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Jordan Huff

The world of computers is growing at an un-recordable rate everyday, computers are the most influential tools in our lives, they are our present and future. In my opinion nothing on the planet can measure the exponential growth and excitement in the computing industr

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Python - Django

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Django Project - where to start

march - 2024

Programming

Summery

My wife and I have busy schedules, and I wanted to have a place where we could both easily access a centralized schedule, check on our budget in an easy-to-view view, save recipes for our favorite meals, and more. I have always liked the Raspberry Pi magic mirror idea but wanted to make it my own with a custom dashboard that met my family's needs. Because of this, I dug into Django, Python's web-based development platform. create Virtual EnvironmentOn my Journey, I knew it would be important to gain an understanding of a programming language and decided on Python due to its rising popularity and versatility. I started with simple console games to learn the basic structure of Python, along with reading and modifying some prebuilt OS scripts for moving files and resizing pictures.

My wife and I have busy schedules, and I wanted to have a place where we could both easily access a centralized schedule, check on our budget in an easy-to-view view, save recipes for our favorite meals, and more. I have always liked the Raspberry Pi magic mirror idea but wanted to make it my own with a custom dashboard that met my family's needs. Because of this, I dug into Django, Python's web-based development platform. create Virtual Environment

Starting Goals

  • Create Virtual Environment
  • Install Django
  • Create Project
Run django

started by reading a few articles on Django Basics. I found that Python has a built-in virtual environment feature that allows for the installation of packages in a unique environment without it installing on my full system. This allows me to install Django in a separate environment (folder) and potentially additional items unique to my project.
  • Open the command prompt and cd into my project folder
    • (for me) cd c:\py
  • Create my virtual environment (venv) folder and activatefrom here, all my Python commands will only affect the Django-project file, meaning I will need to install Django and start a project.
    • python -m venv django-project
    • cd jango-project (you will notice python has created files and folders automaticly
    • .\scripts\activate
    • Console Result: (django-project) c:\py\django-project
From here, all my Python commands will only affect the Django-project file, meaning I will need to install Django and start a project.
  • pip install django
  • django-admin startproject family-board
  • python will install django and add folders and files into my enviroment i will notice the root folder appear named family-board
  • cd family-board
In my family-board folder, I will see a file called manage.py and a subfolder called family-board. Inside the family-board subfolder are more .py files to manage settings, URLs, etc.

Takeaways - easy-to-use virtual environments for projects make it easy to keep project-specific packages and settings enclosed without cross contaminating other projects. They also allow you to test out new versions of packages before deployment.