In this chapter, we will be using Python 3.10+. Additionally, we will be using the Visual Studio (VS) Code editor in this book, which you can download from https://code.visualstudio.com/.

The code for this chapter is located at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Django-5-for-the-Impatient-Second-Edition/tree/main/Chapter02/moviesstore.

The CiA video for this chapter can be found at https://packt.link/rzU25

Let’s look at the project files that were created for us in Chapter 1, in the Creating and running a Django project section. Open the moviesstore project folder in VS Code. You will see the elements shown in Figure 2.1:

Figure 2.1 – The MOVIESSTORE directory structure

Let’s learn about each of these elements.

The moviesstore folder

As you can see in Figure 2.1, there is a folder with the same name as the folder we opened in VS Code originally – moviesstore. The moviesstore folder contains a set of files to configure the Django project. Figure 2.2 shows the content of the moviesstore folder:

Figure 2.2 – The moviesstore folder content structure

Let’s briefly look at all the elements under the moviesstore folder:

• __pycache__: This folder stores compiled bytecode when we generate our project. You can largely ignore this folder. Its purpose...

A Django app is a self-contained package of code that performs a specific functionality or serves a particular purpose within a Django project.

A single Django project can contain one or more apps that work together to power a web application. Django uses the concept of projects and apps to keep code clean and readable.

For example, on a movie review site such as Rotten Tomatoes, as shown in Figure 2.4, we can have an app for listing movies, an app for listing news, an app for payments, an app for user authentication, and so on:

Figure 2.4 – The Rotten Tomatoes website

Apps in Django are like pieces of a website. You can create an entire website with one single app, but it is useful to break it up into different apps, each representing a clear function.

Our Movies Store site will begin with one app. We will later add more as we progress. To add an app, in the Terminal, stop the server by pressing Cmd+ C. Navigate...

Creating a simple page or section in Django usually involves three steps:

1. Configure a URL.
2. Define a view function or class.
3. Create a template.

Let’s see how to apply those steps to create a simple “home” page that will display a “welcome” message to the final user.

Configuring an URL

Django URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are patterns used to map incoming HTTP requests to the appropriate view functions or classes that handle those requests. They define the routing mechanism for your Django project, specifying which views should be called for different URLs.

There is a main URL configuration file located at /moviesstore/urls.py that currently has the following code:

…
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path
urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
]

When a user types a URL (related to our Django application) in the browser...

Now that we learned how to create a simple page, let’s repeat the process to create the about page. We will follow these three steps:

1. Configure the about URL.
2. Define the about function.
3. Create the about template.

Let’s start.

Configuring the about URL

In /home/urls.py, add the following path in bold:

from django.urls import path
from . import views
urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index, name='home.index'),
    path('about', views.about, name='home.about'),
]

So, if a URL matches the /about path, it will execute the about function defined in the views file.

Defining about function

In /home/views.py, add the following in bold:

from django.shortcuts import render
def index(request):
    return render(request, 'home/index.html')
def about(request):
    return render(request, ...

In this chapter, we discussed the Django project structure. We analyzed some of the most important project folders, files, and their functionalities. We saw how a web project can be composed of several applications, and we learned how to create a Django app. We also learned how URLs, views, and templates connect to create web pages. We created a couple of pages and loaded them into our local web server. In the next chapter, we will see how to improve the look and feel of our Django applications by using base templates and a CSS framework.