Have you ever wanted a place online to showcase your awesome projects, skills, or creative work? A portfolio website is the perfect solution! It’s your personal corner of the internet where you can impress potential employers, clients, or collaborators.

In this guide, we’re going to build a simple portfolio website using Django. Django is a powerful and popular web framework for Python. Think of a web framework as a complete toolkit that helps you build websites much faster and more efficiently than starting from scratch. Django is known for its “batteries-included” philosophy, meaning it comes with many features built-in, like an admin panel and database management, which are super helpful, especially for beginners.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a functional website that can display a list of your projects, complete with titles, descriptions, and even images!

Why Django for a Portfolio?

Django offers several benefits that make it a great choice for your portfolio:

• Python-based: If you already know or are learning Python, Django will feel familiar.
• Fast Development: Django helps you get features up and running quickly thanks to its conventions and built-in tools.
• Scalable: While we’re starting small, Django can handle websites with millions of users, so your portfolio can grow with you.
• Secure: Django takes security seriously, helping to protect your website from common vulnerabilities.
• Rich Ecosystem: A large community means lots of resources, libraries, and support are available.

Let’s dive in and start building!

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following installed on your computer:

• Python 3: Django requires Python. You can download it from the official Python website.
• pip: This is Python’s package installer, usually included with Python 3. We’ll use it to install Django.
• A Text Editor or IDE: Something like VS Code, Sublime Text, or Atom will be perfect for writing your code.
• Basic Terminal/Command Prompt Knowledge: We’ll be running commands to set up our project.

Setting Up Your Development Environment

It’s good practice to create a virtual environment for each of your Python projects. Think of a virtual environment as a secluded bubble where you install project-specific Python packages (like Django). This prevents conflicts between different projects that might require different versions of the same package.

1. Create a Project Directory

First, create a folder for your project and navigate into it using your terminal.

mkdir my_portfolio
cd my_portfolio

2. Create a Virtual Environment

Inside your my_portfolio directory, run the following command to create a virtual environment named venv (you can name it anything, but venv is common):

python -m venv venv

• python -m venv: This command uses Python’s built-in venv module to create a virtual environment.
• venv: This is the name of the folder that will contain your virtual environment files.

3. Activate the Virtual Environment

Now, activate your virtual environment. The command depends on your operating system:

On macOS/Linux:

source venv/bin/activate

On Windows (Command Prompt):

venv\Scripts\activate.bat

On Windows (PowerShell):

venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

You’ll know it’s active when you see (venv) at the beginning of your terminal prompt.

4. Install Django

With your virtual environment activated, install Django using pip:

pip install django Pillow

• pip install django: This installs the Django web framework.
• Pillow: This is a library Django uses to handle image uploads. We’ll need it because our portfolio projects will have images.

Creating Your Django Project

Now that Django is installed, let’s create our main project.

1. Start the Project

In your my_portfolio directory (where manage.py will live), run:

django-admin startproject portfolio_project .

• django-admin: This is Django’s command-line utility.
• startproject portfolio_project: This tells Django to create a new project named portfolio_project.
• . (the dot): This crucial dot tells Django to create the project files in the current directory, rather than creating another nested folder.

After running this, your my_portfolio directory should look something like this:

my_portfolio/
├── venv/
├── manage.py
└── portfolio_project/
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── asgi.py
    ├── settings.py
    ├── urls.py
    └── wsgi.py

• manage.py: A command-line utility that interacts with your Django project. You’ll use this a lot!
• portfolio_project/: This is the main configuration folder for your entire website.
  • settings.py: Contains all your project’s settings and configurations.
  • urls.py: Defines the “map” of your website, telling Django which functions to run when a specific URL is visited.

2. Run Initial Migrations

Django uses a database to store information. The migrate command sets up the initial database tables that Django needs to function (like user accounts, sessions, etc.).

python manage.py migrate

This will create a db.sqlite3 file in your my_portfolio directory. This is a simple, file-based database perfect for development.

