Django is a “batteries-included” web framework — it ships with an ORM, admin panel, authentication, form handling, and more out of the box.

Installation 

  python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install django
django-admin --version

Create a Project 

  django-admin startproject mysite
cd mysite
python manage.py startapp blog

Project structure:

  mysite/
├── manage.py
├── mysite/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py
└── blog/
    ├── models.py
    ├── views.py
    ├── urls.py
    └── admin.py

Register Your App

Add 'blog' to INSTALLED_APPS in mysite/settings.py:

  INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'blog',
]

Your First View 

  # blog/views.py
from django.http import HttpResponse

def index(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello, Django!")

Wire it up in URLs:

  # blog/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index, name='index'),
]
  
  # mysite/urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

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

Run the Development Server 

  python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/blog/ — you should see “Hello, Django!”

Django Admin

Create a superuser to access the built-in admin panel:

  python manage.py createsuperuser

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ and log in.

Key Concepts

  • Project — the overall site configuration (mysite/)
  • App — a modular component (blog/) that does one thing well
  • manage.py — CLI tool for running commands
  • settings.py — central configuration (database, apps, middleware)

Next: Models & Database — define data structures and interact with the database.

Settings Overview

Key sections in mysite/settings.py:

  # Debug — NEVER leave True in production
DEBUG = True

# Hosts allowed to serve the site
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["127.0.0.1", "localhost"]

# Database — SQLite by default (good for development)
DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
        "NAME": BASE_DIR / "db.sqlite3",
    }
}

# Static files (CSS, JS, images)
STATIC_URL = "static/"

Use environment variables for secrets in production:

  import os
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get("DJANGO_SECRET_KEY", "dev-only-key")
DEBUG = os.environ.get("DEBUG", "False") == "True"

Templates — Dynamic HTML

Replace plain HttpResponse with templates:

  # blog/views.py
from django.shortcuts import render

def index(request):
    posts = [
        {"title": "First Post", "body": "Hello, world!"},
        {"title": "Second Post", "body": "Django is great."},
    ]
    return render(request, "blog/index.html", {"posts": posts})

Create blog/templates/blog/index.html:

  <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>My Blog</title></head>
<body>
  <h1>Blog Posts</h1>
  {% for post in posts %}
    <article>
      <h2>{{ post.title }}</h2>
      <p>{{ post.body }}</p>
    </article>
  {% endfor %}
</body>
</html>

Django auto-discovers templates in each app’s templates/ folder.

Django Request Flow 

  Browser → urls.py → view function → (model/query) → template → HTML response

Every request passes through middleware (security, sessions, auth) before reaching your view.

Common manage.py Commands

Command Purpose
runserver Start development server
migrate Apply database migrations
makemigrations Generate migrations from model changes
createsuperuser Create admin login
shell Interactive Python shell with Django loaded
test Run test suite 
  python manage.py shell
>>> from django.contrib.auth.models import User
>>> User.objects.count()

Project vs App — When to Split

Create a new app when… Keep in same app when…
Feature is logically separate (blog, shop, users) It’s a few related views
You might reuse it across projects It’s tightly coupled to one feature
Team members work on it independently Prototype / learning project

Start with one app; split when complexity grows.

Next Steps

  1. Models & Database — define Post and Category models
  2. Views & Templates — class-based views and forms
  3. Django Blog Project — full application walkthrough