Django for Everybody (DJ4E)

As of June 2025, this course is transitioning from Django 4.2 to Django 5.3 and moving from the Ads series of assignments to the Marketplace series of assignments. You will find the Django 4.2 Ads assignments at the bottom of the list of lessons.

1: Welcome to Django for Everybody

We look at why Django is a popular web technology and compare it to other web development technologies like PHP.

2: Introduction to Dynamic Web Content

We look at the basic structure of a web application and how a web browser interacts with a web server. We explore the Request-Response Cycle that is the basis of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

3: Installing Django on PythonAnywhere

This walks through the installation steps for Django on PythonAnywhere.

4: Using the Command Line Shell on PythonAnywhere

During this class you will be using the command line interface (shell) to work with Linux on PythonAnywhere. Since Linux is the operating system used by most of the cloud servers in production, it is good for you to have a basic understanding of the Linux command line interface. In this section we do a quick overview of using the Shell on PythonAnywhere. For this module you watch a video and take a quiz.

5: HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

We briefly cover the basics of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) that is the markup for web pages. The recorded lectures are from Web Applications for Everybody.

6: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

We briefly cover the basics of cascading Style Sheets (CSS) that allow us to style the markup for web pages.

7: Basic SQL

This is a quick look at databases in general and the basic operations (CRUD) in Structured Query Language (SQL). We don't go too far into SQL because we will be using Django's model capabilities to build the databases for our application.

8: Django Data Models

This section explores how we define models in Django and then we build the data models and explore the administration interface for our application.

9: Understanding Model View Controller (MVC)

We cover the concept of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) in web applications.

10: Django Views and Templates

We finally get to looking at the core of a Django application - the views and templates.

11: Object-Oriented Programming in Python

We do a quick look at how Python supports the Object-Oriented programming pattern.

12: Django Generic Views

We look at the generic views capability within Django.

13: Forms in HTTP and HTML

We cover how GET and POST work, how forms are constructed from HTML, how we protect our applications against Cross-Site Scripting Forgery (CSRF), and how we handle browser refreshes after POST.

14: Cookies and Sessions

We explore how cookies work in the browser and how to set and read cookies in Django. We then explore how cookies are used to support sessions in Django and how we use sessions in Django.

15: One-To-Many Data Models

We explore the design of one-to-many data models.

16: Django Users and Authentication

This exercise explores the interaction between authentication and our application.

17: Form Objects in Django

We cover how to use the Django built in forms objects and their connection to Django models to futher simplify our view processing.

18: Autos CRUD Application

In this assignment we build a small CRUD application from scratch to support an autos database that we will use as a base to build on going forward. This will serve as a way to review some of the concepts in the tutorial that we might have covered a little too quickly.

19: Cats CRUD and Concept Review

This module will build a second CRUD application to make sure you know how to make new applications according to a specification. It is a great time to review important concepts in the course in the context of your first complete application.

20: MarketPlace Setup

We start the Django 5.2 Marketplace application by checking out a copy of a GitHib repository and getting it running on PythonAnywhere.

21: Owned Rows

We cover how we mark objects as 'owned' by Django users.

22: MarketPlace (1)

We explore crispy forms and bootstrap menus and then use owned rows we write the first iteration of the marketplace application.

23: JavaScript

We take a quick look at the JavaScript language.

24: Object Oriented Programming in JavaScript

We do a quick look at how the JavaScript language supports the Object-Oriented pattern.

25: Marketplace + Pictures (2)

We add pictures to our classified ads application.

26: Many-To-Many Data Models

We further explore the design of many-to-many data models and write a Django script to load comma-separated (CSV) data into many-to-many tables.

27: Marketplace + Comments (3)

We add comments to our marketplace application.

28: JavaScript and the Browser

We look at particular aspects of the JavaScript run-time in a browser including manipulation of the Document Object Model(DOM) and event handling.

29: JSON / AJAX

In this section we look at JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). JSON is commonly used as a syntax to exchange data between code running on the server (i.e. in Django) and code running in the browser in JavaScript.

30: Marketplace - Favorites (4)

We add favorites to our marketplace application.

31: Marketplace - Search (5)

We add search a feature our marketplace application.

32: Building an Application on Your Own

This week - in the auto grader - you will be presented with a sample application and you are to replicate its fuctionality. There is no new material - but you might want to look back and review some material to help with this assignment.

33: Project Overview

Introduce your project to the rest of the class.

34: Project Milestone 2

Introduce your project to the rest of the class.

35: Project Milestone 3

Design a first verson of the user interface (UI) for your project.

36: Project Milestone 4

Design a first verson of the data model (UI) for your project.

37: Project Milestone 5 - Project Review

This is a project review to get feedback to help you for the final project submission.

38: Project Milestone 6 - Final Report

This is the final project submission.

39: Classified Ads #1 (Django 4.2)

We explore crispy forms, and bootstrap menus and then use owned rows we write the first iteration of the classified ads application.

40: Classified Ads + Pictures (Django 4.2)

We add pictures to our classified ads application.

41: Classified Ads + Comments (Django 4.2)

We add comments to our classified ads application.

42: Classified Ads Favorites #3 (Django 4.2)

We add favorites to our classified ads application.

43: Classified Ads Search #4 (Django 4.2)

We add search a feature our classified ads application.

44: MDN Tutorial (Legacy)

This is a set of assignments centered around the Mozilla Developer Network Django tutorial.