Django Tutorials

Django Tutorials Roadmap

Section 1: Introduction to Web Development and Django

  • What is Web Development?
    • Client-Side vs. Server-Side.
    • Frontend vs. Backend.
    • HTTP Protocol (Requests and Responses).
    • HTML, CSS, JavaScript (Frontend basics - useful but not strictly required before starting Django).
  • What is Django?
    • High-level Python Web Framework.
    • "Batteries included" philosophy.
    • MTV (Model-Template-View) Architecture.
    • Key features (ORM, Admin Panel, URL Dispatcher, Templating Engine, Forms, Authentication).
    • Why choose Django? (Rapid development, security features, scalability, large community).
  • Setting up the Development Environment:
    • Installing Python.
    • Understanding Virtual Environments (venv, virtualenv, conda). Why use them?
    • Creating and activating a virtual environment.
    • Installing Django using pip (pip install Django).
    • Using a code editor/IDE (VS Code with Python/Django extensions, PyCharm).
  • Creating Your First Django Project:
    • Using django-admin startproject project_name.
    • Understanding the project structure (manage.py, settings, urls, wsgi, asgi).
    • Running the development server (python manage.py runserver).
    • Viewing the default welcome page.
  • Creating Your First Django App:
    • Understanding the difference between a project and an app.
    • Using python manage.py startapp app_name.
    • Understanding the app structure (models, views, urls, admin, tests, apps).
    • Registering the app in settings.py.

Section 2: Django Fundamentals - The MTV Architecture

  • Models (M):
    • What is an ORM (Object-Relational Mapper)?
    • Defining Models (subclassing django.db.models.Model).
    • Understanding Model Fields (CharField, IntegerField, TextField, DateField, DateTimeField, BooleanField, etc.).
    • Understanding Relationships (ForeignKey, ManyToManyField, OneToOneField).
    • Adding methods to Models (__str__, custom methods).
    • Making Migrations (python manage.py makemigrations).
    • Applying Migrations (python manage.py migrate).
    • Interacting with the Database using the Django Shell (python manage.py shell).
    • Basic QuerySet API (.all(), .get(), .filter(), .exclude(), .order_by(), .count(), .create(), .save(), .delete()).
  • Views (V):
    • What is a View? (A function or class that handles a request and returns a response).
    • Function-Based Views (FBVs).
    • Class-Based Views (CBVs).
    • Understanding the HttpRequest object.
    • Understanding the HttpResponse object.
    • Rendering HTML responses (render() shortcut).
    • Redirecting (redirect() shortcut).
    • Handling different HTTP methods (GET, POST).
  • Templates (T):
    • What is the Django Template Language (DTL)?
    • Understanding Template Variables ({{ variable }}).
    • Understanding Template Tags ({% tag %} - e.g., for, if, block, extends).
    • Understanding Template Filters ({{ variable|filter }} - e.g., date, length, lower).
    • Template Inheritance ({% extends %}, {% block %}).
    • Including other templates ({% include %}).
    • Loading static files (CSS, JavaScript, images) in templates ({% load static %}, {% static 'path/to/file' %}).
  • URL Dispatcher (URLs):
    • Mapping URLs to Views.
    • Understanding urls.py (project and app level).
    • Using the path() function.
    • Capturing parameters from URLs (, ).
    • Using named URLs (name='view_name').
    • Including app URLs in the project's urls.py (include()).

Section 3: Working with Forms

  • What are Django Forms?
    • Handling user input securely and efficiently.
    • Validation.
    • Rendering forms in templates.
  • Creating Forms:
    • Subclassing django.forms.Form.
    • Understanding Form Fields (CharField, IntegerField, etc. - similar names to Model Fields but for forms).
    • Understanding Form Widgets (controlling how fields are displayed - e.g., TextInput, Textarea).
  • Using Forms in Views:
    • Instantiating forms.
    • Handling POST requests and form submission.
    • Validating form data (is_valid()).
    • Accessing cleaned data (form.cleaned_data).
  • ModelForms:
    • Creating forms directly from Models.
    • Simplifying form creation for CRUD operations.

