This is the code for the O'Reilly Video - Intro to Django presented by Arianne Dee.

You can download a PDF of the slides here.

1. Install Python 3.11
2. Check that Python was installed properly
3. Choose an IDE
4. Download the code
5. Create a virtual environment
6. Install Django

Feel free to email me at arianne.dee.studios@gmail.com if you are having any problems getting set up for the course.

This course uses Python 3.11, but Python 3.8 and higher should work.

The course uses Django 4.2, so check which Python versions are compatible with Django 4.2 here.

1. Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/
2. Click the yellow button at the top to download the latest version of Python.

Follow the prompts and install using the default settings.

The default settings don't add Python to your PATH so your computer doesn't know where to look for it when Python runs (for some inexplicable reason).

Follow the instructions here: Windows Python installer instructions

Follow the instructions here: Add Python to PATH variable in Windows

1. Open the PowerShell application in Windows or Terminal on Mac or Linux

2. Type python --version and press enter

3. Type python3 --version and press enter

4. Type py --version and press enter

At least one of those commands should print a Python version of 3.8 or higher (whichever version you just installed). If it doesn't, you have to follow instructions to add Python to your PATH variable.

PyCharm or VS Code are recommended.

For Django development, I recommend using PyCharm Professional Edition (paid). There is a 30-day free trial if you would like to try it out.

In the video I use the free PyCharm Community Edition, which is sufficient.

Download either version here: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/

Install, open, and use the default settings.

Clone the repository.

1. Click the green "Code" button at the top-right of the page
2. Click "Download ZIP"
3. Unzip it and move the intro-to-django-main folder to a convenient location

1. In your console, navigate to the project folder (if you open the project in PyCharm or VSCode, the Terminal pane should already be located there)
2. Using the python command from step 2, create a virtual environment python -m venv django_venv or python3 -m venv django_venv
3. Activate your virtual environment
   • Mac/Linux: source django_venv/bin/activate
   • PowerShell: django_venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

If you are new to virtual environments, please watch this video lesson

Once your virtual environment has been activated, install Django 3 using pip:

• pip install django to install the latest version of Django

OR

• pip install "django>=4.2,<5" to install the latest Django 4.2 version (once version 5+ is released)

No. Django 3+, does not support Python 2 or Python < 3.6.

On a Mac:

• Go to PyCharm > Preferences

On a PC:

• Go to File > Settings

Once in Settings:

1. Go to Project: intro-to-django > Project Interpreter
2. Look for your Python version in the Project Interpreter dropdown
3. If it's not there, click gear icon > Add...
4. In the new window, select System Interpreter on the left, and then look for the Python version in the dropdown
5. If it's not there, click the ... button and navigate to your Python location
   • To find where Python is located, look in these directories
   • You may have to search the internet for where Python gets installed by default on your operating system

Here are some links to configure your Django project in the following IDEs

• PyCharm Professional

  • My IDE of choice for working in Django

• PyCharm Community

• VS Code

1. Navigate into the trivia_site folder
2. Create a virtual environment with Python 3.8+
3. Activate your virtual environment
4. $ pip install --upgrade pip to upgrade pip
5. $ pip install -r requirements/local.txt to install local requirements
6. $ python manage.py migrate to migrate your database
7. $ python manage.py createsuperuser and follow instructions
8. $ python manage.py loaddata questions to add seed data
9. $ python manage.py runserver to run the development server

Live website at https://trivia-ariannedee.pythonanywhere.com/.

Hosted on Python Anywhere using Python 3.10 and MySQL 5.7.

To get a copy in production on your own server:

1. Set up a server environment with Python 3.8 or higher and a database (Postgres or MySQL preferred)
2. Fork this project or create a copy of the trivia_site folder in your own repository and clone into your sever Note: The next few steps may differ depending on what kind of server/service you are using. Follow a Django setup tutorial if you can find one.
3. Create and activate a virtual environment if desired
4. Set the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable to trivia_project.settings.production
   • $ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=trivia_project.settings.local on Linux
   • On PythonAnywhere, edit the WSGI configuration file with os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'trivia_project.settings.production'
   • This makes sure running manage.py uses the right settings file
5. Configure the server to use WSGI (instead of python manage.py runserver)
   • Point to trivia_project.wsgi.application or configure a wsgi.py file on the server (follow tutorial instructions)
6. Set up your secrets in a .env file
   • Duplicate .env.example and save it as .env
   • Fill in the DJANGO_SECRET_KEY field with a random string of 50+ characters
   • Fill in the DB_PASSWORD field
   • Email fields are only used for the forgot password feature. If you want to get it working, the easiest is to create a new Gmail address and create an app password for it and use that for EMAIL_PASSWORD
7. Edit trivia_site/trivia_project/settings/production.py
   • Update ALLOWED_HOSTS to use your server address(es)
   • Edit your database settings (except password)
8. Edit trivia_site/requirements/production.txt to use the correct package for your database
   • Use a different mysqlclient if necessary, or psycopg or psycopg2 if using Postgres (or other package if using a different DB)
   • This might be trial and error. You can pip install it, try to get it working, then update the requirements file with the pinned version
9. Install the requirements $ pip install -r requirements/production.txt
10. Run/reload the server and see if it works, troubleshoot if necessary

• You may need to do more configuration to properly serve your static and media files. Look for a tutorial for your cloud provider or server type.
• If you cannot serve media files from the same server, use Amazon S3

11. Migrate the database by running python manage.py migrate
12. If that works, commit any code changes you made.
13. $ python manage.py createsuperuser and follow instructions
14. $ python manage.py loaddata questions to add seed data
15. $ python manage.py collectstatic to collect the static files into staticfiles/ (run this every time your static files change)

Please let me know if you have any suggestions/updates/questions about these instructions.

Email me at
arianne.dee.studios@gmail.com or submit an issue or pull request to this repository.