Creating a Django Project

What is a Django Project?

A Django project is a collection of settings for an instance of Django.

How to Create a Django Project?

1. Activate your virtual environment

Before creating a project, you have to activate your virtual environment. A virtual environment helps isolate your project's dependencies from your global Python installation.

2. Navigate to the source code directory

Let us use the Gen EMR project (an electronic medical record) as an example. We set up a dedicated folder to store the source code. Open up your terminal and navigate to the directory below:

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| - gen_emr/
    | - gen_emr_src/  --> Open up this directory.
    | - gen_emr_venv/

3. Start a new Django project

We want to create a Django project called gen_emr. Run the following command to create a new project:

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django-admin startproject gen_emr

This creates a directory named gen_emr with the following structure:

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| - gen_emr/
    | - gen_emr_src/
        | - gen_emr/  --> New
            | - gen_emr/  --> New
                | - __init__.py  --> New
                | - asgi.py  --> New
                | - settings.py  --> New
                | - urls.py  --> New
                | - wsgi.py  --> New
            | - manage.py  --> New
    | - gen_emr_venv/

• __init__.py: An empty file that tells Python that this directory is a Python package.

• manage.py: A command-line utility to interact with your project.

• settings.py: Configuration for your project (e.g., database, middleware, templates).

• urls.py: Routing system for your project.

• asgi.py and wsgi.py: Interfaces for web servers to serve your project.

How to Confirm the Django Project is Working?

1. Navigate to the Django project directory

In your terminal, navigate to the directory below:

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| - gen_emr/
    | - gen_emr_src/  
        | - gen_emr/  --> Open up this directory.
    | - gen_emr_venv/

2. Run the development server

Type in the following command to run the Django's development server:

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python manage.py runserver

Terminal output:

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Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

You have 18 unapplied migration(s). Your project may not work properly until you apply the migrations for app(s): admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions.
Run 'python manage.py migrate' to apply them.
January 09, 2025 - 13:36:32
Django version 5.1.4, using settings 'gen_emr.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK.

3. Check out your Django project live

Open a browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/. You should see the Django welcome page.