Getting Started With Django: Building a Portfolio App

Martin Breuss

Django is a fully featured Python web framework that can be used to build complex web applications. In this course, you’ll jump in and learn Django by example. You’ll follow the steps to create a fully functioning web application and, along the way, learn some of the most important features of the framework and how they work together.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Understand what Django is and why it’s a great web framework
  • Understand the architecture of a Django site and how it compares with other frameworks
  • Set up a new Django 2 project and app
  • Build a personal portfolio website with Django 2 and Python 3

What’s Included:

  • 46 Lessons
  • Video Subtitles and Full Transcripts
  • 2 Downloadable Resources
  • Accompanying Text-Based Tutorial
  • Interactive Quiz to Check Your Progress
  • Q&A With Python Experts: Ask a Question
  • Certificate of Completion

Downloadable Resources:

Related Learning Paths:

About Martin Breuss

Martin likes automation, goofy jokes, and snakes, all of which fit into the Python community. He enjoys learning and exploring and is up for talking about it, too. He writes and records content for Real Python and CodingNomads.

» More about Martin

Each tutorial at Real Python is created by a team of developers so that it meets our high quality standards. The team members who worked on this tutorial are:

Participant Comments

Avatar image for Hugh Tipping

Hugh Tipping on Feb. 13, 2022

Incredible course. It was logical and concise. It gives everything needed to be proficient at Django without overwhelming.

Bravo. And thank you.

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juehuil on Oct. 31, 2021

Thank you so much! Really learned a lot from this course and it also helped me to understand my team’s codebase which is written in Django!

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Vasanth Baskaran on Aug. 23, 2021

Thanks Martin for this course :)

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Nerdfins on July 29, 2021

Fantastic video series! I will now be seeing all error messages I get in my coding journey as my friends.

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KatMac on July 28, 2021

Thank you. I learned so much from this video. Please do more, a lot more

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nathank on Jan. 26, 2021

Thanks Martin for the great course! Really well explained and made the learning process amazing.

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gregorysaison on Jan. 21, 2021

What an excellent way to create a project from A to Z. I don’t know if it is a good way to make any project but for my first projects alone I think I’m gonna use this step by step error messages way. It will be a good method to have a good understanding of Django.

Thanks Martin!

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chuckcoggins on Jan. 13, 2021

Hello Martin, Just wanted to say Thank you for the course. I finished it last night at around midnight. I am planning on turning this into an actual portfolio and resume page I will put onto my resume for when I apply to jobs.

Here is to hoping 2021 allows me to change careers and become a developer!

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CCC on Oct. 9, 2020

Thank you for visualizing the problem, this explained the problem and the solution in very clear terms!

Lots of tutorial online would gloss over this or not even mention it until it’s a problem, but you show us best practices from the beginning even if it may confuse some.

Many thanks Martin, you’re a great teacher, mate.

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Justice Pelteir on Sept. 20, 2020

Thank you so much for constructing this course. There were certainly some learning curves, but I can now confidently put together a Django project. Really happy I stumbled across Real Python when my Python journey first began.

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Yvonne Wilmot on Sept. 15, 2020

Thanks Martin. Really enjoyed the course. Very clear and easy to understand. Love the ‘debugging’ mode as I know that’s where a lot of the time will be spent so good to know where to look.

Given me a bit of insight into web development as I’ve spent 30+ years developing on the mainframe and now need to re-skill and move on.

Going to look for the next course that I think will be helpful in getting ready for my new job of being the Python developer but more on the back-end side. :)

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Rachel Hill on Aug. 17, 2020

Thank you! I’m a database developer and the front-end has always been a mystery to me. After completing this course, I’m so pleased to have a new tool added to my my toolbelt. The debugging was especially useful.

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stephenwhite597 on July 24, 2020

Brilliant Introductory Course

After many years of been “The Server Guy” or running teams or companies that developed server based software I felt it was time, or rather I had the time to see how far the software world has progressed in Web Development and find out what exists in the Dark Side of the User Interface world.

Martins approach to this is brilliant, a clean , step by step approach reinforcing the learning all the way through the course to the very end when you have your own fully functional project that could easily be changed into many useful solutions.

