Essential Django Training Course: Hands-On!

Explore Django, a high level Python web framework designed for rapid development and pragmatic design, with batteries included models, templates, and views for secure, maintainable web apps.

Learn to set up Python virtual environments with virtualenvwrapper. Create and manage isolated environments for the reader project, using Python 3 on Linux and Mac, with a Windows port.

Install Django in a virtual environment, create your first Django project with manage.py, migrate to SQLite, and launch a local server to view the app.

Define a Django book model with title, author, review, date reviewed, and is_favorite fields using char, text, datetime, and boolean fields, and explore blank and null in forms.

Learn how Django tracks model changes with migrations: run make migrations to generate 0001_initial.py, record schema changes, and enable rebuilding, sharing migrations, and reverting databases via the migration toolkit.

Create and save book objects in Django using the shell, then query with Book.objects and refine representations with a string method. Explore filters such as contains, startswith, and multi-criteria queries.

Learn how django's admin provides a browser interface to manage data, including creating a superuser, register books via the admin API, and customize labels with verbose_name and help_text.

Create and relate author and book models in Django with a many-to-many relationship and unique author names. Register the models in admin and apply migrations to update the data schema.

Master creating and overriding Django model methods, including a string method and an authors method using join and list comprehension, and implementing pre-save logic with a proper super call.

Create a book admin that inherits from Django's model admin, defines fieldsets, list display, read-only fields, search, and filters, displays authors via a method, and uses a decorator to register.

Create your first URL and view to demonstrate the request-response cycle, mapping a URL pattern via a regular expression to a view and returning an HTTP response.

Learn to create your first Django template, render it with the render shortcut, and display dynamic user data using if statements and filters like title and date filters.

Learn to query the Django database with exclude, pass a context to templates, and display books (title, authors, is_favorite, and review) using pluralized and humanize filters, plus prefetch related.

Discover class-based views in Django, using a get method to list authors, render via template, and apply annotate with count to filter authors who have books.

Learn to implement Django's class-based generic detail views to display individual books and authors, using primary-key URLs and templates, with conditional reviews and author-book listings.

Refactor and streamline HTML by creating a shared base template, using extends and blocks, and including common header and footer with reusable components for Django projects.

Build dynamic navigation in Django by linking book and author lists to detail pages using the url tag and primary keys, then apply static CSS and fonts.

Create a two-page Django review flow with URLs, views, and templates for listing and reviewing books, and implement a form with is_favorite and review fields and CSRF protection.

Bind request data to the form, validate with is_valid, save the book and its review, and redirect to the review books page; render an empty form for non-post requests.

Refactor to a class-based view and map the Book model to a model form showing title and author; handle post requests, save valid forms, and refresh the same view.

Create a dedicated author form using Django's CreateView, wire get_absolute_url and reverse for redirects, and render the form manually with custom HTML to control field, errors, and styling.

Apply custom form validation and form-wide validation by overriding the clean method to enforce unique book titles with the same authors, raising validation errors on duplicates.

Add a reviewed by field as a foreign key to the built-in user model. Update admin and templates, run migrations, and ensure the reviewer is the logged-in user.

Restrict access to review pages by applying login_required to function-based views and updating URLs for class-based views. Show review link only to authenticated users using is_authenticated in the base navigation.

Learn to implement user authentication with Django's built-in auth views by configuring login and logout URLs, next redirects, and header links, plus explore related password reset features.

Explore how automated tests verify code behavior, catch regressions, and boost confidence by setting up Django unit tests, running the test runner, and writing simple assertions.

Learn to create Django model factories with Factory Boy, including author, user, book, and review factories, using Faker for unique names and post generation hooks.

Set up and run model tests for the book model using setup with two authors, test list authors, string method, and a custom save method that populates date reviewed.

Learn to test a functional Django list books view by writing tests for URL resolution, template rendering, and data with and without reviews using factories.

Learn to test class-based views in Django by validating URL resolution, authentication redirects, templates, and form submissions that create books for review.

Learn to test forms in django by creating test cases for review and book forms, validating required fields, min length, and custom validations, with non-field error handling and factory-based data.

Deploy a Django application by pushing code to GitHub, configuring local, staging, and production settings with Django mode and environment variables, and organizing dependencies with separate requirements files.

Set up a staging server with PostgreSQL database to mimic development for continuous integration, configure CodeShip with GitHub, use a Python 3 virtual environment, and run staging requirements and tests.

Deploy a Django app to Heroku via CodeShip by configuring production database URL, collect static files, and set up Heroku files (Procfile, runtime.txt), then automate migrations.

Troubleshoot Django apps by enabling server logs, handling 500 errors with admin email alerts, and configuring production email via SendGrid on Heroku, including admin setup and creating a super user.

audit django views with the debug toolbar and optimize queries using select_related or prefetch_related, filter authors to those with books and reviews, and pursue coverage-driven tests with postgres locally.