Django Project Tutorial 2

Learning Objectives:

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

Follow the instructions in this tutorial:

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

Skim all the notes below before starting the tutorial - it will save you a lot of time.

Notes for 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 called django_projects.

Make sure to do all your work in ~/django_projects/myite and not djangotutorial. You can always type this command to make sure you are in the correct folder in a PythonAnywhere shell:

cd ~/django_projects/mysite

Hint: At the point where the tutorial tells you to modify the polls/admin.py you should also import the Choice model following the pattern of importing the Question model. It will make completing the assignment a lot easier.

Note that when you are typing a password for the createsuperuser command in the tutorial, it does not echo your characters so folks can't observe your password. It looks like your typing is not working - but it is - simply type the letters and then enter - you will enter your password twice to verify.

Also when you are running python manage.py shell - to exit the shell and get back to bash use the quit() command.

Also as a reminder, you never use runserver on PythonAnywhere:

python manage.py runserver     # <-- Never run this on pythonanywhere

Instead after you change files, run

python manage.py check

And then go to the the PythonAnywhere Web tab and press Reload.

Also when it tells you to navigate to a localhost or 127.0.0.1 like

http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin
http://localhost:8000/admin

Instead nagivate to the same path on your PythonAnywhere site:

(your-account).pythonanywhere.com/admin

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.