Installing Django and Setting Up

OS: Windows 11 Pro 64bit

Prerequisites

Python
https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
Install pyenv if you want to use multiple python versions for your projects.

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
PyCharm, VS Code, Vim

Package manager
pip/conda(for Anaconda/Miniconda environment)

My choices are python 3.10, VS Code and pip. Although, I will use pipenv for Django web application development, because I also need to setup virtual environment. Of course, the built-in python module venv is also an option here.

Pipenv

https://pypi.org/project/pipenv/

Install globally

pip install pipenv

Change the directory according to the project path

cd <the_path_of_your_project_directory>

The installation command creates the Pipfile and Pipfile.lock with the dependencies and version infos.

pipenv install  <dependencies>  

Activate the virtual environment

pipenv shell

Venv

https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html

Alternativelly, you can use venv to setup virtual enviroment.

The command below crates a .venv directory in the project path (Always be sure you are in the project path!)

python -m venv .venv

Activate the virtual environment

.venv/Scripts/activate

Install the dependencies if you already have a file containing the required packages and modules

pip install -r requirements.txt

Django installation

Installing actual version. Be sure you are in the project directory!

pipenv install django

If you want to install a specific version of Django, just use the version number

pipenv install django==5.0.1

You can use >, <, <= or >= to specify the version

Setting up Django

Create Project

django-admin startproject config .

This command creates a Django project in the current directory and a config subdirectory inside it with the files settings.py urls.py asgi.py wsgi.py.

Check if the project works well on localhost

python manage.py runserver

You should see a django „congratulations” page in the browser at: http://127.0.0.1:8000/ or http://localhost:8000/

Create helloworld app

python manage.py startapp helloworld 

Add the app name ‘helloworld’ to the INSTALLED_APPS.

# config/settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'helloworld',
]

Add the helloworld/urls to the config/urls.

# config/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),

    # helloworld app
    path("", include("helloworld.urls")),

]

Create helloworld view in the views.py.

# helloworld/views.py

from django.http import HttpResponse

def home_page_view(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello World!")

Create urls.py in the helloworld app’s directory.

# helloworld/urls.py

from .views import home_page_view
from django.urls import path

urlpatterns = [
    path('', home_page_view, name="home"),

]

Run the app on localhost!

python manage.py runserver

You should see a django “Hello World” on a white page at: http://127.0.0.1:8000/ or http://localhost:8000/

We walked through the installation and setup of a basic Django application, providing users with all the necessary steps to get started. If you don’t want to implement a custom user model or change your database from the default SQLite3 to PostgreSQL, you can migrate the data with the command python manage.py migrate. Otherwise, make sure to read the points below.

Setting up Database

You can make a decision to continue the default light-weight database engine sqlite3 or chose a larger one such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle.

My choice is PostgreSQL.

If your choice is the same, then you should make the next steps:

Download & install postgres

Download installer of the appropriate PostgreSQL version (windows x86-64 e.g.) from the enterprisedb site: https://www.enterprisedb.com/downloads/postgres-postgresql-downloads. EDB installer is recommended by Postgres: https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/

Add c:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\16\bin\ or your custom path to the system enviroment variables.

Create database locally

psql -U postgres 

Postgres asks for the password here.

Password for user postgres:

Create database for the project

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE <db_name> WITH OWNER postgres; 

Check the existing databases

postgres=# \l 

Quit Postgres

postgres=# \q 

Install psycopg2-binary & dj-database-url.

pipenv install psycopg2-binary dj-database-url

You have to set the environment variables for the database! My choice for this purpose is environs.

pipenv install environs

The env file in the project directory should look something like this.

# .env

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:<password>@localhost:5432/<db_name>
SSL_REQUIRE=False

config/settings.py

import dj_database_url
from environs import Env

env = Env()
env.read_env()

# ...

# DB configured in .env file /DATABASE_URL/ -> dj_database_url.config() returns a dictionary
db_config = dj_database_url.config(conn_max_age=600, ssl_require=env.bool('SSL_REQUIRE', default=True))
DATABASES = {'default': db_config}

Finally, you can migrate the data into the database, but WARNING! Before you go any further, it is worth considering the following: Custom user model

python manage.py migrate