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Django for Beginners

From setting up your environment through models and the ORM, the admin site, forms, authentication, testing and a REST API, all the way to deploying to production. Twenty lessons that build one blog app from the first line to the last. Every piece of code and command output was produced by actually running Django 6.0.

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Curriculum

The 20 lessons are grouped into five chapters. Working through them in order is the best way, but you are welcome to dip into whatever interests you. Note: Django cannot run inside the browser, so try everything in the virtual environment you create in lesson 1.

Chapter 1 — Getting started and rendering pages (lessons 1–5)

From preparing a virtual environment through how projects and apps divide up, URLs and views, and template inheritance. By the end of this chapter you can render your own pages with a shared layout and CSS.

The shape of Django and setting up

Creating a virtual environment, installing Django and starting a project. Getting to where you can read the runserver output.

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Projects, apps and settings.py

Creating the blog app and registering it in INSTALLED_APPS. Switching to Japanese and Japan time, and building a map of settings.py.

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Views and URL routing

Understanding the two-stage mechanism in urls.py and rendering your first page from a view function. Taking values out of the URL.

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Template basics

Returning HTML with render() and writing variables, if, for and filters. How to track down a TemplateDoesNotExist.

Template inheritance and static files

Gathering the shared parts into base.html and loading CSS. Including how to work through it when the CSS has no effect.

Chapter 2 — Models and the database (lessons 6–9)

You write models — the blueprints for your tables — and move data in and out through the ORM. You make the admin site genuinely usable, and go as far as relationships between models such as posts and categories.

Models and migrations

Defining tables with models. Confirming the difference between makemigrations and migrate from the SQL each one generates.

ORM basics

Trying create, read, filter, update and delete in the shell. Understanding the difference between get() and filter(), and lazy evaluation.

Customising the admin site

Getting into the admin with createsuperuser and making it genuinely usable with list_display, search, filters and bulk actions.

Model relationships

Linking models with ForeignKey and ManyToManyField. How to choose an on_delete, and the N+1 problem.

Chapter 3 — Building CRUD (lessons 10–13)

Starting with list and detail views, then accepting input through forms and completing create, edit and delete. You finish by rewriting the same features as class-based views to see exactly what is being done for you.

List and detail pages

The pattern you write most in any web app. Returning a 404 with get_object_or_404 and centralising URLs with get_absolute_url.

Form basics and CSRF

When to use GET and when POST, is_valid() and cleaned_data, and what csrf_token is actually doing.

Completing CRUD with ModelForm

Implementing create, edit and delete with a form tied to the model. Where instance and save(commit=False) fit.

Class-based views

Rewriting the CRUD with ListView, DetailView and CreateView. What is decided for you, and what you must always override.

Chapter 4 — Authentication and real features (lessons 14–17)

You add sign-in, registration and access control, and work with a custom user model and permissions. Pagination, search and image uploads turn it into a blog that stands up to real use.

User authentication

One include of django.contrib.auth gives you sign-in, sign-out and registration. Sign-out is a POST.

Custom user models and permissions

Adding fields to the user with AbstractUser. Why doing it later means rebuilding the database, plus permissions and groups.

Pagination and search

paginate_by and Q objects. Fixing the problem of the search losing its query on page two, with a template tag.

Uploading images and files

The three pieces of media configuration. Working out why a file saves but does not display, and why an image vanishes with no error at all.

Chapter 5 — Quality and going live (lessons 18–20)

You write tests so you find out when something breaks, and add an API that returns the same data as JSON. Finally you clear the pre-deployment warnings one by one until the site is ready for production.

Writing Django tests

Sending real requests with self.client. Access control tests must block both GET and POST.

Getting started with Django REST Framework

A serializer is a ModelForm for APIs. ViewSet and Router grow six endpoints in one go.

Deploying and going live

Clearing the six check --deploy warnings one at a time. Forget collectstatic and the admin site falls apart.

Once you have finished all 20 lessons, learn about Linux — the server your app will live on. Membership unlocks every course.