django

Django Development (2025)

Project Structure

project_name/
├── config/                 # Project config (rename from project_name/)
│   ├── settings/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── base.py
│   │   ├── dev.py
│   │   └── prod.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── wsgi.py
│   └── asgi.py             # Required for async
├── apps/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── core/               # Shared utilities, base models
├── templates/
├── static/
├── manage.py
├── pyproject.toml          # Modern Python packaging
└── requirements/
    ├── base.txt
    ├── dev.txt
    └── prod.txt

Environment & Settings

# config/settings/base.py
import environ

env = environ.Env(
    DEBUG=(bool, False),
)
environ.Env.read_env()

SECRET_KEY = env("SECRET_KEY")
DEBUG = env("DEBUG")
DATABASES = {"default": env.db()}

# .env
SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
DEBUG=True
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/dbname

Naming Conventions

Component	Convention	Example
App	singular, lowercase	blog, user_profile
Model	singular PascalCase	Article, UserProfile
View (function)	noun_action	article_detail
View (class)	NounActionView	ArticleDetailView
URL name	app:noun-action	blog:article-detail
Template	app/noun_action.html	blog/article_detail.html

Models

from django.db import models
from django.urls import reverse


class TimestampedModel(models.Model):
    """Abstract base for created/updated timestamps."""
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True


class Article(TimestampedModel):
    class Status(models.TextChoices):
        DRAFT = "draft", "Draft"
        PUBLISHED = "published", "Published"

    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    slug = models.SlugField(max_length=200, unique=True)
    author = models.ForeignKey(
        "auth.User",
        on_delete=models.CASCADE,
        related_name="articles",
    )
    status = models.CharField(
        max_length=20,
        choices=Status.choices,
        default=Status.DRAFT,
        db_index=True,
    )

    class Meta:
        ordering = ["-created_at"]
        indexes = [
            models.Index(fields=["status", "created_at"]),
        ]

    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return self.title

    def get_absolute_url(self) -> str:
        return reverse("blog:article-detail", kwargs={"slug": self.slug})