Your First Django Project

Introduction

With Django installed in your virtual environment, this chapter creates a project and app, registers the app, wires a Hello Django view to the site root, and runs the development server on http://127.0.0.1:8000/. You will use manage.py for the first time—the CLI entry point for almost all Django work.

Prerequisites

• Django Environment and Installation completed
• Virtual environment activated ((.venv) in your prompt)
• Working directory: e.g. hello-django/ with .venv/ inside

Project Layout After This Chapter

We use config as the project package name (common convention). The app is blog.

Step 1: Create the Project

From hello-django/ (only .venv and git files so far):

django-admin startproject config .

The trailing . puts manage.py in the current folder instead of a nested config/config/.

Verify:

ls          # macOS/Linux
dir         # Windows
python manage.py --version

Code explanation:

• django-admin — global CLI shipped with Django (uses your venv’s Django)
• startproject config — creates Python package config with settings.py, urls.py, etc.
• manage.py — project-specific wrapper; prefer it over django-admin for daily tasks

Step 2: Create an Application

python manage.py startapp blog

Code explanation:

• A project holds site-wide config; an app is a feature module (blog, users, shop)
• blog/ gets models.py, views.py, admin.py, empty migrations/

Step 3: Register the App

Edit config/settings.py. Find INSTALLED_APPS and add 'blog':

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    "django.contrib.admin",
    "django.contrib.auth",
    "django.contrib.contenttypes",
    "django.contrib.sessions",
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    "blog",  # your app
]

Code explanation:

• Django only loads apps listed here (models, admin, templates, static discovery)
• Typo in app name → models/migrations silently missing—double-check spelling

Step 4: Write a View

Edit blog/views.py:

from django.http import HttpResponse
 
 
def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello Django")

Code explanation:

• request — HttpRequest with method, headers, GET/POST data
• HttpResponse — plain text or HTML body returned to the browser
• Every view accepts request as the first argument

Step 5: Wire URLs

App-level URLs

Create blog/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
 
from . import views
 
urlpatterns = [
    path("", views.home, name="home"),
]

Project-level URLs

Edit config/urls.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path
 
urlpatterns = [
    path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
    path("", include("blog.urls")),
]

Code explanation:

• include("blog.urls") mounts the app’s URLconf at the site root
• name="home" enables {% url 'home' %} and reverse("home") later
• admin/ is built-in; you will use it after createsuperuser in a later chapter

Step 6: Run the Development Server

python manage.py runserver

Default: http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Custom port:

python manage.py runserver 8080

Verify:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Expected body: Hello Django

Browser: open http://127.0.0.1:8000/ or http://localhost:8000/

Stop the server: Ctrl+C in the terminal.

Step 7: System Check

Before relying on new config, run:

python manage.py check

Expected: System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

Catches common settings.py and URL mistakes early.

manage.py Commands You Will Use Often

Help:

python manage.py help
python manage.py help migrate

Default Site and Admin (Quick Look)

With server running:

Common Problems

Post-Chapter Checklist

• django-admin startproject config . created manage.py and config/
• blog app created and listed in INSTALLED_APPS
• blog/views.py returns Hello Django
• blog/urls.py + config/urls.py include pattern works
• python manage.py runserver + browser/curl shows greeting
• python manage.py check passes

FAQ

django-admin vs manage.py?

manage.py sets DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE for this project. Prefer python manage.py for daily work.

Why project name config?

Avoids clashing with common app names like blog or shop. Any valid Python package name works (mysite, core).

Can I skip creating an app?

Django expects features in apps. Minimal demos can use one app; real projects use several.

Hot reload?

runserver reloads Python code on save. Some settings changes need a manual restart.

SQLite created yet?

Not until you define models and run migrate. No database file required for this Hello view.

Same as Flask app.run()?

Similar developer experience; Django adds manage.py, INSTALLED_APPS, and split project/app layout.