django getting started

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that takes care of much of the hassle of Web development, so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel.

In this tutorial you will learn how to setup a basic Django web app.

Related course
Intro to Django Python Web Apps

Django tutorial

Install Django using:

pip install Django==1.7.1

Once installed, create the directory /django-hello/ for your app. In this directory create the file hello.py with this contents:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls import patterns
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

settings.configure(
DEBUG=True,
SECRET_KEY='asecretkey',
ROOT_URLCONF=sys.modules[__name__],
)

def index(request):
return HttpResponse('Hello, World')

urlpatterns = patterns('',
(r'^hello/$', index),
)

if __name__ == "__main__":
execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

Execute the script using:

python hello.py runserver

A HTTP Django server will start and if you open http://127.0.0.1:8000/hello/

Django Web Framework

Django code explanation

The top lines import the Django library:

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls import patterns
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

If you open the link /hello/, the webserver will call the index() function. We map the url to the function using:

urlpatterns = patterns('',
(r'^hello/$', index),
)

In Django we have url friendly urls. This means you do not have a url that ends in /id=1359835, but instead we have the directory as name.  Finally, we set some default settings using settings.configure.

Related course
Intro to Django Python Web Apps