3. Test Your Server

Let’s make sure everything is working by starting Django’s development server:

python manage.py runserver

You should see output similar to this:

Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

You have 18 unapplied migration(s). Your project may not work properly until you apply the migrations for app(s): admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions.
Run 'python manage.py migrate' to apply them.
August 24, 2023 - 14:30:00
Django version 4.2.4, using settings 'portfolio_project.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

Open your web browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/. You should see a “The install worked successfully! Congratulations!” page. This means your Django project is up and running!

You can stop the server at any time by pressing CTRL+C in your terminal.

Creating Your First Django App: projects

A Django project can contain multiple apps. Think of a project as the entire car, and apps as different components like the engine, the dashboard, or the wheels. Each app is a self-contained module that does one thing well. For our portfolio, we’ll create an app called projects to manage our portfolio items.

1. Start the App

Make sure you are in the my_portfolio directory (where manage.py is located) and your virtual environment is active. Then run:

python manage.py startapp projects

This creates a new projects directory inside your my_portfolio folder, with its own set of files:

my_portfolio/
├── venv/
├── manage.py
├── portfolio_project/
└── projects/
    ├── migrations/
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── admin.py
    ├── apps.py
    ├── models.py
    ├── tests.py
    └── views.py

2. Register the App

Django needs to know about your new app. Open portfolio_project/settings.py and find the INSTALLED_APPS list. Add 'projects' to it:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'projects', # Add your new app here
]

Defining Your Portfolio Content (Models)

Models are how Django interacts with your database. Each model is essentially a Python class that defines the structure of a table in your database. For our portfolio, we’ll create a Project model to store information about each of your portfolio items.

1. Create the Project Model

Open projects/models.py and add the following code:

from django.db import models

class Project(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    description = models.TextField()
    image = models.ImageField(upload_to='project_images/')
    project_url = models.URLField(blank=True, null=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

Let’s break down what we added:

• class Project(models.Model):: We define a class named Project that inherits from models.Model. This tells Django it’s a model.
• title = models.CharField(max_length=200): This creates a field for the project’s title. CharField is for short text, and max_length is required to specify its maximum length.
• description = models.TextField(): This creates a field for a longer block of text for the project’s description.
• image = models.ImageField(upload_to='project_images/'): This field is for uploading image files. upload_to specifies a subdirectory within our MEDIA_ROOT where uploaded images will be stored.
• project_url = models.URLField(blank=True, null=True): This field stores a URL for the project (e.g., a link to the live demo or GitHub repository). blank=True means the field isn’t mandatory in forms, and null=True means the database can store NULL values for this field if it’s empty.
• def __str__(self):: This special method defines how an object of this class will be represented as a string. It’s helpful for readability in the Django admin panel.

2. Configure Media Files

Since we’re uploading images, Django needs to know where to store them and how to access them. Open portfolio_project/settings.py and add these lines at the bottom:

import os # Add this line at the very top of the file if not already present


MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')

• MEDIA_URL: This is the URL prefix that will be used to serve media files. For example, http://127.0.0.1:8000/media/project_images/my_project.jpg.
• MEDIA_ROOT: This is the absolute path to the directory where user-uploaded media files will be stored on your server. os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media') creates a media folder right inside your main project directory.

3. Create and Apply Migrations

Whenever you make changes to your models (models.py), you need to do two things:

1. Make migrations: Tell Django to create the necessary instructions to change your database schema based on your model changes.
2. Apply migrations: Execute those instructions to actually update your database.

Run these commands in your terminal:

python manage.py makemigrations projects
python manage.py migrate

• makemigrations projects: This tells Django to look at the projects app and create a new migration file (e.g., 0001_initial.py) inside projects/migrations/. This file describes how to create the Project table in your database.
• migrate: This command applies all pending migrations to your database, creating the Project table.

