Django Project Tutorial 2 - On PythonAnywhere

Learning Objectives:

Understand Django models and models.py
Use the Django shell
Understand the django admin feature
Understand databases and Django migration

We are going to do the second tutorial from the Django project web site. That tutorial is generic and can be used in many situations including developing locally on your own computer - but we need to do the tutorial on PythonAnywhere.

Important: Do not go back to tutorial1 on the Django web site and create the folder djangotutorial. You already have this folder from the first assignment in this class called ~/django_projects/mysite.

So we need a mapping between what the tutorial says and what you do on PythonAnywhere - A Rosetta stone as it were. This table maps from what the tutorial says to how you do it in PythonAnywhere. In general, you are doing the the same thing in a different place or in a different way.

Django Project Tutorial	On PythonAnywhere
Open up `mysite/settings.py`	Open `django_projects/mysite/mysite/settings.py` in the Files editor
`cd djangotutorial`	`cd ~/django_projects/mysite`
`python manage.py migrate`	In the console / shell: `cd ~/django_projects/mysite` `python manage.py migrate`
Edit the `polls/models.py`	Open `django_projects/mysite/polls/models.py` in the Files editor
`python manage.py makemigrations polls`	In the console / shell: `cd ~/django_projects/mysite` `python manage.py makemigrations polls`
`python manage.py sqlmigrate polls 0001`	In the console / shell: `cd ~/django_projects/mysite` `python manage.py sqlmigrate polls 0001`
`python manage.py shell`	In the console / shell: `cd ~/django_projects/mysite` `python manage.py shell`
`python manage.py createsuperuser`	In the console / shell: `cd ~/django_projects/mysite` `python manage.py createsuperuser`
`python manage.py runserver`	In the console / shell: `cd ~/django_projects/mysite` `python manage.py check` If there are no errors from `check`, reload your web application in the Web Tab or in a text editor
Open `http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/` in your browser	Open `https://(your-account).pythonanywhere.com/admin/` (with your account) in your browser

After a few assignments, you won't need this "Rosetta Stone" / "Cheat Sheet" mapping between generic DJango instructions and PythonAnywhere. You will be able to look at generic Django instructions and map thme on to "how we do it on PythonAnywhere".

Django Project Tutorial 2

Armed with the above mapping, follow the instructions in this tutorial:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/intro/tutorial02/

One suggestion, when the tutorial tells you to put the following in ~/django_projects/mysite/polls/admin.py:

from django.contrib import admin

from .models import Question

admin.site.register(Question)

Insert the following instead:

from django.contrib import admin

from .models import Question
from .models import Choice

admin.site.register(Question)
admin.site.register(Choice)

It makes it easier to edit questions and choices in the Admin UI.

Also when you are shown code samples like:

class Question(models.Model):
    # ...
    def __str__(self):
        return self.question_text

The ... means that you are supposed to keep the information in the file that is already there and add two new lines.

If You Create an admin User and Need to Change its Password

Note that when Linux / Bash is promoting for a password, it does not "echo" your characters so someone watching over your shoulder does not see the password. Just type the password and press enter. Trust that Linux is listening as you type even though it does not show the characters as you type.

If you run createsuperuser and end up with an admin account and want to change the password for an account, use:

cd ~/django_projects/mysite
python manage.py changepassword admin

You can change any Django user account using this approach.

If Your Model/Database Gets Messed Up Completely - Start over

Since this is your first time doing a model and migrations, things can get messed up - if you want to clean up your database and start with a fresh database using the following instructions:

cd ~/django_projects/mysite
rm */migrations/00*
rm db.sqlite3
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser    # If needed

You need to recreate the superuser because it is stored in the database and the rm command emptied out your database. You can do this process any time your database feels like it is messed up. But you have to re-enter all your data.