If you're doing the tutorial at home

If you're doing the tutorial at home, not at one of the Django Girls events, you can completely skip this chapter now and go straight to the How the Internet works chapter.

This is because we cover installing things as they are needed in the tutorial -- this is just an additional page that gathers all of the installation instructions in one place (which is useful for some workshop formats). You can choose to install everything that is on this page right now if you wish. But if you want to start learning things before installing a bunch of stuff on your computer, skip this chapter and we will explain the installation parts to you later on, as they are needed.

Good luck!

If you're attending a workshop

If you are attending one of the Django Girls events:

• Your workshop may have an "installation party" before the main workshop. If you are at an installation party, this page is for you! Follow the instructions here to get everything you need for the workshop installed, with the help of the coaches if needed. Then at the main workshop, you'll be able to skip installation instructions you'll encounter in the main tutorial when you get to them.
• The organizers of your workshop may have asked you to try at home to install everything on your computer before the workshop starts. If you have been asked to do that, this page is for you! Follow the instructions here, as best you can. Then at the main workshop, when you get to an installation step in the main tutorial, if you were not able to get that piece installed you can get help from your coach.
• If your workshop does not have an installation party (or you couldn't attend), and if the organizers didn't ask you to try to install everything before you arrived, skip this page and go straight to the How the Internet works chapter. You'll be installing everything you need as you work through the tutorial.

Installation

In this tutorial you will be building a blog. In order to do that, as you go through the tutorial you'll be instructed on how to install various software on your computer and set up some online accounts as needed (if you are using local desktop environment) or instructed on how to create online accounts only (if you are using cloud development). This page gathers all of the installation and sign-up instructions in one place (which is useful for some workshop formats).

Chromebook Installation

To set up your Chromebook, follow the instructions below:

OS X, Windows, Linux Installation

If you are not using a Chromebook, your experience will be a little different as you need to download and install some software locally as well as set up online accounts.

To install software on your machine, follow the instructions below:

Brief intro to the command line

Many of the steps below reference the "console", "terminal", "command window", or "command line" -- these all mean the same thing: a window on your computer where you can enter commands. When you get to the main tutorial, you'll learn more about the command line. For now, the main thing you need to know is how to open a command window and what it looks like:

Depending on your version of Windows and your keyboard, one of the following should open a command window (you may have to experiment a bit, but you don't have to try all of these suggestions):

• Go to the Start menu or screen, and enter "Command Prompt" in the search field.
• Go to Start menu → Windows System → Command Prompt.
• Go to Start menu → All Programs → Accessories → Command Prompt.
• Go to the Start screen, hover your mouse in the lower-left corner of the screen, and click the down arrow that appears (on a touch screen, instead flick up from the bottom of the screen). The Apps page should open. Click on Command Prompt in the Windows System section.
• Hold the special Windows key on your keyboard and press the "X" key. Choose "Command Prompt" from the pop-up menu.
• Hold the Windows key and press the "R" key to get a "Run" window. Type "cmd" in the box, and click the OK key.

Later in this tutorial, you will need to have two command windows open at the same time. However, on some versions of Windows, if you already have one command window open and you try to open a second one using the same method, it will instead point you to the command window you already have open. Try it now on your computer and see what happens! If you only get one command window, try one of the other methods in the list above. At least one of them should result in a new command window being opened.

Install Python

For readers at home: this chapter is covered in the Installing Python & Code Editor video.

This section is based on a tutorial by Geek Girls Carrots (https://github.com/ggcarrots/django-carrots)

Django is written in Python. We need Python to do anything in Django. Let's start by installing it! We want you to install the latest version of Python 3, so if you have any earlier version, you will need to upgrade it. If you already have version 3.9 or higher you should be fine.

Please install normal Python as follows, even when you have Anaconda installed on your computer.

$ python3 --version
Python 3.12.3

$ grep '^NAME=' /etc/os-release

$ sudo apt install python3

$ sudo dnf install python3

$ sudo zypper install python3

Verify the installation was successful by opening a command prompt and running the python3 command:

command-line

$ python3 --version
Python 3.12.3

The version shown may be different from 3.12.3 -- it should match the version you installed.

NOTE: If you're on Windows and you get an error message that python3 wasn't found, try using python (without the 3) and check if it still might be a version of Python that is 3.9 or higher. If that doesn't work either, you may open a new command prompt and try again; this happens if you use a command prompt left open from before the Python installation.

If you have any doubts, or if something went wrong and you have no idea what to do next, please ask your coach! Sometimes things don't go smoothly and it's better to ask for help from someone with more experience.

Install a code editor

There are a lot of different editors and it largely boils down to personal preference. Most Python programmers use complex but extremely powerful IDEs (Integrated Development Environments), such as PyCharm. As a beginner, however, that's probably less suitable; our recommendations are equally powerful, but a lot simpler.

Our suggestions are below, but feel free to ask your coach what their preferences are – it'll be easier to get help from them.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. It includes support for debugging, embedded Git control, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring.

Download it here

Gedit

Gedit is an open-source, free editor, available for all operating systems.

