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Module 10 / Project 01 — Django Setup

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Focus

Creating a Django project from scratch: startproject, startapp, models, admin, migrations, and runserver.

Why this project exists

Every Django application starts the same way: you run startproject, then startapp, define models, create migrations, and start the development server. This project walks you through that process step by step. Instead of running Django commands blindly, you will use a guided setup script that creates the project structure and explains every generated file along the way.

Understanding the file structure Django creates is essential. Each file has a specific purpose, and knowing what goes where will save you hours of confusion later.

Run

cd projects/modules/10-django-fullstack/01-django-setup
python setup_guide.py

The script creates a Django project and app, then prints an explanation of every file it generated. After running it, explore the created directory structure.

To verify the generated project works:

cd demo_project
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runserver

Then open your browser to:

  • http://127.0.0.1:8000 — Django welcome page
  • http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin — Django admin interface (log in with the superuser you created)

Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Expected output

Running setup_guide.py prints explanations like:

=== Django Project Setup Guide ===

[1/6] Creating project directory: demo_project/
  Created: demo_project/manage.py
    -> The command-line entry point for your Django project.
       Run migrations, start the server, create apps — all through manage.py.

  Created: demo_project/demo_project/settings.py
    -> The central configuration file. Database settings, installed apps,
       middleware, templates, and more are all configured here.
...

Running python manage.py migrate applies Django's built-in database tables:

Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  ...

Alter it

  1. Open setup_guide.py and add a new model field to the Item model (e.g., description = models.TextField(blank=True)). Re-run the script and verify the field appears.
  2. Add a second model called Category with a name field. Add a ForeignKey from Item to Category.
  3. Modify the script to also generate an admin.py that registers both models.

Break it

  1. In the generated settings.py, remove 'django.contrib.admin' from INSTALLED_APPS. Try visiting /admin. What happens?
  2. In the generated model, change models.CharField(max_length=200) to models.CharField() (remove max_length). Try running makemigrations. What error do you get?
  3. Delete the generated migrations/ directory and try running migrate. What happens?

Fix it

  1. Add 'django.contrib.admin' back to INSTALLED_APPS. The admin interface requires this app.
  2. Add max_length=200 back. CharField requires a max_length argument. If you want unlimited text, use TextField instead.
  3. Run makemigrations first to regenerate the migration files, then migrate. Django needs migration files to know what database changes to make.

Explain it

  1. What is the difference between a Django "project" and a Django "app"? Why does Django separate them?
  2. What does manage.py do? How is it different from django-admin?
  3. What are migrations? Why doesn't Django just read your models and create tables directly?
  4. What does INSTALLED_APPS control? What happens if you define a model in an app that is not listed there?

Mastery check

You can move on when you can:

  • explain every file in a new Django project without looking at the guide,
  • create a model, make migrations, and apply them from memory,
  • access the admin interface and add/edit objects,
  • describe what settings.py controls and find any setting by name.

Next

Continue to 02-views-templates.