Kickstarting a Modern Django Project (using UV) in 2025

Part 1: Setting Up Your Initial Django Project

This part covers setting up a standard, default Django project using your preferred workflow (Terminal, VS Code, or PyCharm).

1.1: Getting Started: Prerequisites & Setup

1.2: Setting Up Your Django Project

Part 2: Adding Your First App & Core Concepts

A Django project is the overall container for your application's settings and configurations (e.g., database settings, installed apps, URL routing at the project level). A project can contain multiple apps, which are modular components that handle specific functionalities (like a blog, a user management system, etc.). Think of the project as the building and apps as the distinct rooms or services within it.

With the default project running, let's create your first Django app and understand core concepts.

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    'my_first_app', # Or 'my_first_app.apps.MyFirstAppConfig' if using AppConfig
    # ... django apps ...
]

from django.db import models

class Greeting(models.Model):
    message = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.message

from django.http import HttpResponse
from .models import Greeting

def hello_world(request):
    greeting = Greeting.objects.first()  # Get the first greeting, or None
    if not greeting:
        greeting_text = "No greetings yet!"
    else:
        greeting_text = greeting.message
    return HttpResponse(f"<h1>{greeting_text}</h1><p>From my_first_app!</p>")

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('hello/', views.hello_world, name='hello_world'),
]

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

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('app/', include('my_first_app.urls')),  # This adds your app URLs
]

Part 3: Modern Project Templates

Part 4: Implementing Core Admin Features with SQL Database

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': os.environ.get('DB_NAME', 'mydatabase'),
        'USER': os.environ.get('DB_USER', 'mydatabaseuser'),
        'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('DB_PASSWORD', 'mypassword'),
        'HOST': os.environ.get('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
        'PORT': os.environ.get('DB_PORT', '5432'),
    }
}

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Greeting

@admin.register(Greeting)
class GreetingAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ('message', 'created_at')
    search_fields = ('message',)

Part 5: Essential Django Commands

Execute from project root with virtual environment active.

Beyond Development: Deployment Considerations

While this guide focuses on setting up your local development environment, deploying your Django application to a production server involves additional steps. Unlike the built-in development server, production deployments typically use a Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) server (like Gunicorn or uWSGI) to handle requests, often in conjunction with a web proxy server (like Nginx or Apache, or AWS Lambda).

For more on deployment strategies and options, I made a recent post sharing my current hosting preferences: How I Host My Apps: How to Deploy in 2025

Part 6: Troubleshooting Common Issues

# Find the process using port 8000
lsof -i :8000

# Kill the process
kill <PID>

# Import your model
from my_first_app.models import Greeting

# Query data
Greeting.objects.all()

# Create test data
Greeting.objects.create(message="Hello, Django!")