Download it here

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a very popular editor with a free evaluation period and it's available for all operating systems.

Download it here

Why are we installing a code editor?

You might be wondering why we are installing this special code editor software, rather than using something like Word or Notepad.

The first reason is that code needs to be plain text, and the problem with programs like Word and Textedit is that they don't actually produce plain text, they produce rich text (with fonts and formatting), using custom formats like RTF (Rich Text Format).

The second reason is that code editors are specialized for editing code, so they can provide helpful features like highlighting code with color according to its meaning, or automatically closing quotes for you.

We'll see all this in action later. Soon, you'll come to think of your trusty old code editor as one of your favorite tools. :)

Set up virtualenv and install Django

Part of this section is based on tutorials by Geek Girls Carrots (https://github.com/ggcarrots/django-carrots).

Part of this section is based on the django-marcador tutorial licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The django-marcador tutorial is copyrighted by Markus Zapke-Gründemann et al.

Virtual environment

Before we install Django we will get you to install an extremely useful tool to help keep your coding environment tidy on your computer. It's possible to skip this step, but it's highly recommended. Starting with the best possible setup will save you a lot of trouble in the future!

So, let's create a virtual environment (also called a virtualenv). Virtualenv will isolate your Python/Django setup on a per-project basis. This means that any changes you make to one website won't affect any others you're also developing. Neat, right?

All you need to do is find a directory in which you want to create the virtualenv; your home directory, for example. On Windows, it might look like C:\Users\Name\ (where Name is the name of your login).

NOTE: On Windows, make sure that this directory does not contain accented or special characters; if your username contains accented characters, use a different directory, for example, C:\djangogirls.

For this tutorial we will be using a new directory djangogirls from your home directory:

command-line

$ mkdir djangogirls
$ cd djangogirls

We will make a virtualenv called myvenv. The general command will be in the format:

command-line

$ python3 -m venv myvenv

C:\Users\Name\djangogirls> python -m venv myvenv

$ python3 -m venv myvenv

Working with virtualenv

The command above will create a directory called myvenv (or whatever name you chose) that contains our virtual environment (basically a bunch of directories and files).

C:\Users\Name\djangogirls> myvenv\Scripts\activate

$ source myvenv/bin/activate

You will know that you have virtualenv started when you see that the prompt in your console is prefixed with (myvenv).

When working within a virtual environment, python will automatically refer to the correct version so you can use python instead of python3.

OK, we have all important dependencies in place. We can finally install Django!

Installing Django

Now that you have your virtualenv started, you can install Django.

Before we do that, we should make sure we have the latest version of pip, the software that we use to install Django:

command-line

(myvenv) ~$ python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Installing packages with requirements

A requirements file keeps a list of dependencies to be installed using pip install:

First create a requirements.txt file inside of the djangogirls/ folder, using the code editor that you installed earlier. You do this by opening a new file in the code editor and then saving it as requirements.txt in the djangogirls/ folder. Your directory will look like this:

djangogirls
├── myvenv
│   └── ...
└───requirements.txt

In your djangogirls/requirements.txt file you should add the following text:

djangogirls/requirements.txt

Django~=4.2.11

Now, run pip install -r requirements.txt to install Django.

command-line

(myvenv) ~$ pip install -r requirements.txt
Collecting Django~=4.2.11 (from -r requirements.txt (line 1))
  Downloading Django-4.2.11-py3-none-any.whl (7.9MB)
Installing collected packages: Django
Successfully installed Django-4.2.11

That's it! You're now (finally) ready to create a Django application!

Install Git

Git is a "version control system" used by a lot of programmers. This software can track changes to files over time so that you can recall specific versions later. A bit like the "track changes" feature in word processor programs (e.g., Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer), but much more powerful.

Installing Git

$ sudo apt install git

$ sudo dnf install git

$ sudo zypper install git

Create a GitHub account

Go to GitHub.com and sign up for a new, free user account. Be sure to remember your password (add it to your password manager, if you use one).

Create a PythonAnywhere account

PythonAnywhere is a service for running Python code on servers "in the cloud". We'll use it for hosting our site, live and on the Internet.

We will be hosting the blog we're building on PythonAnywhere. Sign up for a "Beginner" account on PythonAnywhere (the free tier is fine, you don't need a credit card).

• www.pythonanywhere.com

Note When choosing your username here, bear in mind that your blog's URL will take the form yourusername.pythonanywhere.com, so choose either your own nickname or a name for what your blog is all about. Also, be sure to remember your password (add it to your password manager, if you use one).

Creating a PythonAnywhere API token

This is something you only need to do once. When you've signed up for PythonAnywhere, you'll be taken to your dashboard. Find the link near the top right to your "Account" page:

then select the tab named "API token", and hit the button that says "Create new API token".

Start reading

Congratulations, you are all set up and ready to go! If you still have some time before the workshop, it would be useful to start reading a few of the beginning chapters:

• How the internet works

• Introduction to the command line

• Introduction to Python

• What is Django?

Enjoy the workshop!

When you begin the workshop, you'll be able to go straight to Your first Django project! because you already covered the material in the earlier chapters.