Making Your Data Accessible (Django Admin)

Django comes with a powerful, ready-to-use administrative interface. It’s fantastic for managing content (like your portfolio projects) without writing custom code.

1. Create a Superuser

To access the admin panel, you need an administrator account (a “superuser”).

python manage.py createsuperuser

Follow the prompts to create a username, email, and password. Make sure to remember them!

2. Register Your Model with the Admin

Open projects/admin.py and tell Django to make your Project model visible and editable in the admin interface:

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Project

admin.site.register(Project)

3. Explore the Admin Panel

Start your development server again:

python manage.py runserver

Go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ in your browser. Log in with the superuser credentials you just created.

You should now see “Projects” listed under the “PROJECTS” section. Click on “Projects” and then “Add project” to add a few sample projects. Upload some images for them too!

Displaying Your Portfolio (Views and URLs)

Now that we have data in our database, we need a way to display it on our website. This involves views (Python functions that handle web requests) and URLs (the web addresses that trigger those views).

1. Create a View to List Projects

Open projects/views.py and add the following code:

from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Project

def project_list(request):
    # Fetch all Project objects from the database
    projects = Project.objects.all()

    # Create a dictionary to pass data to the template
    context = {'projects': projects}

    # Render the 'project_list.html' template, passing the context
    return render(request, 'projects/project_list.html', context)

• from django.shortcuts import render: render is a shortcut function to load a template, fill it with data, and return an HttpResponse.
• from .models import Project: We import our Project model so we can interact with it.
• def project_list(request):: This is our view function. It takes a request object (which contains information about the user’s web request) as an argument.
• projects = Project.objects.all(): This is a powerful command! Project.objects is Django’s Object-Relational Mapper (ORM). It allows us to interact with our database using Python objects instead of writing raw SQL. all() fetches every Project record from the database.
• context = {'projects': projects}: We create a dictionary called context. The keys of this dictionary (here, 'projects') will be the variable names we can use in our template.
• return render(request, 'projects/project_list.html', context): This tells Django to load the HTML file located at projects/project_list.html, insert the projects data into it, and send the resulting HTML back to the user’s browser.

2. Map URLs to Your View

We need to tell Django which URL should trigger our project_list view. This is done in urls.py files.

First, create a new urls.py file inside your projects app directory: projects/urls.py.

from django.urls import path
from . import views # Import the views from the current app

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.project_list, name='project_list'), # Map the root URL of this app to our view
]

• path('', views.project_list, name='project_list'): This line defines a URL pattern.
  • '': This means an empty string, which represents the root URL of this particular app.
  • views.project_list: This is the view function we want to call when this URL is accessed.
  • name='project_list': This gives a name to our URL pattern. It’s useful for referring to this URL dynamically in templates and other parts of our code, rather than hardcoding the URL itself.

Next, we need to include our projects app’s URLs in the main project’s urls.py file. Open portfolio_project/urls.py and modify it:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
from django.conf import settings # Import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static # Import static function

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('projects.urls')), # Include URLs from our 'projects' app
]

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

• from django.urls import path, include: We import include to pull in URL patterns from other urls.py files.
• path('', include('projects.urls')): This tells Django that any request to the root URL of our entire project (/) should be handled by the urls.py file inside our projects app.
• if settings.DEBUG: urlpatterns += static(...): This block is crucial for making our uploaded images (media files) accessible in development. static() is a helper function that tells Django where to find and serve files located in MEDIA_ROOT when requested via MEDIA_URL. Remember: This setup is only for development and should not be used in a production environment.

Making It Pretty (Templates)

Templates are essentially HTML files with special Django template tags and variables that allow you to display dynamic data from your views.

