Web Development with Django: A definitive guide to building modern Python web applications using Django 4. 2 Ed

Cover....1 Title Page....2 Copyright and Credits....3 Dedication....4 Contributors....5 Table of Contents....8 Preface....18 Chapter 1: Introduction to Django....24 Technical requirements....25 Scaffolding a Django project and app....25 Exercise 1.01 – creating a project and app, and starting the development server ....27 Understanding the model-view-template paradigm....30 Models....30 Views....31 Templates....31 MVT in practice....31 An introduction to HTTP....34 Processing a request....38 Exploring the Django project structure....39 The myproject directory....41 Django development server....42 Django apps....42 PyCharm setup....44 Exercise 1.02 – project setup in PyCharm....44 Introducing Django views....53 Exploring URL mapping detail....54 Exercise 1.03 – writing a view and mapping a URL to it....55 Working with GET, POST, and QueryDict objects....59 Exercise 1.04 – exploring GET values and QueryDict objects....61 Exploring Django settings....63 Referring to Django Settings in Your Code....65 Finding HTML templates in app directories....66 Exercise 1.05 – creating a templates directory and a base template....66 Rendering a template with the render function....70 Exercise 1.06 – rendering a template in a view....70 Rendering variables in templates....72 Exercise 1.07 – using variables in templates....72 Debugging and dealing with errors....75 Exceptions....75 Exercise 1.08 – generating and viewing exceptions....77 Debugging....78 Exercise 1.09 – debugging your code....79 Activity 1.01 – creating a site welcome screen....83 Activity 1.02 – a book search scaffold....84 Summary....86 Chapter 2: Models and Migrations....88 Technical requirements....89 Understanding and using databases....89 Relational databases....90 Non-relational databases....90 Database operations using SQL....91 Data types in relational databases....91 Exercise 2.01 – creating a book database....91 Understanding CRUD operations using SQL....95 SQL create operations....96 SQL read operations....96 SQL update operations....97 SQL delete Operations....98 Exploring Django ORM....98 Database configuration and creating Django applications....99 Django apps....100 Django migration....101 Creating Django models and migrations....103 Field options....105 Primary keys....107 Relationships....109 Adding the Review model....113 Model methods....115 Migrating the reviews app....116 Django’s database CRUD operations....118 Exercise 2.02 – creating an entry in the bookr database....119 Exercise 2.03 – using the create() method to create an entry....120 Creating an object with a foreign key....121 Exercise 2.04 – creating records for a many-to-one relationship....121 Exercise 2.05 – creating records with many-to-many relationships....123 Exercise 2.06 – a many-to-many relationship using the add() method....124 Using the create() and set() methods for many-to-many relationships....125 Read operations....126 Exercise 2.07 – using the get() method to retrieve an object....126 Returning an object using the get() method....127 Exercise 2.08 – using the all() method to retrieve a set of objects....128 Retrieving objects by filtering....128 Exercise 2.09 – using the filter() method to retrieve objects....129 Filtering by field lookups....129 Using pattern matching for filtering operations....130 Retrieving objects by using the exclude() method....131 Retrieving objects using the order_by() method....131 Querying across relationships....134 Querying using foreign keys....134 Querying using the model name....134 Querying across foreign key relationships using the object instance....135 Exercise 2.10 – querying across a many-to-many relationship using the field lookup....135 Exercise 2.11 – a many-to-many query using objects....136 Exercise 2.12 – a many-to-many query using the set() method....136 Exercise 2.13 – using the update() method....137 Exercise 2.14 – using the delete() method....138 Bulk create and bulk update operations....138 Exercise 2.15 – creating multiple records using bulk_create....139 Exercise 2.16 – updating multiple records using bulk_update....140 Performing complex lookups using Q objects....140 Exercise 2.17 – performing a complex query using a Q object....141 Exercise 2.18 – verifying whether a queryset contains a given object....141 Activity 2.01 – creating models for a project management application....143 Populating the Bookr project’s database....143 Summary....144 Chapter 3: URL Mapping, Views, and Templates....146 Technical requirements....147 Understanding function-based views....147 Understanding class-based views....147 URL configuration....148 Exercise 3.01 – implementing a simple function-based view....150 Working with Django templates....153 Exercise 3.02 – using templates to display a greeting message....155 Django’s template language....157 Exercise 3.03 – displaying a list of books and reviews....159 Template inheritance....162 Template styling with Bootstrap....163 Exercise 3.04 – adding template inheritance and a Bootstrap navigation bar....165 Activity 3.01 – implementing the book details view....167 Summary....169 Chapter 4: An Introduction to Django Admin....170 Technical requirements....172 Creating a superuser account....172 Exercise 4.01 – creating a superuser account....172 CRUD operations using the Django admin app....174 Create....175 Retrieve....177 Update....179 Delete....181 Managing Django users and groups....182 Exercise 4.02 – adding and modifying users and groups through the admin app....183 Registering models with the admin app....188 Registering the reviews model....189 Change