11 Prerequisites for Django | How Much Python to Learn Django?

Last night I had a conversation with one of my friends.  And as being a developer,  I never knew how it has turned around Python to learn Django. Conversion goes like this…

“I want to build a website to demonstrate our AI products.”

That’s cool!

By the way, he is running a startup based on AI products.

“Not so rosy! I want to build a website and I heard that Python is one of the best programming languages and in the future, it will also coordinate our online AI products.”

Of course, Python is the best and most preferred programming language for Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, IoT and what not for…

“So, what do you think of building a website using Python?”

“Best choice”, I said.

There are so many Python frameworks available to develop a website and Python also holds good for AI development.

“Are you talking about – Django?” “But… Our web development team is not familiar with Python echo system. So, what’s your thought?”

And then he keeps ranting questions one after another…

What Should I Learn before Learning Django?

As I keep saying, whether if you want to develop a data analysis tool, embedded programming for IoT devices or build a website, Python is the easiest programming language to go with… at least easier than other competitor programming languages in its dome.

There are so many external modules and frameworks available in Python for website development. You can make use of them.

If you are a beginner, you can deep dive into Python bottle framework. It is the lightest web development framework. Just give it a try. It’s fun to see how you can make a website so easily.

If you want to develop the full-fledged project, go with Django. You will find everything that you need to develop a website.

But, developing the website in Django is not a cakewalk unless you have basic Python knowledge. Yeah, basic knowledge is sufficient.

Here is my two cents, if you want to develop the website in Django or if you want to get your hands dirty with Python web development framework…

How Much Python to Learn Django?

Django is a Python framework and it’s obvious you need to get comfortable with some of the Python terminologies.

1. The basic syntax of the Python (For example, understanding the indentation if you are coming from other programming languages and new into Python.)
2. Python function: How to pass the argument to the Python function? Setting the default value. Getting a list of Python values using *args and **kwargs.
3. While developing the website you may require multiple Python modules. It depends on the requirement for your website. So the understanding of importing external modules is required.
4. The website is not just as we see in browsers. There are tons of data, images or any kind of data that are used in the background. To accessing those data files, you need to have an understanding of Python Path concepts.
5. Get familiar with the Python control structure. It includes both conditional operators and loops. If you are coming from any other programming language and have basic Python syntax knowledge, it is not a big deal.
6. No matter what programming language you are learning. The string is one of the data structures you should be using in every other line of your project code. Sink yourself and try to check out all the string manipulation operations. It is easy to do that in Python.
7. There is one more entity called: Regular Expression (RE). The main purpose of RE is to validate the string. For example, if you are asking visitors to input his/her email ID on your website, you have to validate if the string user entered is a valid email ID. There is a Python module- re for a string validation. Start using and exploring it in your Python code.
8. You have chosen the Django Python framework for your web development. What makes Python different from all other programming languages is its prominent data structures like tuple, list (Difference between Python tuple and list), set and dictionary. Understand the structure of data saved in those types of variables. Check out all the functions associated with those data structures. It is fun as the things will start rolling so easily with those data structure variables.
9. As the projects start looming you need to apply object-oriented concepts. In fact, it is better to drive the object-oriented concepts from the beginning of the development itself. It helps you to bind a similar kind of data (class) and access those data with a single variable called object. You can also reuse the lines of codes if the logic is the same. And it reduces the line of code, as well as, it will be easy to maintain.

You might be thinking, I have listed so many basics prerequisites of Python to Learn Django web framework.

But it is not…

One can learn Python and Django framework in parallel. In fact, most of the concepts I have listed above will be cleared in parallel when you start developing a website using Django.

Moving forward to this,

10. Learn REST APIs and JSON

I have already covered the detailed post about REST APIs, so I am skipping it here. JSON is the data structure that makes it easy to store and transfer the data between different network entities.

11. Database Management and SQL queries

Data is crucial whether you are developing a portfolio website or content management system. In today’s era, it is not reliable to save the date in a text file. If you are doing it, you are living far behind.

There are various advantages of the Database Management system over the traditional file system. So learn about database management.

The relational database is a common and widely used database management system. The data will be saved in table- row and column format. The SQL language is used to manipulate data in the database table. For example, to retrieve this data you need to learn SELECT SQL command.  Once you get the data, you can manipulate and display it on your web page.

Best Django Tutorial to Learn

I get messages from many asking me about the Django tutorial. They see lots of tutorials and they get even more confused. Here is my favorite Django tutorial which is available on Udemy.

It’s enrolled by more than 14,000 students and highly rated by 3,500+ ratings.

Most importantly, this is an updated Django tutorial with the latest Django version 2.2.

If you are serious about getting into Django development, this is the best tutorial I have seen.

Get Your Copy of Best Django Tutorial

Happy Learning!

What’s Next?

Learning never takes you down. And it is the right time to start working on the Python framework. The more Python knowledge you acquire, it will be easy for you to cope up with any Python web development framework including Django and flask.

Whether you have any experience of web development or not, this simple guide to start learning Django is what all you need to get into Python web development.

If you have experience of working on any other programming language like C/C++, Java, PHP, Ruby… it is just a matter of Python syntax. And you will grasp it very easily.

So, what are you waiting for? Pull your socks and start learning to develop something AWESOME!

If you find this post of Python to Learn Django informative, do share it with your friends. If you have any questions or queries to discuss, head to the comment section.

Meanwhile, I take a break and will see you in the next article.

Aniruddha Chaudhari

I am a Python enthusiast who loves Linux and Vim. I hold a Master of Computer Science degree from NIT Trichy and have 10 years of experience in the IT industry, focusing on the Software Development Lifecycle from Requirements Gathering, Design, Development to Deployment. I have worked at IBM, Ericsson, and NetApp, and I share my knowledge on CSEstack.org.