1. Create a Template Directory

Django looks for templates in a specific structure. Inside your projects app, create a templates folder, and inside that, another projects folder. This is a common convention to prevent template name conflicts between different apps.

my_portfolio/
├── ...
└── projects/
    ├── ...
    └── templates/
        └── projects/
            └── project_list.html

2. Create the project_list.html Template

Now, open projects/templates/projects/project_list.html and add this basic HTML structure:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>My Awesome Portfolio</title>
    <style>
        /* A little inline CSS to make it look decent for now */
        body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 20px; line-height: 1.6; background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #333; }
        h1 { color: #0056b3; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 40px; }
        .portfolio-grid { display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(300px, 1fr)); gap: 30px; max-width: 1200px; margin: 0 auto; }
        .project-card { background-color: white; border: 1px solid #ddd; border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.1); overflow: hidden; }
        .project-card img { width: 100%; height: 200px; object-fit: cover; }
        .project-content { padding: 20px; }
        .project-content h2 { margin-top: 0; color: #007bff; }
        .project-content p { font-size: 0.9em; color: #555; }
        .project-content a { display: inline-block; background-color: #007bff; color: white; padding: 8px 15px; border-radius: 5px; text-decoration: none; margin-top: 10px; }
        .project-content a:hover { background-color: #0056b3; }
        .no-projects { text-align: center; color: #777; margin-top: 50px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>My Awesome Portfolio</h1>

    <div class="portfolio-grid">
        <!-- Django template tag: {% for %} loop to iterate over projects -->
        {% for project in projects %}
            <div class="project-card">
                {% if project.image %}
                    <!-- Display project image if available -->
                    <img src="{{ project.image.url }}" alt="{{ project.title }}">
                {% endif %}
                <div class="project-content">
                    <h2>{{ project.title }}</h2>
                    <p>{{ project.description }}</p>
                    {% if project.project_url %}
                        <!-- Display project URL if available -->
                        <a href="{{ project.project_url }}" target="_blank">View Project</a>
                    {% endif %}
                </div>
            </div>
        {% empty %}
            <!-- This block runs if 'projects' list is empty -->
            <p class="no-projects">No projects added yet!</p>
        {% endfor %}
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Here’s what’s happening with the Django template language:

• {% for project in projects %}: This is a for loop that iterates over the projects list that we passed from our project_list view in the context dictionary. In each iteration, the current project object is assigned to the project variable.
• {{ project.title }}, {{ project.description }}, etc.: These are template variables. Django replaces them with the actual values from the project object (e.g., the title, description, or URL of the current project).
• {% if project.image %}: This is an if statement. It checks if project.image exists (i.e., if an image was uploaded for that project).
• {{ project.image.url }}: This specifically gets the URL of the uploaded image file.
• {% empty %}: This is a special part of the for loop that displays its content if the projects list is empty.
• The inline CSS (<style>...</style>) is just there to give your portfolio a basic, readable look without needing to set up static files for CSS yet.

Running Your Website

Now, let’s see your beautiful portfolio come to life!

Make sure your virtual environment is active and you are in the my_portfolio directory (where manage.py is).

python manage.py runserver

Open your web browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/. You should now see the “My Awesome Portfolio” page displaying the projects you added through the admin panel! If you don’t see any projects, go back to the admin (/admin/) and add some.

What’s Next?

Congratulations! You’ve successfully built a basic portfolio website using Django. This is just the beginning. Here are some ideas for what you can do next:

• Enhance Styling: Replace the inline CSS with proper static files (CSS, JavaScript) to make your site look much better. You might even explore CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS.
• Add a Contact Page: Create another app or view for a contact form so visitors can get in touch with you.
• Detail Pages: Create individual pages for each project with more detailed information.
• About Page: Add an “About Me” page to introduce yourself.
• Deployment: Learn how to deploy your Django website to a live server so others can see it on the internet. Services like Heroku, Vercel, or DigitalOcean are popular choices.
• Version Control: Learn Git and GitHub to track your code changes and collaborate with others.

Django is a vast and rewarding framework to learn. Keep experimenting, building, and exploring its capabilities!

