Introduction to Django - potatoscript/django GitHub Wiki

🎓 What is Django?

🧠 Think of Django as a robot friend that helps you build websites quickly and safely.
💡 It handles boring things like login, databases, and pages — so you can focus on making cool features.

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🏗️ Django is a Framework

A framework is like a Lego instruction book 🧱
It shows you how to build your project, step-by-step, with tools and shortcuts.

🧩 Without Django	🧰 With Django
You build everything from scratch.	Django gives you built-in blocks (admin panel, login system, database)
You write your own security code.	Django protects you by default.
It takes a long time.	You build websites super fast.

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✨ What Can Django Do?

✅ Build Blogs 📝
✅ Build Todo Lists 🧾
✅ Make Online Stores 🛒
✅ Create Login Systems 🔐
✅ Show Maps, Charts, and Dashboards 📊🗺️

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⚙️ How Django Works – Big Picture

Let’s imagine Django is a pizza shop 🍕

1. User places an order 🧑‍🍳 (User opens your website and types a link)
2. Django reads the order 📄 (URL is matched with a view)
3. Chef (view) prepares it 🍳 (Python function creates a response)
4. Plate (template) styles it 🍽️ (HTML + CSS formats it)
5. Pizza (webpage) is served 🍕 (Page is sent back to the user)

🎨 Here's a simple diagram:

Browser ➡️ URL ➡️ View ➡️ Template ➡️ Browser

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🚀 Why Use Django?

❤️ Benefit	🎯 Description
🔐 Secure	Prevents hacking with built-in safety tools
⚡ Fast	You can build a web app in days
🔌 Full-featured	Login system, admin dashboard, and database all included
📚 Well-documented	Tons of tutorials and help online
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Big community	Many developers use Django worldwide

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📦 Prerequisites (What You Need)

• ✅ Python 3 installed 🐍
• ✅ A Code Editor (like VS Code) 💻
• ✅ Internet connection 🌐
• ✅ Willing to learn and play with code 🧠🎮

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🛠️ Step-by-Step: Installing Django

Let’s build your first Django project together! 🎉

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🌱 Step 1: Install Python

🖥️ Go to https://www.python.org/downloads
Download the latest version and install it.

✅ Check it's working:

python --version

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🧪 Step 2: Create a Virtual Environment

A virtual environment is like a tiny Python world for your project 🌍

python -m venv myenv

Activate it:

• 🪟 Windows:

  myenv\Scripts\activate
  

• 🍏 Mac/Linux:

  source myenv/bin/activate
  

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📦 Step 3: Install Django

pip install django

✅ Check Django installed:

django-admin --version

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🧱 Step 4: Create a New Project

Let’s name our project "mysite" 🏗️

django-admin startproject mysite
cd mysite

Inside you’ll see:

File	What it does
manage.py	Your magic remote to control Django 🔮
settings.py	Where you set your website rules 🔧
urls.py	Map website links to views 🌐

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🔥 Step 5: Run the Development Server

python manage.py runserver

📡 Now open your browser and go to:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/

🎉 You’ll see Django’s “It worked!” rocket page 🚀

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📋 Step 6: Make Your First App

Apps are like little machines inside Django ⚙️

python manage.py startapp hello

Your folder structure grows:

mysite/
├── hello/
│   ├── views.py ← you write what to show here
│   └── urls.py  ← (you make this file soon)

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🧠 Step 7: Create Your First Page

Inside hello/views.py:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello world! 🌍")

Then make hello/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.home),
]

Now connect it to the main urls.py in mysite/urls.py:

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

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('hello.urls')),  # 👈 Connect the app!
]

✅ Refresh the browser → You’ll see "Hello world! 🌍"

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