Where to get help:

If you’re having trouble going through this tutorial, please post a messagetodjango-users or drop by#django on irc.freenode.net to chat with other Django users who mightbe able to help.

Creating a project¶

If this is your first time using Django, you’ll have to take care of someinitial setup. Namely, you’ll need to auto-generate some code that establishes aDjangoproject – a collection of settings for an instance of Django,including database configuration, Django-specific options andapplication-specific settings.

From the command line,cd into a directory where you’d like to store yourcode, then run the following command:

$ django-admin startproject mysite

This will create amysite directory in your current directory. If it didn’twork, seeProblems running django-admin.

Let’s look at whatstartproject created:

mysite/manage.pymysite/__init__.pysettings.pyurls.pywsgi.py

These files are:

• The outermysite/ root directory is just a container for yourproject. Its name doesn’t matter to Django; you can rename it to anythingyou like.
• manage.py: A command-line utility that lets you interact with thisDjango project in various ways. You can read all the details aboutmanage.py indjango-admin and manage.py.
• The innermysite/ directory is the actual Python package for yourproject. Its name is the Python package name you’ll need to use to importanything inside it (e.g.mysite.urls).
• mysite/__init__.py: An empty file that tells Python that thisdirectory should be considered a Python package. If you’re a Python beginner,readmore about packages in the official Python docs.
• mysite/settings.py: Settings/configuration for this Djangoproject.Django settings will tell you all about how settingswork.
• mysite/urls.py: The URL declarations for this Django project; a“table of contents” of your Django-powered site. You can read more aboutURLs inURL dispatcher.
• mysite/wsgi.py: An entry-point for WSGI-compatible web servers toserve your project. SeeHow to deploy with WSGI for more details.

The development server¶

Let’s verify your Django project works. Change into the outermysite directory, ifyou haven’t already, and run the following commands:

$ python manage.py runserver

You’ll see the following output on the command line:

Performing system checks...System check identified no issues (0 silenced).You have unapplied migrations; your app may not work properly until they are applied.Run 'python manage.py migrate' to apply them.January 08, 2020 - 15:50:53Django version 2.0, using settings 'mysite.settings'Starting development server athttp://127.0.0.1:8000/Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

You’ve started the Django development server, a lightweight Web server writtenpurely in Python. We’ve included this with Django so you can develop thingsrapidly, without having to deal with configuring a production server – such asApache – until you’re ready for production.

Now’s a good time to note:don’t use this server in anything resembling aproduction environment. It’s intended only for use while developing. (We’re inthe business of making Web frameworks, not Web servers.)

Now that the server’s running, visithttp://127.0.0.1:8000/ with your Webbrowser. You’ll see a “Congratulations!” page, with a rocket taking off.It worked!

$ python manage.py runserver8080

$ python manage.py runserver0:8000

Creating the Polls app¶

Now that your environment – a “project” – is set up, you’re set to startdoing work.

Each application you write in Django consists of a Python package that followsa certain convention. Django comes with a utility that automatically generatesthe basic directory structure of an app, so you can focus on writing coderather than creating directories.

Your apps can live anywhere on yourPython path. Inthis tutorial, we’ll create our poll app right next to yourmanage.pyfile so that it can be imported as its own top-level module, rather than asubmodule ofmysite.

To create your app, make sure you’re in the same directory asmanage.pyand type this command:

$ python manage.py startapp polls

That’ll create a directorypolls, which is laid out like this:

polls/__init__.pyadmin.pyapps.pymigrations/__init__.pymodels.pytests.pyviews.py

This directory structure will house the poll application.

Write your first view¶

Let’s write the first view. Open the filepolls/views.pyand put the following Python code in it:

fromdjango.httpimportHttpResponsedefindex(request):returnHttpResponse("Hello, world. You're at the polls index.")

This is the simplest view possible in Django. To call the view, we need to mapit to a URL - and for this we need a URLconf.

To create a URLconf in the polls directory, create a file calledurls.py.Your app directory should now look like:

polls/__init__.pyadmin.pyapps.pymigrations/__init__.pymodels.pytests.pyurls.pyviews.py

In thepolls/urls.py file include the following code:

fromdjango.urlsimportpathfrom.importviewsurlpatterns=[path('',views.index,name='index'),]

The next step is to point the root URLconf at thepolls.urls module. Inmysite/urls.py, add an import fordjango.urls.include and insert aninclude() in theurlpatterns list, so you have:

fromdjango.contribimportadminfromdjango.urlsimportinclude,pathurlpatterns=[path('polls/',include('polls.urls')),path('admin/',admin.site.urls),]

Theinclude() function allows referencing other URLconfs.Whenever Django encountersinclude(), it chops off whateverpart of the URL matched up to that point and sends the remaining string to theincluded URLconf for further processing.

The idea behindinclude() is to make it easy toplug-and-play URLs. Since polls are in their own URLconf(polls/urls.py), they can be placed under “/polls/”, or under“/fun_polls/”, or under “/content/polls/”, or any other path root, and theapp will still work.

You have now wired anindex view into the URLconf. Lets verify it’sworking, run the following command:

$ python manage.py runserver

Go tohttp://localhost:8000/polls/ in your browser, and you should see thetext “Hello, world. You’re at the polls index.”, which you defined in theindex view.

Thepath() function is passed four arguments, two required:route andview, and two optional:kwargs, andname.At this point, it’s worth reviewing what these arguments are for.