Welcome, aspiring web developers! Building interactive web applications often means you need to know who your users are. Whether it’s for personalizing content, restricting access, or enabling user-specific actions, knowing “who’s who” is crucial. This is where authentication comes into play.

What is Authentication?

Imagine you’re entering a secure building. You need to show your ID to prove who you are. In the world of web applications, authentication is exactly that: it’s the process of verifying a user’s identity. Typically, this involves a username and password, but it can also include things like fingerprint scans or security codes.

Once a user is authenticated, the system knows who they are. The next step is authorization, which determines what that user is allowed to do. For example, an authenticated user might be allowed to view their profile, but only an administrator might be authorized to delete other users’ accounts.

Why Django’s Authentication System is a Game Changer

Django, a high-level Python web framework, comes with a powerful and comprehensive authentication system built right in. This is fantastic because:

• Saves time: You don’t have to build complex login, logout, and user management features from scratch.
• Security: It’s designed with security best practices in mind, helping protect your users’ data.
• Flexibility: While it’s great out-of-the-box, you can also customize it to fit your specific needs.

This guide will walk you through the essentials of using Django’s authentication system, making it easy to understand even if you’re just starting out.

Getting Started: Setting Up Django Authentication

Django’s authentication system lives within a built-in application called django.contrib.auth. To use it, you just need to make sure it’s included in your project.

1. Check Your INSTALLED_APPS

Open your project’s settings.py file. You should find django.contrib.auth and django.contrib.contenttypes already listed under INSTALLED_APPS. If not, add them:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',          # This handles authentication
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',  # This helps track models in your project
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    # ... your own apps
]

• django.contrib.auth: This is the core authentication application. It provides user models, authentication views, and more.
• django.contrib.contenttypes: This application helps Django track all the models (your data structures) in your project, which is essential for the authentication system to manage permissions correctly.

2. Run Database Migrations

Django needs to set up some tables in your database to store user information, permissions, and sessions. You do this by running migrations.

Open your terminal or command prompt, navigate to your project’s root directory (where manage.py is located), and run:

python manage.py migrate

• Migrations: Think of migrations as instructions for your database. When you run migrate, Django looks at all the changes required by your apps (including auth) and applies them to your database, creating necessary tables.

You’ll see a lot of output as Django creates tables for auth, contenttypes, and other built-in apps.

3. Create a Superuser

A superuser is essentially an administrator account. It has all permissions and can manage other users through Django’s admin interface. It’s a great way to test your authentication setup.

python manage.py createsuperuser

You’ll be prompted to enter a username, email address, and password. Remember these credentials!

Now, you can access the Django admin panel at http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ (if your server is running) and log in with your superuser credentials. You’ll see “Users” and “Groups” sections, allowing you to manage user accounts.

Understanding Django’s User Model

At the heart of the authentication system is the User model. Django provides a robust default User model, but it also gives you options to customize it if needed.

The Default User Model

The default User model is built to handle common user information like:

• username
• password (hashed for security)
• email
• first_name
• last_name
• is_active (can the user log in?)
• is_staff (can the user access the admin site?)
• is_superuser (does the user have all permissions?)
• date_joined
• last_login

For many projects, this default model is perfectly sufficient.

When to Use a Custom User Model

Sometimes, you might need extra fields for your users, like a phone_number, profile_picture, or date_of_birth. If you anticipate needing custom fields before you run your first migrations, it’s a good idea to create a custom user model from the start.

Django offers two base classes for custom user models:

• AbstractUser: This is the recommended choice for most cases. It provides all the fields and functionality of the default User model, allowing you to easily add your own fields.
• AbstractBaseUser: This is for highly customized scenarios where you want to build the user model almost entirely from scratch, defining even basic fields like username and email. This requires more work and is less common for beginners.

