📘 Django To-Do App — A Beginner to Intermediate Journey

Welcome to my Django learning journey — documented, structured, and evolving in real-time. This repo begins with setting up Django from scratch and progresses into building a full-featured To-Do App using Django’s powerful capabilities.

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🚀 What You’ll Learn

This repository covers both foundational and intermediate-level Django development concepts :-

🔰 Basics

• Setting up a Django Project & App
• Virtual Environment Configuration
• Understanding Django Project Structure
• URL Routing and Views

🧱 Intermediate Features

• CRUD Operations with Django ORM
• SQLite3 Integration
• User Authentication (Login/Logout)
• Middleware Implementation
• Real-Time Updates with Django Channels
• API Endpoints: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE
• Pagination & Query Parameters
• Postman API Testing and Collection Export

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💡 Project Outcome

A fully functional, tested To-Do Application:

• Create, read, update, delete tasks
• Filter tasks using parameters
• Authenticate users for personalized task lists
• Real-time updates when a task is added or modified

🔗 Postman Collection included → Click to View Collection

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🛠️ Project Setup Instructions

1. Create Project Directory

mkdir Django-Learning && cd Django-Learning

2. Setup Virtual Environment

python -m venv MyEnvironment
.\MyEnvironment\Scripts\Activate.ps1  # PowerShell (Windows)

To deactivate: deactivate

3. Install Django

pip install django

4. Start Project

django-admin startproject myproject .

5. Create App

python manage.py startapp myapp

6. Register App in settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'myapp',
]

7. Apply Migrations

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

8. Run Server

python manage.py runserver

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📂 Key Files and Their Purpose

File / Folder	Purpose
manage.py	Command-line utility to interact with the project (runserver, migrations, etc.).
settings.py	Holds configuration settings like database, installed apps, static files, etc.
urls.py	Maps URLs to corresponding views (acts as a request router).
views.py	Handles request logic and returns responses (HTML, JSON, etc.).
models.py	Defines your database schema using Django ORM.
admin.py	Configures which models are accessible via the admin dashboard.
apps.py	Holds metadata for your Django app.
tests.py	Contains unit tests for validating app functionality.
db.sqlite3	Lightweight default development database.
wsgi.py	Interface for deploying the app using WSGI-compatible servers.
asgi.py (optional)	Used for asynchronous applications (e.g., WebSockets).

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🧪 API Testing (Postman)

All API routes were tested using Postman. A structured collection with example requests is available in this repo.

📁 _Includes over 30+ structured requests for:

• Auth
• CRUD
• Pagination
• Middleware_

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🏁 Certificates Earned

🏅 4 individual course certifications 🏅 1 full learning path certificate for "Introduction to Django for Back-End Development" by CodeSignal

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💻 What’s Next?

📋 Mastering Django Admin Panel 🔍 Deep diving into Django REST Framework (DRF) 🚀 Learning deployment strategies (Heroku, Railway, etc.) 🏗️ Building real-world production-ready projects 🛠️ Implementing best practices for scalability and security

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📚 References

• Django Official Documentation
• Postman Learning Center
• Django ORM Guide
• Django Channels Docs

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🙌 Acknowledgements

Thanks to CodeSignal for a structured, beginner-friendly path.

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🌟 Star this repo if it helped you — and feel free to fork, learn, and contribute.