplicity. You will use middleware in different examples of this book, and you will learn how to create custom middleware in Chapter 17, Going Live.

We have covered the foundational elements of Django and how it processes requests. Let’s explore the new features introduced in Django 5.

New features in Django 5

Django 5 introduces several key features that you will use in the examples of this book. This version also deprecates certain features and eliminates previously deprecated functionalities. Django 5.0 presents the following new major features:

Facet filters in the administration site: Facet filters can be added now to the administration site. When enabled, facet counts are displayed for applied filters in the admin object list. This feature is presented in the Added facet counts to filters section of this chapter.Simplified templates for form field rendering: Form field rendering has been simplified with the capability to define field groups with associated templates. This aims to make the process of rendering related elements of a Django form field, such as labels, widgets, help text, and errors, more streamlined. An example of using field groups can be found in the Creating templates for the comment form section of Chapter 2, Enhancing Your Blog and Adding Social Features.Database-computed default values: Django adds database-computed default values. An example of this feature is presented in the Adding datetime fields section of this chapter.Database-generated model fields: This is a new type of field that enables you to create database-generated columns. An expression is used to automatically set the field value each time the model is changed. The field value is set using the GENERATEDALWAYS SQL syntax.More options for declaring model field choices: Fields that support choices no longer require accessing the .choices attribute to access enumeration types. A mapping or callable instead of an iterable can be used directly to expand enumeration types. Choices with enumeration types in this book have been updated to reflect these changes. An instance of this can be found in the Adding a status field section of this chapter.

Django 5 also comes with some improvements in asynchronous support. Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface (ASGI) support was first introduced in Django 3 and improved in Django 4.1 with asynchronous handlers for class-based views and an asynchronous ORM interface. Django 5 adds asynchronous functions to the authentication framework, provides support for asynchronous signal dispatching, and adds asynchronous support to multiple built-in decorators.

Django 5.0 drops support for Python 3.8 and 3.9.

You can read the complete list of changes in the Django 5.0 release notes at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/releases/5.0/.

As a time-based release, there are no drastic changes in Django 5, making it straightforward to upgrade Django 4 applications to the 5.0 release.

If you want to quickly upgrade an existing Django project to the 5.0 release, you can use the django-upgrade tool. This package rewrites the files of your project by applying fixers up to a target version. You can find instructions to use django-upgrade at https://github.com/adamchainz/django-upgrade.

The django-upgrade tool is inspired by the pyupgrade package. You can use pyupgrade to automatically upgrade syntax for newer versions of Python. You can find more information about pyupgrade at https://github.com/asottile/pyupgrade.

Creating your first project

Your first Django project will consist of a blog application. This will offer you a solid introduction to Django’s capabilities and functionalities.

Blogging is the perfect starting point to build a complete Django project, given its wide range of required features, from basic content management to advanced functionalities like commenting, post sharing, search, and post recommendations. The blog project will be covered in the first three chapters of this book.

In this chapter, we will start by creating the Django project and a Django application for the blog. We will then create our data models and synchronize them to the database. Finally, we will create an administration site for the blog, and we will build the views, templates, and URLs.

Figure 1.2 shows a representation of the blog application pages that you will create:

Figure 1.2: Diagram of functionalities built in Chapter 1

The blog application will consist of a list of posts including the post title, publishing date, author, a post excerpt, and a link to read the post. The post list page will be implemented with the post_list view. You will learn how to create views in this chapter.

When readers click on the link of a post in the post list page, they will be redirected to a single (detail) view of a post. The detail view will display the title, publishing date, author, and the complete post body.

Let’s start by creating the Django project for our blog. Django provides a command that allows you to create an initial project file structure.

Run the following command in your shell prompt:

django-admin startproject mysite

This will create a Django project with the name mysite.

Avoid naming projects after built-in Python or Django modules in order to prevent conflicts.

Let’s take a look at the generated project structure:

mysite/ manage.py mysite/ __init__.py asgi.py settings.py urls.py wsgi.py

The outer mysite/ directory is the container for our project. It contains the following files:

manage.py: This is a command-line utility used to interact with your project. You won’t usually need to edit this file.mysite/: This is the Python package for your project, which consists of the following files:__init__.py: An empty file that tells Python to treat the mysite directory as a Python module.asgi.py: This is the configuration to run your project as an ASGI application with ASGI-compatible web servers. ASGI is the emerging Python standard for asynchronous web servers and applications.settings.py: This indicates settings and configuration for your project and contains initial default settings.urls.py: This is the place where your URL patterns live. Each URL defined here is mapped to a view.wsgi.py: This is the configuration to run your project as a Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) application with WSGI-compatible web servers.

Applying initial database migrations

Django applications require a database to store data. The settings.py file contains the database configuration for your project in the DATABASES setting. The default configuration is a SQLite3 database. SQLite comes bundled with Python 3 and can be used in any of your Python applications. SQLite is a lightweight database that you can use with Django for development. If you plan to deploy your application in a production environment, you should use a full-featured database, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle. You can find more information about how to get your database running with Django at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/topics/install/#database-installation.

Your settings.py file also includes a list named INSTALLED_APPS that contains common Django applications that are added to your project by default. We will go through these applications later in the Project settings section.

Django applications contain data models that are mapped to database tables. You will create your own models in the Creating the blog data models section. To complete the project setup, you need to create the tables associated with the models of the default Django applications included in the INSTALLED_APPS setting. Django comes with a system that helps you manage database migrations.

