Application Development

Django

Python web development through Django's architecture, from models and migrations to authentication, permissions, testing and deployment.

The course project

Sankofa Journal

A publishing application with accounts, posts, categories, comments, search and profiles.

course

16 modules · 32 lessons

Each module ends with a practice test, a graded build, and a step of the course project.

Part I: The Request

How Django Works

Five steps, in order, every time. Most Django confusion is not knowing which step you are in.

URLs

Addresses are an interface. Design them, then never hard-code them again.

Views

A function that takes a request and returns a response. Everything else is detail.

Templates

HTML with holes in it, and deliberately not much more.

Section project · coming soon

A Three-Page Site

URLs, views and templates: a small Django site with real routes.

Part II: Data

Models

A Python class that is also a database table.

Migrations and the Database

The written history of your schema, and why it is source code.

The ORM

Queries in Python, and the two things about them that surprise everyone.

Section project · coming soon

The Library Catalogue

Models, migrations and the admin for a catalogue of books.

Part III: Interaction

Forms

Validation, rendering and saving, without writing any of them three times.

Authentication and Sessions

Who someone is, remembered across requests you did not write.

Permissions and Ownership

Knowing who someone is does not decide what they may do.

CRUD

Create, read, update, delete: the four verbs almost every application is made of.

Section project · coming soon

Submit and Search

Forms, validation and a search page on top of the catalogue.

Part IV: Beyond the Page

The Admin

A management interface from four lines, and a clear sense of what it is not.

APIs

Returning data instead of pages, for the clients that want it.

Section project · coming soon

A JSON API

Expose the catalogue as a documented API with authentication.

Part V: Production

Security

Django protects you by default. These are the ways people switch it off.

Testing

Write down what must stay true, so it stays true.

Section project · coming soon

Ship the Catalogue

Settings, static files, a database and a live deployment.

Part VI: Capstone

Deployment and the Sankofa Journal

Onto the internet, and then the brief.

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