lists....190 The Change publisher page....191 The Book change page....195 Exercise 4.03 – foreign keys and deletion behavior in the admin app....198 Customizing the admin interface....200 Site-wide Django admin customizations....200 Customizing the ModelAdmin classes....210 The list display fields....211 The display decorator....217 The filter....218 Exercise 4.04 – adding the date list_filter and date_hierarchy filters....219 The search bar....222 Excluding and grouping fields....225 Activity 4.03 – customizing the Model admins....229 Summary....232 Chapter 5: Serving Static Files....234 Technical requirements....236 Static file serving....236 Introduction to Static Files Finder....237 Static file finders – use during a request....238 AppDirectoriesFinder....238 Static file namespacing....239 Exercise 5.01 – serving a file from an app directory....241 Generating static URLs with the static template tag....245 Exercise 5.02 – using the static template tag....249 FileSystemFinder....252 Exercise 5.03 – serving from a project static directory....253 Static file finders – use during collectstatic....256 Exercise 5.04 – collecting static files for production....258 STATICFILES_DIRS prefixed mode....259 The findstatic command....262 Exercise 5.05 – finding files using findstatic....263 Serving the latest files (for cache invalidation)....266 Exercise 5.06 – exploring the ManifestFilesStorage storage engine....268 Custom storage engines....272 Activity 5.01 – adding a Reviews logo....275 Activity 5.02 – CSS enhancements....277 Activity 5.03 – adding a global logo....279 Summary....281 Chapter 6: Forms....282 Technical requirements....282 What is a form?....283 The form element....285 Types of inputs....286 Exercise 6.01 – building a form in HTML....287 Form security with Cross-Site Request Forgery Protection....295 Accessing data in the View....299 Exercise 6.02 – working with POST data in a view....299 Choosing between GET or POST....303 Why use GET when we can put parameters in the URL mappings?....305 The Django Forms library....306 Defining a form....307 Rendering a form in a template....318 Exercise 6.03 – building and rendering a Django form....323 Validating forms and retrieving Python values....328 Exercise 6.04 – validating forms in a view....331 Built-in field validation....334 Exercise 6.05 – adding extra field validation....335 Activity 1 – Book Search....337 Summary....341 Chapter 7: Advanced Form Validation and Model Forms....342 Technical requirements....343 Custom field validation and cleaning....343 Custom validators....343 Cleaning methods....345 Multi-field validation....346 Exercise 7.01 – custom clean and validation methods....350 Adding placeholders and initial values....359 Exercise 7.02 – placeholders and initial values....361 Creating or editing Django models....363 The ModelForm class....365 Exercise 7.03 – creating and editing a publisher....369 Activity 7.01 – styling and integrating the publisher form....375 Activity 7.02 – Review Creation UI....379 Summary....386 Chapter 8: Media Serving and File Uploads....388 Technical requirements....389 Settings for media uploads and serving....389 Serving media files in development....389 Exercise 8.01 – configuring media storage and serving....390 Context processors and using MEDIA_URL in templates....394 Exercise 8.02 – template settings and using MEDIA_URL in templates....396 File uploads using HTML forms....399 Working with uploaded files in a view....401 Exercise 8.03 – file upload and download....404 File uploads with Django forms....408 Exercise 8.04 – file uploads with a Django form....409 Image uploads with Django forms....414 Resizing an image with Pillow....416 Exercise 8.05 – image uploads using Django forms....417 Serving uploaded (and other) files using Django....420 Storing files on model instances....421 Storing images on model instances....425 Working with FieldFile....426 Referring to media in templates....431 ModelForms and file uploads....437 Exercise 8.07 – file and image uploads using ModelForm....439 Handling file saving....442 Activity 8.01 – image and PDF upload of books....444 Activity 8.02 – displaying the cover and sample link....448 Summary....450 Chapter 9: Sessions and Authentication....452 Technical requirements....453 Middleware....453 Middleware modules....454 Implementing authentication views and templates....456 Exercise 9.01 – repurposing the Admin app login template....461 Password storage in Django....464 The profile page and the request.user object....464 Exercise 9.02 – adding a profile page....465 Authentication decorators and redirection....467 Exercise 9.03 – adding authentication decorators to the views....470 Enhancing templates with authentication data....473 Exercise 9.04 – toggling login and logout links in the base template ....473 Activity 9.01 – authentication-based content using conditional blocks in templates ....475 Sessions....477 The session engine....477 Do you need to flag cookie content?....478 Pickle or JSON storage?....479 Exercise 9.05 – examining the session key....480 Storing data in sessions....484 Exercise 9.06 – storing recently viewed books in sessions....485 Activity 9.02 – using session storage for the Book Search page....490 Summary....492 Chapter 10: Advanced Django Admin and Customizations....494 Technical requirements....495 Customizing the admin site....495 Discovering admin files in Django....495 Django’s AdminSite class....496 Exercise 10.01 – creating a custom admin site for Bookr....498 Overriding the default admin.site....501 Exercise 10.02 – overriding the default admin site....501 Customizing admin site text using AdminSite attributes....503 