Django Training for Python Developers (DJG501)

This comprehensive self-paced Django course is designed to take Python developers from Django beginner to Django pro, guiding you from setting up your computer to deploying your website to production.

We begin with Setting Up Your Computer, where you’ll gather the necessary demo and exercise files, get recommendations for software, and learn the basics of running Python. Setting up your development environment is the first step to ensuring smooth progress throughout the course.

Once your computer is ready, you'll proceed to Getting Started with Django. This part introduces you to server-side programming and the Google Chrome DevTools Network Tab. You’ll create a virtual environment, install Django, and explore its source code. Through hands-on exercises, you'll create your first Django project and app, working with settings and templates to build an "About Us" page.

In Git, GitHub, and an App with a Model, you’ll learn about version control systems, and set up VS Code, Git, and GitHub. You’ll create projects and apps, work with models, and utilize GET, POST requests. Subsequent exercises will guide you through creating views, managing object deletion, and more, using Git for seamless version control.

The course continues with Template Filters and Tags. You’ll learn to set up projects, add template context, and utilize both built-in and custom template filters and tags, enhancing your ability to dynamically generate content.

Next, Static Files will teach you how to manage and add static files to your Django projects. Through exercises, you’ll become proficient in handling static content and reviewing settings to optimize your project's performance.

In Django Admin and the User Model, you’ll set up PostgreSQL, work with the default and custom user models, and leverage Django Admin for efficient database management. Exercises include creating custom user models, adding tables to Django Admin, and generating admin documentation.

We then explore URLs and Slugs, where you'll learn to create slug-generating functions and modify your Django apps to use slugs instead of IDs, making your URLs more user-friendly and SEO-friendly.

Sending email messages becomes straightforward in Sending Email with SendGrid. You'll gain experience with transactional email services and create utility functions to handle email notifications efficiently using SendGrid.

Forms and Widgets covers form processing, creating forms (including job application forms), understanding form fields, and adding validations. You will improve form usability and styling with practical exercises on working with widgets and Crispy Forms.

The ModelForms lesson dives deeper into model relationships. You’ll learn to create ModelForms, work with one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, and tie these concepts together with exercises on adding categories and tags to jokes.

With User Registration, you’ll implement user authentication, customize registration processes, and securely use django-allauth for managing users. You’ll also create ‘My Account’ pages and use Mixins to restrict joke creation to authenticated users.

The Messages Framework lesson explains how to add user feedback messages within your project. Through practical exercises, you will integrate success messages into your views to improve user experience.

In Media Files, you’ll learn to handle user-uploaded files, set up media settings, and manage resumes and avatars. You'll also explore using Amazon S3 for storing static and media files, giving your applications a robust and scalable file storage solution.

For effective data retrieval and manipulation, Making Queries, Ajax, and View Functions will deepen your knowledge of query sets, model relationships, and Ajax for dynamic content loading. You’ll perform exercises on joke voting and updating templates.

The course also covers Pagination and Ordering, teaching you how to paginate data and order query results clearly and efficiently.

With Advanced Querying and Search, you’ll gain insights into field lookups, Q objects, filtering results, and optimizing code using the Django debug toolbar. Exercises include implementing search functionality and aggregating data.

The final stage, Deploying your Website to Production, shows you how to deploy your Django site, ensuring the content you create reaches your audience. You’ll also learn to deploy to Heroku as part of the exercises.

Lastly, Customizing Django Admin provides techniques for modifying Django Admin views, attributes, and permissions, tailoring the admin panel to fit your project's needs.

By the end of this course, you will be proficient in Django, equipped with the skills to manage backend tasks, build robust user interfaces, and deploy functional websites. Your enhanced capabilities will significantly contribute to your company’s web development projects, ensuring efficient, interactive, and modern web applications.