For simplicity, let’s assume the default User model is fine for now. If you need a custom model, the process involves defining a new model that inherits from AbstractUser and telling Django to use it in your settings.py.

Built-in Authentication Views and URLs

Django conveniently provides a set of pre-built views for common authentication tasks, such as logging in, logging out, changing passwords, and resetting passwords. You just need to connect them to URLs in your project.

Connecting Authentication Views to URLs

In your project’s urls.py file (the one in your main project folder, e.g., myproject/urls.py), you can include Django’s authentication URLs.

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

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('accounts/', include('django.contrib.auth.urls')), # This line adds authentication URLs
    # ... your other app URLs
]

• path('accounts/', include('django.contrib.auth.urls')): This line tells Django to “include” all the URL patterns defined by django.contrib.auth.urls under the base path /accounts/.

Once you add this, you’ll automatically have URLs like:

• /accounts/login/
• /accounts/logout/
• /accounts/password_change/
• /accounts/password_change/done/
• /accounts/password_reset/
• /accounts/password_reset/done/
• /accounts/reset/<uidb64>/<token>/
• /accounts/reset/done/

Providing Templates for Authentication Views

While Django provides the logic for these views, it doesn’t automatically provide the HTML templates for them. You’ll need to create these templates yourself.

Django’s authentication views look for templates in specific locations by default. For example, the LoginView looks for a template named registration/login.html.

You should create a templates directory in your project’s root, and then inside that, a registration directory.

myproject/
├── myproject/
│   ├── settings.py
│   └── urls.py
├── myapp/
├── templates/                 # <-- New directory
│   └── registration/          # <-- New directory
│       ├── login.html         # <-- Create this file
│       └── logged_out.html    # <-- Create this file (for logout success)
│       └── password_change_form.html
│       └── password_change_done.html
│       └── password_reset_form.html
│       └── password_reset_done.html
│       └── password_reset_confirm.html
│       └── password_reset_complete.html
└── manage.py

Make sure your settings.py knows where to find your templates:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')], # Add this line
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Let’s create a very basic login.html for demonstration:

<!-- myproject/templates/registration/login.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Login</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Login</h2>
    <form method="post">
        {% csrf_token %} {# A security token to protect against cross-site request forgery #}
        {{ form.as_p }} {# Renders form fields as paragraphs #}
        <button type="submit">Login</button>
    </form>
    <p>Don't have an account? <a href="/accounts/signup/">Sign Up</a> (You'd need to implement signup yourself)</p>
    <p><a href="/accounts/password_reset/">Forgot password?</a></p>
</body>
</html>

And a logged_out.html (for when a user successfully logs out):

<!-- myproject/templates/registration/logged_out.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Logged Out</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>You have been logged out.</h2>
    <p><a href="/accounts/login/">Login again</a></p>
</body>
</html>

Protecting Views with Decorators

Once users can log in, you’ll want to restrict access to certain pages. Django makes this incredibly easy using decorators. A decorator is a special kind of function in Python that can add extra functionality to another function or a class method.

@login_required

This is the most common decorator. It ensures that a user must be logged in to access a particular view. If an unauthenticated user tries to access a view protected by @login_required, they will be redirected to the login page.

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required

def welcome_view(request):
    return render(request, 'myapp/welcome.html')

@login_required
def protected_view(request):
    # This view can only be accessed by logged-in users
    return render(request, 'myapp/protected.html')

You can configure where unauthenticated users are redirected by setting LOGIN_URL in settings.py:

LOGIN_URL = '/accounts/login/' # Or '/login/' if you set up your URLs differently

Other Useful Decorators

• @permission_required('myapp.can_do_something'): Requires the user to have a specific permission (e.g., myapp.add_book).
• @staff_member_required: Requires the user to have is_staff = True (meaning they can access the admin site).
• @superuser_required: Requires the user to have is_superuser = True.

Authentication in Templates

You’ll often want to display different content in your templates based on whether a user is logged in or not, or to show their username. Django provides a special request.user object in your templates that makes this simple.