Customizing admin site templates....504 Exercise 10.03 – customizing the logout template for the Bookr admin site....506 Adding views to the admin site....508 Creating the view function....508 Accessing common template variables....509 Mapping URLs for the custom view....509 Restricting custom views to the admin site....510 Exercise 10.04 – adding custom views to the admin site....511 Passing additional keys to templates using template variables....514 Activity 10.01 – building a custom admin dashboard with a built-in search....515 Summary....517 Chapter 11: Advanced Templating and Class-Based Views....518 Technical requirements....519 Template filters....519 Custom template filters....520 Creating custom template filters....521 Implementing the custom filter function....522 Using custom filters inside templates....522 Exercise 11.01 – Creating a custom template filter....523 String filters....526 Template tags....527 The types of template tags....528 Simple tags....528 Creating a simple template tag....528 Exercise 11.02 – Creating a custom simple tag....530 Inclusion tags....533 Exercise 11.03 – Building a custom inclusion tag....535 Django views....538 Class-based views....538 Exercise 11.04 – Creating a book catalog using a CBV....540 CRUD operations with CBVs....546 The Read view....547 Activity 11.01 – Rendering details on the user profile page using inclusion tags....551 Summary....553 Chapter 12: Building a REST API....554 Technical requirements....555 Understanding REST APIs....555 Django REST framework....555 Installation and configuration....556 Functional API views....556 Understanding serializers....559 Class-based API views and generic views....562 Activity 12.01 – creating an API endpoint for a top contributors page....567 Simplifying the code using ViewSets....568 URL configuration using routers and Viewsets....569 Exercise 12.04 – using ViewSets and routers....569 Implementing authentication....573 Token-based authentication....574 Exercise 12.05 – omplementing token-based authentication for Bookr APIs....574 Summary....579 Chapter 13: Generating CSV, PDF, and Other Binary Files....580 Technical requirements....581 Working with CSV files inside Python....581 Working with Python’s csv module....581 Reading data from a CSV file....581 Exercise 13.0 – reading a CSV file with Python....582 Writing to CSV files using Python....585 Exercise 13.02 – generating a CSV file using Python’s csv module....586 A better way to read and write CSV files....589 Working with Excel files in Python....591 Binary file formats for data exports....592 Working with XLSX files using the XlsxWriter package....592 XLSX files....592 Exercise 13.03 – creating XLSX files in Python....595 Working with PDF files in Python....598 Converting web pages into PDFs....598 Exercise 13.04 – generating a PDF version of a web page in Python....598 Playing with graphs in Python....601 Integrating plotly with Django....606 Integrating visualizations with Django....606 Exercise 13.06 – visualizing a user’s reading history on the user’s profile page....606 Activity 13.01 – exporting the books read by a user as an XLSLX file....612 Summary....613 Chapter 14: Testing Your Django Applications....614 Technical requirements....615 Importance of testing....615 Automation testing....615 Testing in Django....616 Implementing test cases....617 Unit testing in Django....617 Utilizing assertions....617 Exercise 14.01 – writing a simple unit test....619 Performing pre-test setup and cleanup after every test case run....621 Testing Django models....622 Exercise 14.02 – testing Django models....622 Testing Django views....626 Exercise 14.03 – writing unit tests for Django views....627 Testing views with authentication....630 Exercise 14.04 – writing test cases to validate authenticated users....631 Django RequestFactory....635 Exercise 14.05 – using RequestFactory to test views....635 Testing class-based views....638 Test case classes in Django....638 The SimpleTestCase class....639 The TransactionTestCase class....639 The LiveServerTestCase class....639 Modularizing test code....640 Activity 14.01 – testing models and views in Bookr....641 Summary....642 Chapter 15: Django Third-Party Libraries....644 Technical requirements....645 Environment variables....645 django-configurations....648 manage.py changes....650 Configuration from environment variables....651 Exercise 15.01 – Django configurations setup....652 dj-database-url....656 Exercise 15.02 – dj-database-url and setup....660 The Django Debug Toolbar....661 Exercise 15.03 – setting up the Django Debug Toolbar....678 django-crispy-forms....681 The crispy filter....682 The crispy template Tag....683 Exercise 15.04 – using Django Crispy Forms with SearchForm....685 django-allauth....690 django-allauth installation and setup....693 Initiating authentication with django-allauth....696 Other django-allauth features....696 Activity 15.01 – using FormHelper to update forms....697 Summary....700 Chapter 16: Using a Frontend JavaScript Library with Django....702 Technical requirements....702 JavaScript frameworks....703 An introduction to JavaScript ....705 Loading JavaScript....705 Variables and constants....706 Working with React....711 Components....712 Exercise 16.01 – setting up a React example....717 JSX – a JavaScript syntax extension....720 Exercise 16.02 – JSX and Babel....722 JSX properties....723 Exercise 16.03 – React component properties....724 JavaScript promises....726 The fetch function....727 Exercise 16.04 – fetching and rendering books....731 The verbatim template tag....735 Activity 16.01 – reviews preview....736 Summary....742 Index....744 Other Books You May Enjoy....759