WITTY Tech Webinars: Intro to Django

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Thanks to all who joined our first webinar! Over the next few weeks, we will be running a webinar series, for more info on the series check out our blog post!

For webinar one, we introduced Django, the web framework The WIT Project is currently using to build out an app for the nonprofit YearUp. If you missed it or wish to go through it at your own pace, here is a link to the webinar recording.

Here’s the TL;DR on what we covered: 

Using the Django Girls Tutorial we took you through the development cycle of web application using Django, a server-side web framework written in Python.

  1. Using a virtual env: Virtual environments are critical to knowing what libraries you’ve installed into your project and encapsulating those libraries into a requirements.txt file so you can share your code with friends!

  2. Starting your first Django app: Starting a Django app is so simple you can do it without writing a single line of code. Add some ALLOWED_HOSTS in your settings.py and you’re good to runserver! 

  3. Creating your first application: Again, with a single command you can create a brand new app. For our tutorial, we made a blog! *Note: Never forget to add your app to your settings.py*

  4. Django Models: Models are one of the best parts of Django. They completely simplify creating database schemas. If you are still confused as to what they are, check out this awesome tutorial from Mozilla! 

  5. Django Admin: Behold, the amazing admin features of Django. Through creating a superuser you can configure and create content for your web app.

A bit more on Web Frameworks and Django: 

In case you're still not sure what a web framework is, it is a code library that makes web development easier to reuse code for common HTTP operations and to structure projects so other developers with knowledge of the framework can quickly build and maintain the application. Here’s a great web framework rundown. 

There are MANY web frameworks but we <3 Django because…. 

  1. Reusability

  2. Maintainability

  3. Versatility

  4. Scalability

  5. Database integrations 

  6. URL routing

  7. Out of the box features !! (i.e. magic admin powers) 

LASTLY, here are some of the amazing web apps built using Django:

  1. Instagram

  2. Spotify

  3. Eventbrite 

  4. Bitbucket

  5. Pinterest

  6. Washington Post 

  7. Perhaps your next project? 

What’s next?

Our next webinar is 4/15, focusing on GitHub and Linux Commands - sign up here!

For those of you free this weekend check out MLH hack day this Sunday!!  

P.S. Feel free to comment your thoughts below and we can’t wait to see you all again soon!

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