1. Setting Up Your Computer
   1. Demo and Exercise Files
   2. Recommended Software
   3. Running Python
2. Getting Started with Django
   1. Welcome to the Server-side
   2. Google Chrome DevTools: Network Tab
   3. Creating the Virtual Environment
   4. Exercise: Creating a Virtual Environment and Installing Django
   5. Exploring the Django Source Code
   6. Creating a New Project
   7. Exercise: Hello, Django!
   8. Settings
   9. Django Apps
   10. Creating a New App
   11. Exercise: First Django App
   12. Exercise: Working with Templates
   13. Exercise: Creating an About Us Page
3. Git, GitHub, and an App with a Model
   1. djangojokes.com
   2. Version Control Systems, Git, and GitHub
   3. Exercise: Setting Up VS Code, Git, and GitHub
   4. Exercise: Creating the Project
   5. Exercise: Creating a pages App
   6. Exercise: Creating the jokes App
   7. Models
   8. Exercise: Migrating
   9. Exercise: Creating a Model
   10. Types of Views
   11. Exercise: Creating a ListView
   12. Exercise: Creating a DetailView
   13. GET and POST Requests
   14. Exercise: Creating and Updating Jokes
   15. Deleting Objects
   16. Exercise: Deleting Jokes
4. Template Filters and Tags
   1. Exercise: Setting Up the Project
   2. get_context_data()
   3. Exercise: Adding Template Context
   4. Template Filter Basics
   5. Exercise: Adding Filters
   6. Most Useful Template Filters
   7. Template Filter Quick Reference
   8. Template Tag Basics
   9. Most Useful Template Tags
   10. Template Tag Quick Reference
   11. Custom Filters
   12. Exercise: Creating Custom Filters
   13. Custom Tags
   14. Exercise: Creating Custom Tags
5. Static Files
   1. Static File Basics
   2. Exercise: Adding Static Files to Django Jokes
   3. Review of the Settings
6. Django Admin and the User Model
   1. The Database
   2. Exercise: Setting Up PostgreSQL
   3. The Default User Model
   4. Exercise: Creating a Custom User Model
   5. Referencing the User Model
   6. Exercise: Getting Started with Django Admin
   7. Exercise: Adding the jokes Table to Django Admin
   8. Exercise: Installing the Django Admin Documentation Generator
7. URLs and Slugs
   1. Slugs
   2. Exercise: Creating a Slug-generating Function
   3. Exercise: Changing Jokes to Use Slugs
8. Sending Email with SendGrid
   1. Transactional Email Services
   2. Exercise: Getting a SendGrid Account
   3. Exercise: Creating an Email Utility Function
9. Forms and Widgets
   1. Form Processing
   2. Understanding Form Fields
   3. Exercise: Creating a Job Application Form
   4. Core Field Arguments
   5. Exercise: Building out the Application
   6. Typed Choice Fields
   7. Changing Widgets
   8. Exercise: Improving the Job Application Form
   9. Validators
   10. Exercise: Crispy Forms
   11. Exercise: Making the Joke Form Crispy
10. ModelForms
    1. Models
    2. Model Fields
    3. Model Field Arguments
    4. ModelForms
    5. Exercise: Creating a ModelForm
    6. Many-to-One Relationships
    7. Exercise: Adding Joke Categories
    8. Many-to-Many Relationships
    9. Exercise: Adding Joke Tags
    10. Exercise: Updating the Joke Templates
    11. Exercise: Tying Job Applications to Models
11. User Registration
    1. The User-Registration Process
    2. Exercise: Getting Started with django-allauth
    3. django-allauth Templates
    4. Exercise: Making the Authentication Pages Crispy
    5. Exercise: Updating the _base.html Template
    6. Email Templates
    7. Exercise: Custom User Registration
    8. Exercise: Creating a My Account Page
    9. Exercise: Associating Users with Jokes
    10. Mixins
    11. Exercise: Restricting Joke Creating and Updating
12. Messages Framework
    1. Message Framework
    2. Exercise: Adding Messages
    3. Exercise: Using SuccessMessageMixin
    4. Exercise: Adding Success Messages to the Joke Views
    5. Exercise: Adding a Success Message to JokeDeleteView
13. Media Files
    1. Media File Basics
    2. Exercise: Adding Media Settings
    3. Exercise: Uploading a Resume
    4. Exercise: Checking File Type
    5. Exercise: Keeping Resume Files Private
    6. Exercise: Adding an ImageField to the Model
    7. Exercise: Displaying the Avatar
    8. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
    9. Exercise: Setting Up Amazon S3
    10. Exercise: Static Settings in Development
14. Making Queries, Ajax, and View Functions
    1. Useful Prerequisites
    2. Managers and QuerySets
    3. Indexing and Slicing QuerySets
    4. Checking for Existence
    5. Creating, Updating, and Saving Model Instances
    6. QuerySet Methods that Don't Return QuerySets
    7. One-to-Many Relationships
    8. Many-to-Many Relationships
    9. Spanning Relationships
    10. Joke Voting
    11. Exercise: Adding a JokeVote Model
    12. Exercise: Registering the JokeVote Model
    13. Exercise: Adding Properties to the Joke Model
    14. Exercise: Rating Jokes Using Ajax
    15. Exercise: Adding a vote() View Function
    16. Exercise: Updating the URLConf
    17. Exercise: Updating the Templates
    18. Model Constraints
    19. Letting JavaScript Know if the User is Logged In
15. Pagination and Ordering
    1. Fixtures
    2. Exercise: Loading Data from a Fixture
    3. Exercise: Pagination
    4. Exercise: Ordering
16. Advanced Querying and Search
    1. Field Lookups
    2. Q Objects
    3. Exercise: Filtering Results by Category, Tag, or Creator
    4. Exercise: Implementing Search
    5. Aggregation
    6. Exercise: Getting Joke Ratings
    7. Code Optimization
    8. Exercise: Installing and Using the Django Debug Toolbar
    9. Brief Introduction to Annotation
    10. Viewing SQL Used in QuerySets
17. Deploying your Website to Production
    1. Where to Host Your Django Site
    2. Exercise: Deploying to Heroku
18. Customizing Django Admin
    1. Django Admin Views
    2. Exercise: Customizing Titles and Headers
    3. ModelAdmin Attributes that Affect the List View
    4. Exercise: Creating a Custom ModelAdmin Base Class
    5. Exercise: Customizing the Django Admin List View
    6. Lists vs. Tuples
    7. ModelAdmin Attributes that Affect Forms
    8. Exercise: Customizing Django Admin Form Views
    9. Customizing Fieldsets
    10. Exercise: Modifying the CustomUserAdmin Class
    11. Adding Calculated Read-only Fields
    12. Exercise: Adding a Link to the Change Password Form
    13. Exercise: Unregistering Models
    14. Exercise: Django Admin Groups and Permissions
19. Additional Topics
    1. Additional Learning
    2. Additional Projects

Each student receives a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all class examples.

Experience in the following is required for this Django class:

Experience in the following would be useful for this Django class: