A stable development environment is a prerequisite for building websites with Django. The initial setup, while potentially daunting for newcomers, follows a straightforward sequence akin to initializing CLI projects for other frameworks.

Installing Python

Django is built on Python. Begin by verifying or installing a Python interpreter. Download the official installer from the Python website under the "Downloads" section, which provides system-specific packages.

During installation on Windows, enable the options "Use admin privileges when installing py.exe" and "Add python.exe to PATH" before proceeding. macOS users can typically accept the default settings.

After installation, confirm the Python version using a terminal command:

python --version
# Alternatively
python -V
# On macOS, you might need:
# python3 --version

A successful installation will output the version number.

Creating and Managing a Virtual Environment

Using a virtual environment is recommended to manage project-specific dependencies independently, preventing conflicts between different project requirements.

Python includes the venv module for this purpose. Navigate to your project directory and execute:

python -m venv environment_name

For instance, python -m venv myenv creates a virtual environment named myenv.

Activating the Environment

The activation script location differs by operating system.

• macOS/Linux:

  source myenv/bin/activate
  

• Windows:

  myenv\Scripts\activate
  

Upon successful activation, the terminal prompt will typically prefix the environment name.

Deactivating the Environment

To exit the virtual environment and return to the global system context, run:

deactivate

Installing Django

With the virtual environment active, install Django using pip.

pip install django
# On some macOS systems, use pip3
# pip3 install django

To install a specific version, specify it:

pip install django==4.1

Verify the installation and check installed packages:

django-admin --version
pip list

Initializing a Django Project

Use the django-admin command-line tool to generate a new project structure.

django-admin startproject project_name

Example: django-admin startproject my_site creates a directory named my_site containing the project boilerplate.

Running the Development Server

Navigate into the project directory and start the built-in development server.

cd my_site
python manage.py runserver

The terminal will display a confirmation message with a default address, usually http://127.0.0.1:8000/. Open this URL in a web browser to see the default Django welcome page.

To use a different port, specify it as an argument:

python manage.py runserver 9000