Open the shell prompt and run the following commands:

cd mysite python manage.py migrate

You will see an output that ends with the following lines:

Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK Applying auth.0001_initial... OK Applying admin.0001_initial... OK Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK Applying admin.0003_logentry_add_action_flag_choices... OK Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length... OK Applying auth.0009_alter_user_last_name_max_length... OK Applying auth.0010_alter_group_name_max_length... OK Applying auth.0011_update_proxy_permissions... OK Applying auth.0012_alter_user_first_name_max_length... OK Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK

The preceding lines are the database migrations that are applied by Django. By applying the initial migrations, the tables for the applications listed in the INSTALLED_APPS setting are created in the database.

You will learn more about the migrate management command in the Creating and applying migrations section of this chapter.

Running the development server

Django comes with a lightweight web server to run your code quickly, without needing to spend time configuring a production server. When you run the Django development server, it keeps checking for changes in your code. It reloads automatically, freeing you from manually reloading it after code changes. However, it might not notice some actions, such as adding new files to your project, so you will have to restart the server manually in these cases.

Start the development server by typing the following command in the shell prompt:

python manage.py runserver

You should see something like this:

Watching for file changes with StatReloader Performing system checks... System check identified no issues (0 silenced). January 01, 2024 - 10:00:00 Django version 5.0, using settings 'mysite.settings' Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

Now, open http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser. You should see a page stating that the project is successfully running, as shown in Figure 1.3:

Figure 1.3: The default page of the Django development server

The preceding screenshot indicates that Django is running. If you take a look at your console, you will see the GET request performed by your browser:

[01/Jan/2024 10:00:15] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 16351

Each HTTP request is logged in the console by the development server. Any error that occurs while running the development server will also appear in the console.

You can run the Django development server on a custom host and port or tell Django to load a specific settings file, as follows:

python manage.py runserver 127.0.0.1:8001 --settings=mysite.settings

When you have to deal with multiple environments that require different configurations, you can create a different settings file for each environment.

This server is only intended for development and is not suitable for production use. To deploy Django in a production environment, you should run it as a WSGI application using a web server, such as Apache, Gunicorn, or uWSGI, or as an ASGI application using a server such as Daphne or Uvicorn. You can find more information on how to deploy Django with different web servers at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/howto/deployment/wsgi/.

Chapter 17, Going Live, explains how to set up a production environment for your Django projects.

Project settings

Let’s open the settings.py file and take a look at the configuration of the project. There are several settings that Django includes in this file, but these are only part of all the available Django settings. You can see all the settings and their default values at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/settings/.

Let’s review some of the project settings:

DEBUG is a Boolean that turns the debug mode of the project on and off. If it is set to True, Django will display detailed error pages when an uncaught exception is thrown by your application. When you move to a production environment, remember that you have to set it to False. Never deploy a site into production with DEBUG turned on because you will expose sensitive project-related data.ALLOWED_HOSTS is not applied while debug mode is on or when the tests are run. Once you move your site to production and set DEBUG to False, you will have to add your domain/host to this setting to allow it to serve your Django site.INSTALLED_APPS is a setting you will have to edit for all projects. This setting tells Django which applications are active for this site. By default, Django includes the following applications:django.contrib.admin: An administration site.django.contrib.auth: An authentication framework.django.contrib.contenttypes: A framework for handling content types.django.contrib.sessions: A session framework.django.contrib.messages: A messaging framework.django.contrib.staticfiles: A framework for managing static files, such as CSS, JavaScript files, and images.MIDDLEWARE is a list that contains middleware to be executed.ROOT_URLCONF indicates the Python module where the root URL patterns of your application are defined.DATABASES is a dictionary that contains the settings for all the databases to be used in the project. There must always be a default database. The default configuration uses a SQLite3 database.LANGUAGE_CODE defines the default language code for this Django site.USE_TZ tells Django to activate/deactivate timezone support. Django comes with support for timezone-aware datetimes. This setting is set to True when you create a new project using the startproject management command.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand much about what you’re seeing here. You will learn more about the different Django settings in the following chapters.

Projects and applications

Throughout this book, you will encounter the terms project and application over and over. In Django, a project is considered a Django installation with some settings. An application is a group of models, views, templates, and URLs. Applications interact with the framework to provide specific functionalities and may be reused in various projects. You can think of a project as your website, which contains several applications, such as a blog, wiki, or forum, that can also be used by other Django projects.

Figure 1.4 shows the structure of a Django project:

Figure 1.4: The Django project/application structure

Creating an application

Let’s create our first Django application. We will build a blog application from scratch.

Run the following command in the shell prompt from the project’s root directory:

python manage.py startapp blog

This will create the basic structure of the application, which will look like this:

blog/ __init__.py admin.py apps.py migrations/ __init__.py models.py tests.py views.py

These files are as follows:

__init__.py: This is an empty file that tells Python to treat the blog directory as a Python module.admin.py: This is where you register models to include them in the Django administration site—using this site is optional.apps.py: This includes the main configuration of the blog application.migrations: This directory will contain database migrations of the application. Migrations allow Django to track your model changes and synchronize the database accordingly. This directory contains an empty __init__.py file.models.py: This includes the data models of your application; all Django applications need to have a models.py file but it can be left empty.tests.py: This is where you can add tests for your application.views.py: The logic of your application goes here; each view receives an HTTP request, processes it, and returns a response.

With the application structure ready, we can start building the data models for the blog.

Creating the blog data models

Remember that a Python object is a collection of data and methods. Classes are the blueprint for bundling data and functionality together. Creating a new class creates a new type of object, allowing you to create instances of that type.