Django Core | A Reference Guide to Core Django Concepts

Discover why Django models exist by comparing csv tables to production databases, highlighting data types, fields like id, title, price, and shipping price, and scalable data retrieval.

Create a products app, define a product model with title as a text field and price as a decimal field, then rely on Django to auto-generate the id.

Learn how to migrate Django models to a database by creating and applying migrations, validating field definitions like max_length, and updating an SQLite database with the initial schema.

Squash Django migrations into a single file with Python manage.py squash_migrations, specifying the app label and migration name. Then apply and remove old migrations for clean upgrades.

Override the model’s save method to enforce validation across the app, use validators in models and forms, and handle validation errors consistently in shell, admin, and create calls.

Explore how the clean method enables multi-field validation in Django model forms, when to use save versus form validation, and why field-level and form-level validation matter for titles and descriptions.

Design a Django model field with choices to represent states like draft, published, and private, using a choices tuple, a default, and an is_published property.

Implement an abstract base model to share publish state options across Django models, reusing functionality without duplication. Inherit the base publish model in apps, then run migrations to apply changes.

Explore Django model meta options, focusing on ordering (default id and reverse), unique together, and field-level uniqueness; customize verbose name and plural, and review migrations.

Learn how to create data in Django using save, model manager create, and bulk create, including handling data lists, conflicts, and importing from CSV file or Pandas data frame.

Create a custom model manager and a custom queryset to filter published products by state and publish timestamp, enabling reusable filters for title.

Add a slug field for vanity urls with db index and optional blank or null values, then auto-generate it from the title using a pre_save signal, slugify, and migrations.

Test Django core concepts by writing and running model tests, verifying draft and published states, slugify behavior, and querysets with test driven development.

Explore function based views for quick setup with request handling and templates in Django. Compare to class based views, which streamline get and post handling, query sets, and context rendering.

render a plain html template with TemplateView in Django, using template_name, an about.html file, and url wiring via as_view, contrasting with function based views for simple static pages.

Implement a redirect view in Django using a class based view to route the about us path. See how class based views reduce redundancy and simplify routing across URLs.

Create a basic Django product model with title and slug fields, register it in admin, and run migrations to scaffold views. Then proceed to build views based on this model.

Explore how to implement Django's list view and detail view using a product model, configure URLs, and resolve template naming conventions for class based views.

Create a basic mixin to supply a template title for class-based views. Use get context data and get title to set titles in list and detail views.

Explore how a Django list view works by building a minimal generic view with a get request, using a model-driven template name, and a reusable multiple object mixin.

Explore how to recreate a detail view using mixins in Django, inspecting class-based views, multiple object mixins, and get object logic, including URL parameters, get context data, and 404 handling.

Learn how to implement Django RedirectView to route marketing test URLs to a canonical product page, using slug or id, with get_redirect_url, get_object_or_404, and optional permanent redirects.

Learn to create a Django model form to add products linked to a user via a foreign key, implement migrations, and enforce unique slugs for reliable urls.

Wire a product model form into a create view with the login required mixin, render via forms.html, and override form_valid to assign the user and redirect to product detail.

Explains building a reusable base view with form mixin for a Django create view, handling get, post, initial data, and using model form versus a plain form.

Master the hard way of creating a Django update view by manually handling a function based view, binding a model form, validating, and saving the updated object.

Implement Django update and delete views with class-based views, using model forms and template suffixes, while restricting access via get_queryset and defining precise URLs.

Advance your understanding of Django core concepts by exploring templates and template tags, comparing class based and function based views with decorators, and planning testing strategies.