Checking Login Status

<!-- myapp/base.html (or any template) -->

<nav>
    {% if user.is_authenticated %} {# Checks if the current user is logged in #}
        Hello, {{ user.username }}!
        <a href="{% url 'logout' %}">Logout</a> {# Links to the logout URL configured in urls.py #}
    {% else %}
        <a href="{% url 'login' %}">Login</a>
        <a href="/accounts/signup/">Sign Up</a> {# You would need to create a signup view #}
    {% endif %}
</nav>

• user.is_authenticated: This is a boolean (True/False) value that tells you if the current user is logged in.
• user.username: If the user is authenticated, you can access their username and other attributes of the User model.
• {% url 'login' %} and {% url 'logout' %}: These are Django template tags that dynamically generate URLs based on the names given in your urls.py. By default, django.contrib.auth.urls names its login view login and logout view logout.

A Simple Example Walkthrough

Let’s put it all together with a minimal app.

1. Create a new app (if you haven’t already):
   bash
python manage.py startapp myapp

2. Add myapp to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py.

3. Create myapp/urls.py:
   “`python
   # myapp/urls.py

   from django.urls import path
   from . import views

   urlpatterns = [
   path(”, views.home, name=’home’),
   path(‘secret/’, views.secret_page, name=’secret_page’),
   ]
   “`

4. Include myapp.urls in your project’s urls.py:
   “`python
   # myproject/urls.py

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

   urlpatterns = [
   path(‘admin/’, admin.site.urls),
   path(‘accounts/’, include(‘django.contrib.auth.urls’)),
   path(”, include(‘myapp.urls’)), # Include your app’s URLs
   ]
   “`

5. Create myapp/views.py:
   “`python
   # myapp/views.py

   from django.shortcuts import render
   from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required

   def home(request):
   return render(request, ‘myapp/home.html’)

   @login_required
   def secret_page(request):
   return render(request, ‘myapp/secret_page.html’)
   “`

6. Create templates inside myproject/templates/myapp/:

   • myproject/templates/myapp/home.html:
     html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Home</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to Our Site!</h1>
<nav>
{% if user.is_authenticated %}
<p>Hello, {{ user.username }}!</p>
<p><a href="{% url 'secret_page' %}">Go to Secret Page</a></p>
<p><a href="{% url 'logout' %}">Logout</a></p>
{% else %}
<p>You are not logged in.</p>
<p><a href="{% url 'login' %}">Login Here</a></p>
<p>No account? Sign up (implement yourself)!</p>
{% endif %}
</nav>
</body>
</html>
   • myproject/templates/myapp/secret_page.html:
     html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Secret Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a Secret Page! Shhh!</h1>
<p>Only logged-in users can see this.</p>
<p><a href="{% url 'home' %}">Go Home</a></p>
<p><a href="{% url 'logout' %}">Logout</a></p>
</body>
</html>

Now, run your development server: python manage.py runserver.

• Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/. You’ll see the home page.
• Try to go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/secret/. You’ll be redirected to the login page (/accounts/login/).
• Log in with your superuser credentials.
• You’ll be redirected to the /accounts/profile/ by default after login. To change this, set LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL in settings.py:
  python
# myproject/settings.py
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/' # Redirect to home page after login
• After logging in (and setting LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/'), you should now be able to access http://127.0.0.1:8000/secret/.
• Click “Logout” to log out and observe the logged_out.html template.

Conclusion

Django’s built-in authentication system is a powerful and secure tool that significantly simplifies adding user management to your web applications. By understanding its core components—the User model, built-in views, URL configuration, and decorators—you can quickly implement robust authentication.

This guide covered the fundamental steps: setting up the auth app, running migrations, creating a superuser, integrating authentication URLs and templates, and protecting views. With this knowledge, you’re well-equipped to start building secure and user-friendly Django applications!