How to Create a Django App – Step by Step Guide

How to Create a Django App – Step by Step Guide

Django is a powerful and popular Python-based web framework that allows developers to build web applications quickly and efficiently. Whether you're building a blog, an e-commerce site, or a full-featured web application, Django provides the tools you need to get started. In this article, we will walk through the process of creating a Django app step by step.

Step 1: Install Django

Before creating a Django app, you need to install Django in your Python environment. You can do this using pip:

pip install django

You can verify the installation by checking the Django version:

django-admin --version

Step 2: Create a Django Project

A Django project is a collection of settings and configurations for your website. You can create a new project using the following command:

django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject

This command creates a myproject directory with essential files like settings.py, urls.py, and more.

Step 3: Create a Django App

An app in Django is a component that performs a specific task (like handling blog posts, user profiles, etc.). To create one:

python manage.py startapp myapp

This creates a new directory called myapp with files such as views.py, models.py, admin.py, and more. (https://bigsansar.com/blog/learn-django/understanding-python-files-in-a-django-app-full-gu)

Step 4: Register the App

To let Django know about your app, open myproject/settings.py and add 'myapp' to the INSTALLED_APPS list:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'myapp',
]

Step 5: Create a Simple View

Edit the views.py file inside your app and define a simple view:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello, this is my first Django app!")

Step 6: Configure URLs

Create a urls.py file in the myapp folder (if it doesn't already exist) and add:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

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

Now, include this in your project’s urls.py file located in the myproject folder:

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

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

Step 7: Run the Development Server

Start the server using the following command:

python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser, and you should see the message from your home view.

Conclusion

Creating a Django app is simple once you understand the structure and process. With your app up and running, you can begin building models, templates, forms, and more to develop a fully-featured website or web application. Django’s modular structure makes it easy to scale and manage even the most complex projects.