Django Hello, World / Quickstart / Cheatsheet for Windows

HelloDjango.txt

$ cd Desktop

$ mkdir HelloDjango

$ cd HelloDjango

// Create Virtual Environment with Python's venv

$ python -m venv env

// Activate the Virtual Environment (Windows)
$ env\Scripts\activate

// Install Django
(env) $ python -m pip install Django

// Create / Update requirements.txt File
(env) $ pip freeze > requirements.txt

    // Running someone else's Django App? 
    // See below how to install dependencies from requirements.txt file...
    (env) $ pip install -r requirements.txt

// Create Django Project (Project Can Contain Many Apps)
(env) $ django-admin startproject hellodjango

    // Run Django Development Server 
    (env) $ python manage.py runserver

// Create Django App
(env) $ cd hellodjango
(env) $ python manage.py startapp hellodjangoapp

// Connect new "App" to Project
Open the settings.py file under the hellodjango directory,
and add hellodjangoapp.apps.HellodjangoappConfig to INSTALLED_APPS
Example:


# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'hellodjangoapp.apps.HellodjangoappConfig',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]

// Add your first view (hello, world) to hellodjangoapp/views.py

from django.http import HttpResponse

# Create your views here.
def index(request):
    return HttpResponse("hello, world")

// Create your app's urls.py file (will also need to update project urls.py after this)
from django.urls import path

from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index, name='index'),
]

// Now update your project's urls.py file (notice updated import statements)

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    path('', include('hellodjangoapp.urls')),
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
]

// Run development server (run from hellodjango directory)
(env) $ cd hellodjango
(env) $ python manage.py runserver

// Now visit http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your web browser to see your hello, world in action


// NOTE: Apparently Django will create your requirements.txt file for you
// the first time you run the development server, so the requirements.txt
// code above is likely NOT necessary, consider removing from instructions.