django.md

Django Modular App Standard

In this AIT Brainlab standard, we develop reusable Django app modules, not monolithic Django websites.

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Directory Structure

├── django_manage.py             # Root management script
├── src/
│   ├── django_core/             # Development host configuration
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── asgi.py
│   │   ├── settings.py          # Environment-aware settings
│   │   ├── urls.py              # Root router
│   │   └── wsgi.py
│   └── django_module/           # Example reusable modular app
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── admin.py
│       ├── apps.py
│       ├── migrations/
│       ├── models.py
│       ├── tests.py
│       └── views.py

• src/django_core/: Minimal harness used for local development and testing. Production deployments will plug your app into their own Django host or service framework.
• src/django_module/: The actual modular app that should remain standalone and decoupled.

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Common Management Commands

Use uv run django_manage.py to execute Django commands:

# Run system integrity check
uv run django_manage.py check

# Start development server
uv run django_manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

# Make migrations for your module
uv run django_manage.py makemigrations django_module

# Apply database migrations
uv run django_manage.py migrate

# Create superuser
uv run django_manage.py createsuperuser

---

Creating a New App Module

1. Generate the app boilerplate inside src/:

   uv run django_manage.py startapp myapp src/myapp

2. Register the module in src/django_core/settings.py:

   INSTALLED_APPS = [
       'django.contrib.admin',
       'django.contrib.auth',
       'django.contrib.contenttypes',
       'django.contrib.sessions',
       'django.contrib.messages',
       'django.contrib.staticfiles',
       'myapp',  # <-- Add your app here
   ]

3. Route URLs in src/django_core/urls.py:

   from django.contrib import admin
   from django.urls import include, path
   
   urlpatterns = [
       path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
       path('myapp/', include('myapp.urls')),  # <-- Add route here
   ]

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Environment Integration

Settings dynamically adapt based on .env:

• DEBUG: Automatically True in dev, and False in stg / prod.
• ALLOWED_HOSTS: Controlled via ALLOWED_HOSTS in .env (defaults to * in dev).
• DJANGO_SECRET_KEY: Set via DJANGO_SECRET_KEY in .env.