Completely updated for Django 4.2!

Django for Beginners is a project-based introduction to Django, the popular Python-based web framework. Suitable for total beginners who have never built a website before as well as professional programmers looking for a fast-paced guide to modern web development and Django fundamentals.

In the book you’ll learn how to:

• Build 5 websites from scratch, including a Blog and Newspaper
• Deploy online using security best practices
• Implement signup, login, logout, password change, and password reset
• Customize the look and feel of your sites
• Write tests and run them for all your code
• Add permissions and authorizations to make your app more secure

If you’re curious about Python-based web development, Django for Beginners is a best practices guide to writing and deploying your own websites quickly.

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Reviews

“When readers interested in web development ask me what to read next after Python Crash Course, I refer them to Will's books: Django for Beginners, Django for APIs, and Django for Professionals. I highly recommend you check out his work.”—ERIC MATTHES, author of Python Crash Course

“If you’re looking for a guide into the world of Django, then the three-step of Django for Beginners, Django for APIs, and Django for Professionals is ideal: get up and running, get into APIs, which are a cornerstone of modern app development, and then add the bits you need to your fledging app into production, from databases and static files, to user accounts and security. It’s a long road. Will’s books are an awesome companion.”—CARLTON GIBSON, Django Fellow and Django REST Framework core contributor

“Will's books are a fantastic resource for web development with Django and Python. I highly recommended them.”—JEFF TRIPLETT, Python Software Foundation Director, DEFNA President, and REVSYS Partner

“Django for Beginners is my go-to recommendation whenever anyone asks how to learn Django. It starts with a friendly and patient approach but manages to cover all the core fundamentals, dives into deployment, and has extensive coverage of testing. If you are looking for one book to master Django, this is it!”—ANNA MARKARUDZE, former President of the Django Software Foundation

“A fantastic on-ramp to this brilliant web framework. Django for Beginners doesn’t just talk about building sites with Django, it walks you through five of them. Get in the reps!”—ADAM JOHNSON, Django Steering Council member and author of two intermediate Django books

“Choosing a book for your Django learning journey is a big commitment of your time and energy. That's why it matters who the author is and the intended audience. I've known Will for many years and he's deeply embedded in the Django community. He is a former Board Member of the Django Software Foundation and cohost of the 5-years running DjangoChat podcast. This means he's thought a lot about how people learn and use Django. That goes way beyond just reading the docs and doing a tutorial.”—MICHAEL KENNEDY, host of Talk Python and Python Bytes podcasts, founder of Talk Python Training

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Initial Set Up
• Chapter 2: Hello World App
• Chapter 3: Pages App
• Chapter 4: Messsage Board App
• Chapter 5: Message Board Deployment
• Chapter 6: Blog App
• Chapter 7: Forms
• Chapter 8: User Accounts
• Chapter 9: Blog Deployment
• Chapter 10: Custom User Model
• Chapter 11: User Authentication
• Chapter 12: Bootstrap
• Chapter 13: Password Change and Reset
• Chapter 14: Newspaper App
• Chapter 15: Permissions and Authorization
• Chapter 16: Comments
• Chapter 17: Deployment
• Conclusion

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Frequently Asked Questions