Session Overview

Project Introduction

So far, we have learned the fundamental concepts of Django such as Models, Views, Templates, Forms and CRUD operations.

Now it is time to build a complete real-world application by applying all these concepts together.

Project Name

Project Features

Create Blog Project

We will create a new Django Project inside a Virtual Environment.

This keeps the project independent and manages all required packages in one place.

Step 1 - Create Project Folder

mkdir blogproject

cd blogproject

Step 2 - Create Virtual Environment

python -m venv venv

Step 3 - Activate Virtual Environment

venv\Scripts\activate

Step 4 - Install Django

pip install django

Step 5 - Create Django Project

django-admin startproject blogproject

Step 6 - Install Required Packages

pip install mysqlclient

pip install pillow

pip install django-ckeditor

Step 7 - Open Visual Studio Code

code .

Step 8 - Verify Installation

python manage.py runserver

Configure MySQL Database

By default, Django uses SQLite. For this project, we will use MySQL as our database.

Step 1 - Create Database

CREATE DATABASE BlogDB;

Step 2 - Open settings.py

blogproject/settings.py

Step 3 - Update DATABASES

DATABASES = {

    'default': {

        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',

        'NAME': 'BlogDB',

        'USER': 'root',

        'PASSWORD': '',

        'HOST': 'localhost',

        'PORT': '3306',

    }

}

Step 4 - Apply Migrations

python manage.py migrate

Create Blog App

A Django Project can contain multiple Applications.

We will create a separate application named blog to manage all blog-related features.

Step 1 - Create App

python manage.py startapp blog

Step 2 - Register App

Open:

blogproject/settings.py

Add the app name inside INSTALLED_APPS.

'blog',

Configure Project Resources

Before developing the Blog Project, we will configure the Templates, Static Files and Media Files.

This prepares the project for storing HTML pages, CSS, JavaScript and uploaded Blog Images.

Step 1 - Create Folder Structure

blogproject
│
├── blog
│
├── templates
│
├── static
│   ├── css
│   ├── js
│   └── images
│
├── media
│
├── manage.py
│
└── blogproject

Step 2 - Configure Templates Folder

Open blogproject/settings.py and update the TEMPLATES setting.

'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'templates'],

Step 3 - Configure Static Files

Add the following code in settings.py.

STATIC_URL = 'static/'

STATICFILES_DIRS = [

    BASE_DIR / 'static',

]

Step 4 - Configure Media Files

MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'media'

Step 5 - Configure Media URLs

Open blogproject/urls.py.

Import the following modules.

from django.conf import settings

from django.conf.urls.static import static

Add the following code after urlpatterns.

if settings.DEBUG:

    urlpatterns += static(

        settings.MEDIA_URL,

        document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT

    )

Create Base Template

Instead of creating the layout for every page separately, we will create a common base.html file.

This file contains the common Header, Navigation Bar and Footer used throughout the project.

File Location

templates/base.html

base.html

<!DOCTYPE html>

{% load static %}

<html lang="en">

<head>

    <meta charset="UTF-8">

    <meta name="viewport"
          content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

    <title>Django Blog Portal</title>

    <!-- Bootstrap CSS -->
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.7/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css"
          rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- Font Awesome -->
    <link rel="stylesheet"
          href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/6.7.2/css/all.min.css">

    <!-- Custom CSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet"
          href="{% static 'css/style.css' %}">

</head>

<body>

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">

    <div class="container">

        <a class="navbar-brand"
           href="/">

            <i class="fa-solid fa-blog"></i>

            Django Blog

        </a>

        <button class="navbar-toggler"
                data-bs-toggle="collapse"
                data-bs-target="#menu">

            <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>

        </button>

        <div class="collapse navbar-collapse"
             id="menu">

            <ul class="navbar-nav ms-auto">

                <li class="nav-item">

                    <a class="nav-link"
                       href="/">

                        <i class="fa-solid fa-house"></i>

                        Home

                    </a>

                </li>

                <li class="nav-item">

                    <a class="nav-link"
                       href="#">

                        <i class="fa-solid fa-folder"></i>

                        Categories

                    </a>

                </li>

                <li class="nav-item">

                    <a class="nav-link"
                       href="#">

                        <i class="fa-solid fa-file-lines"></i>

                        Posts

                    </a>

                </li>

                <li class="nav-item">

                    <a class="nav-link"
                       href="#">

                        <i class="fa-solid fa-right-to-bracket"></i>

                        Login

                    </a>

                </li>

            </ul>

        </div>

    </div>

</nav>

<div class="container my-5">

    {% block content %}

    {% endblock %}

</div>

<footer class="bg-dark text-white text-center py-3">

    <p class="mb-0">

        © 2026 Django Blog Portal |
        Developed During Python Django Training

    </p>

</footer>

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.7/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js"></script>

</body>

</html>

Configure URLs and Run Project

Finally, we will connect the Blog App with the main project and display the Home page.

Step 1 - Create urls.py inside Blog App

blog/urls.py

from django.urls import path

from . import views

urlpatterns = [

    path('', views.home, name='home'),

]

Step 2 - Update blog/views.py

from django.shortcuts import render

def home(request):

    return render(request,'home.html')

Step 3 - Include App URLs

Open blogproject/urls.py.

from django.contrib import admin

from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [

    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),

    path('', include('blog.urls')),

]

Step 4 - Create Home Page

templates/home.html

{% extends 'base.html' %}

{% block content %}

<div class="text-center mt-5">

    <h1>Welcome To Django Blog Portal</h1>

    <p>

        Our Blog Project setup is completed successfully.

    </p>

</div>

{% endblock %}

Step 5 - Run Project

python manage.py runserver

Quick Revision

python -m venv venv

pip install django

django-admin startproject blogproject

python manage.py startapp blog

python manage.py migrate

python manage.py runserver

Assignment