2/24/25, 11:29 AM Create a Simple Blog Application Using Django - DEV Community

kihuni
Posted on Jul 26, 2024

Create a Simple Blog Application Using

Django
#django #webdev #backend #beginners

In our last blog post, we covered the basic concepts of Django. Now, let's create a
simple blog application to solidify our understanding.

Requirements:
Basic Python knowledge
Fundamental understanding of Django
Basic proficiency in using the terminal

To create a simple blog, we will follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a project folder and Install the Virtual

Environment
First, create a folder called Simple-blog , then inside the folder, install the virtual
environment and activate it.

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Step 2: Install Django

Once your virtual environment is activated, install Django using pip, Python's
package installer.

pip install django

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Step 3: Set Up the Project and App

Create a Django project:
Create your django project and cd into it.

mkdir Simple-blog
django-admin startproject myblog
cd myblog

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After running the django-admin startproject you should have the following
structure:

myblog/
manage.py
myblog/
__init__.py
settings.py
urls.py
wsgi.py
asgi.py

Create a Django App:

Inside your django project folder, run the following command to create an app:

# Create a new app named 'blog'

python manage.py startapp blog

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Configure the App

To use the new app in your project, add it to the INSTALLED_APPS list in the
settings.py file.

# myblog/settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
'blog',
]

After following all instructions, you should have the complete structure as follows:

myblog/
manage.py
myblog/
__init__.py
settings.py
urls.py
wsgi.py
asgi.py
blog/
__init__.py
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admin.py
apps.py
models.py
tests.py
views.py
migrations/

Step 4: Define the model

On the model file blog/models.py add the following to define the post model:

from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
content = models.TextField()
published_date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

def __str__(self):
return self.title

Run Migrations:
Migrations in Django are like version control for your database schema. They're a
way to apply and un-apply changes to your database schema, which include
creating new tables, changing fields, or deleting tables. Django creates these
migration files for you, and you can apply them using the makemigrations and

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migrate management commands. This system allows Django to automatically

provide schema alteration operations when new changes are made to models.
The makemigrations command in Django creates new migration files based on the
changes you've made to your models. It doesn't affect your database yet.
On the other hand, the migrate command applies these migrations to your
database. It reads the migration files and applies the corresponding changes to
your database schema.

To run migrations:

python manage.py makemigrations

python manage.py migrate

N/b Remember, makemigrations should be run when you've made changes to your
models and want to create new migrations, and migrate should be run to apply these
migrations to your database.

Step 5: Register the model with Admin

On the admin file blog/admin.py add the following to register your models with
admin:

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from django.contrib import admin

from .models import Post

admin.site.register(Post)

Step 6: Create a superuser

Run the following command on your terminal and follow the steps to create a
superuser.

python manage.py createsuperuser

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Run the server using python manage.py runserver ,

navigate to
http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ , and use your already created superuser credentials
to access the admin site.

Step 7: Define the View

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On the views file blog/views.py add the following to create your app views:

from django.shortcuts import render

from .models import Post

def home(request):
posts = Post.objects.all()
return render(request, 'blog/home.html', {'posts': posts})

Step 8: Configure the URL

Create a blog/urls.py file and add the following to map the URL to your view:

from django.urls import path

from blog import views

urlpatterns = [
path('home/', views.home, name='home'),
]

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Then, register your app URLs blog/urls.py to your django project in

myblog/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin

from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
path('', include('blog.urls')), # Add this line
]

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Step 9: Create the Template

Create blog/templates/blog/home.html and the following to structure and present
our blog as a webpage:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Blog Home</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Blog Posts</h1>
{% for post in posts %}
<h2>{{ post.title }}</h2>
<p>{{ post.content }}</p>
<p>Published on: {{ post.published_date }}</p>
{% endfor %}
</body>
</html>

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Step 10: Run the Development Server

Finally, let's run our development server using the following command:

python manage.py runserver

Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/home/ to see your simple blog application in

action.

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Use the admin site http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ to create a blog post and see it
live on your simple blog.

Conclusion and Next Steps

By understanding Django's project structure, MVT architecture, and the Django
admin interface, you now have the foundational knowledge to build web
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applications. In the next part of this series, we'll dive deeper into Django's ORM,
explore how to create more complex views and templates and implement additional
functionality to enhance our blog application. Stay tuned!

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kihuni

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Software Developer specializing in backend Systems and Technical Writing.

LOCATION
Nairobi, kenya
PRONOUNS
Mr
JOINED
Mar 9, 2021

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