Editing the text that was appearing on my Django generated admin page seemed as strange to me as a unicorn sitting next to me having coffee. Upon further investigation you can easily fix this problem. In your class just add a unicode method! Let me show you:
class MyClass(models.Model):
#some fancy code (that assigns #variable)
def __unicode__(self):
return u"%s" % (self.#variable)
Make sense? It’s just a tiny bit of code with a lot of power – that Django for you!
Fixtures are great ways to include test data with your application so it can be easily ported and tested. If you have an app with Fixtures included and can’t seem to get it working, perhaps it’s because you have not activated them!
Activating fixtures in Django is an easy one line process:
>>python manage.py loaddata #fixturename
You need to be in the current directory of your project, but you do not need to be in the /fixtures directory. It is also worth noting that if you have your python running in a virtual environment, might want to make sure that is running!
If your like me, you spend time moving your code between your test and production servers. This can easily complicate issues when you have hard coded full paths in your applications. There is an easy way to solve this issue – mainly I use it with the templates in Django, but you should be a able to use it anywhere.
Let’s do this in a few easy steps – the best way to do anything!
1. Open your settings.py file in your application and find the template directives, this should be an array that starts with TEMPLATE_DIRS=(, now insert the following code just above the TEMPLATE_DIRS to import the required library to make this function
import os.path
2. Inside the TEMPLATE_DIRS array add the following to keep your path updated no matter where your code may go! You can do this for each
os.path.join(os.path.dir_name(__file__), 'templates'),
So, you final code should look something like this:
import os.path
TEMPLATE_DIRS(
os.path.join(os.path.dir_name(__file__), 'templates'),
)
If you are planning on using this code in other system setting arrays I would just include the import statement once, at the top of the page – actually you might want to do that anyways. Your choice.
Let’s active the awesome admin area in Python’s Django today! 3 easy steps to a great backend!
1. Add the following line to your settings.py file, right under INSTALLED_APPS (this is usually just commented out)
django.contrib.admin
2. Run the database sync tool to populate the admin tables
>>python manage.py syncdb
3. Uncomment the following lines from urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()
url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls))
Okay, I lied, there is a possible 4th step, if you shutdown your web server you will have to run the following to get it started, otherwise it should update automatically and need no human intervention.
python manage.py runserver
Day two of working with Django, I think I am loving it. It seems so simple and clean. Plus, I have always favored Python a little, just never had it in me to start playing with it. Want to try it out yourself? Follow me to Python-land!
I assume the following:
Now I have also fallen in love with a great Python addition called virtualenv. It basically creates a virtual environment for you to complete your Python project in (allowing you to install modules needed on a project specific basis), Sweet. Let’s add that to the list of things I expect from you:
Okay, you’ve got all that, now let me share with you how I start a project.
1. Create my virtualenv instance:
>>virtualenv --system-site-packages /Users/user/Sites/env/project_name
Do this if you decided to install virtualenv, I decide to keep the files in my Sites folder, just so everything is tidy for me – but you can place your virtual environments anywhere you like. Also, the flag --system-site-packages includes the python packages you have preinstalled, I would recommend using it.
2. Change into the directory you just created
>>cd /Users/username/Sites/env/project_name
3. Activate your virtualenv instance
>>source bin/activate
You are now running a separate instance of python, anything you install here will not be usable with other instances of pyton. You will notice your path changes to include the name of your project in parenthesis directly before your machine name as well.
4. Move into directory where you would like to create your project
5. Create project
>>django-admin.py startproject project_name
6. Move into directory that you just created
7. Edit your settings.py file to include your database settings
>>vi settings.py
8. Do the database sync to populate tables your application needs
>>python manage.py syncdb
9. Start the built in, handy dandy, web server
>>python manage.py runserver
Ta-da! Mission: Accomplished…