Section 4: Django Admin Panel

  • Introduction to the Admin Panel:
    • Automatic admin interface for your models.
    • Basic CRUD operations out-of-the-box.
  • Creating a Superuser:
    • python manage.py createsuperuser.
  • Registering Models with the Admin:
    • Modifying admin.py.
    • Using @register() decorator or admin.site.register().
  • Customizing the Admin Panel:
    • Using ModelAdmin to customize list display, search fields, filters, form fields, etc.

Section 5: Authentication and Authorization

  • Django's Authentication System:
    • Built-in user model.
    • Handling user registration, login, and logout.
  • Implementing User Registration:
    • Creating a registration form.
    • Creating a view to handle registration.
  • Implementing User Login and Logout:
    • Using Django's built-in login/logout views and forms.
    • Customizing login/logout views.
    • Handling login redirects.
  • Controlling Access (Authorization):
    • Using @login_required decorator for function-based views.
    • Using LoginRequiredMixin for class-based views.
    • Permissions and Groups.
    • Checking user permissions (user.has_perm()).

Section 6: Advanced Django Concepts

  • Generic Class-Based Views (GCBVs):
    • Understanding and using common GCBVs (ListView, DetailView, CreateView, UpdateView, DeleteView).
    • Advantages of using GCBVs.
  • User Authentication and Authorization (Deep Dive):
    • Customizing the User Model.
    • Signals.
    • Password management.
  • QuerySet API (Advanced):
    • Lookups (__gt, __lt, __contains, __iexact, etc.).
    • Q objects (complex lookups).
    • F objects (referencing model fields in queries).
    • Aggregations (Count, Sum, Avg).
    • Annotations.
    • Select related and Prefetch related (optimizing queries).
  • Custom Template Tags and Filters:
    • Creating your own logic within templates.
  • Middleware:
    • Understanding middleware (processing requests and responses globally).
    • Common built-in middleware.
    • Writing custom middleware.
  • Signals:
    • Understanding signals (allowing decoupled applications to be notified of events).
    • Common built-in signals.
    • Creating and connecting custom signals.
  • Caching:
    • Understanding caching strategies.
    • Using Django's caching framework (per-site, per-view, per-template, low-level cache API).
  • Sending Emails:
    • Using Django's email backend.
    • Sending simple emails.
    • Sending HTML emails.
  • File Uploads:
    • Handling file uploads with forms and models.
    • Configuring media files.
  • Internationalization and Localization (i18n and l10n):
    • Translating text.
    • Handling different languages and locales.
  • Testing in Django:
    • Writing Unit Tests for Models, Views, Forms.
    • Using Django's testing framework.
    • Testing with the Django test client.
  • Security Best Practices:
    • Preventing SQL Injection, XSS, CSRF.
    • Using Django's built-in security features.

Section 7: REST APIs with Django (Optional but highly recommended)

  • Introduction to RESTful APIs.
  • Using Django REST Framework (DRF):
    • Installing DRF.
    • Serializers (converting Python objects to JSON/XML and vice versa).
    • ViewSets and Routers.
    • Authentication and Permissions in DRF.
    • Building API endpoints for your models.

Section 8: Deployment

  • Preparing for Deployment:
    • Collecting static files (python manage.py collectstatic).
    • Configuring production settings (settings.py).
    • Using environment variables.
  • Choosing a Hosting Platform:
    • Heroku, PythonAnywhere, AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, etc.
  • Using a Production Web Server:
    • Understanding WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface).
    • Using Gunicorn or uWSGI.
  • Using a Reverse Proxy:
    • Understanding Nginx or Apache.
    • Serving static files efficiently.
  • Configuring a Production Database:
    • PostgreSQL, MySQL.
  • Deployment Steps (Platform Specific Examples).

Section 9: Further Exploration and Specialization

  • Background Tasks (Celery).
  • Real-time Applications (Django Channels).
  • Caching Strategies (Redis, Memcached).
  • Logging.
  • Monitoring and Performance Tuning.
  • Security Audits.
  • Exploring specific Django packages (e.g., Django Allauth, Django Crispy Forms, Django Debug Toolbar).
  • Contributing to the Django project (Optional).
  • Building larger, more complex projects.