Django Basics : Part-2

‘M happy to be back to  you all.

So, this post will help you setup your first django web app and will also fill in details and notes on how many of its small components work and interact. I have just explained the basic components in my previous post which is the first part without any hint of python-django code. Let me do that this time and get you acclimatized to the things that may go wrong often as well, apart from the things that will go right! This part 2 tutorial will comprise a few defined set of steps.
Before we begin I want you to refer this tutorial if you want to know anything about writing your first django app beyond this tutorial please visit : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/intro/tutorial01/
Also, I assume that you have python 2.7 installed in your machine as this tutorial will be on django 1.9x and python 2.7. this tutorial should work on both Windows and Unix based systems, including Mac, though the directory structure is assumed to be of Mac. One can use it in Windows by making slight changes to the tutorial’s instructions.

So, let’s begin…

To know how to install pip please refer my tutorial on installing pip. All the commands below are to be executed in the terminal.

Install django

$pip install django

 

Check if Installation is successful

$python
>>>import django
>>>print django.get_version()

This will tell you the version of django that you just installed. If you did not install it properly you will see error messages in executing the first or the second function.
When done, type :

>>exit()
or
>>>ctrl + D

to exit from the python prompt

 

Create your project directory and ‘cd’ to it

$cd ~/Desktop/
$mkdir djangoTutorialStuff
$cd djangoTutorialStuff

 

Make a django project

$django-admin startproject musicStore 

Check if it worked and you may want to check the directory structure too.
$cd musicStore

You’re gonna see two things inside the project. A manage.py file and a musicStore directory. The manage.py is the principle python file governing the whole project. Anything you want to do with the project goes like python manage.py <your_command>.

Confirm if the musicStore directory has the following files : 

__init__.py  – Tells that this directory is a django directory
settings.py  – Contains the overall settings of the whole django project (musicStore)
urls.py  – Contains the root url configurations for the musicStore project
wsgi.py  – contains the application callable which the application server uses to communicate with your code

As of now, only the project has been setup without any setting changes.
Next you have to create app(s) of your choices to actually do something of its own. These apps are pluggable django entities that can also be used by other projects like musicStore does.  Apps will be created in the next tutorial – Part 3 !

Confirm if project setup works 

$cd ~/Desktop/musicStore
$python manage.py runserver

Verify if the following output shows up :

Performing system checks…
System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
You have unapplied migrations; your app may not work properly until they are applied.
Run ‘python manage.py migrate’ to apply them.
February 29, 2016 – 15:48:41
Django version 1.9.1, using settings ‘musicStore.settings’
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

Now visit : http://127.0.0.1:8000/

If django welcome page shows up you’re good to go. If not, please leave a comment.