No buzz words, I don’t remember the term MVC been referenced even once, I don’t even remember an If statement, so no logic either. This means that a non programmer could easily get through this course or even take this class right at the beginning of the learning path, some python syntax knowledge would be helpful but not essential.

As its summer time and I have been working hard I fancied doing an easy not too demanding course progressively throughout the week, this was perfect, kept coming back for half an hour here and there, sometimes rewinding because I had forgot exactly where I was but I enjoyed it thoroughly and may well fire off a couple of little mini projects every now and again to keep my hands in I can see me writing some nice debugging tools for some of the server side technology that I will no doubt continue to produce, I will certainly take the next course now and probably even move on and have a look at flask too.

I would say I have absorbed 99% of it a couple of places I may come back for reference as I thought at the time thats unusual but its a django thing not Martin, so don’t worry man!!

Keep up the brilliant Work!

Steve

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Younseo Roh on May 4, 2020

Hi, Martin, thank you for a great course. I’ve just finished this course and I learned a lot from here. I feel more comfortable to create a web application of my own, and would definitely like to extend this one to include blogs!

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dzhuliana on April 16, 2020

Hello!

Thank you for this amazing course - you are teaching so so well - I am really impressed by your approach! I want to continue with building the Blog but I cannot find a link to the video course. It will be super helpful if you could refer me to this course! Thank you again and never stop doing what you are doing - it’s awesome!

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Andrew E on April 7, 2020

Brilliant, thanks for a great course Martin, I really enjoyed it. I had previously seen Django built websites, and tried to reverse engineer my understanding of them, which was completely fruitless. This was a much more efficient way to learn it, and gave me a much deeper understanding. Thanks again for a super course, you’re a great teacher.

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Dave Wilson on March 26, 2020

I just want to give props to Martin on this whole series and his replies to everyone’s questions. He’s a natural teacher!

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emalfiza on March 22, 2020

Congrats to you the master @Martin! such an amazing and clear step to step project. Upcoming week I have to build a Django Milestone project from my Fullstack Web Development diploma and I really needed a such a teacher to take my hand and explain every bits and bytes…a round of applause to you.

Thank you indeed

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Dion Johnson on Feb. 4, 2020

Martin, thanks for a great course! Much learned and much still to learn and practice. This was my first Real Python course and I’m looking forward to the next one!!

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Lokman on Jan. 9, 2020

Thanks @Martin really happy with this course! at least all my self taught python gonna have product out. Will start build something here. Gonna digging more in Django documentation there.

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Zoltan on Jan. 8, 2020

Really great course. I love the nice design if everything in the video, also the smart and intelligent wording of the explanations. I have watched several Django online courses before but this is the best one

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raymie1986 on Dec. 28, 2019

Thanks, this has got me really started with Django now :)

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deodesumitsingh on Dec. 28, 2019

I learned alot with this single video. Thank you alot for sharing Django project structure in simple terms.

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Ravinder Reddy Pullagurla on Dec. 21, 2019

Excellent step by step explanation. I’m impressed with this course.

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kal on Nov. 28, 2019

Excellent intro to Django!

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brechtv6 on Nov. 24, 2019

Hey Martin, great course!

Real good introduction to get to know the basics of django. Feel like I’ve something to build further upon!

Cheers!

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reblark on Nov. 13, 2019

Wow. Persistence, persistence, persistence and then try again. Your selling the “error messages are your friends” pitch is terrific. I looked at the error messages many, many times. But, finally I saw something that was giant, “that’s not right.” and, it wasn’t, now my code works. I really appreciate your constant “harping” on this message and I like the images because they make the “harping” palatable. I am very grateful.

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simon on Nov. 6, 2019

Thanks for putting this course together! it was very informative and a good introduction to Django!

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Lee RP Team on Oct. 31, 2019

wooo! that was a great course. my team at work uses django, so this is going to help clarify a lot of things. also, now i know how i can build a site fairly quickly :)

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Rahul Saxena on Oct. 16, 2019

Great course Martin. I just completed it.

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Pygator on Oct. 13, 2019

I couldn’t understand what you said for the other kind of view after list view for the projects. But great course and content so far. This is in my top5 for sure of favorites. Hoping there will be more follow on or related video courses.

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john09 on Oct. 9, 2019

I’ve only gotten through part 1 and 2, but I will say this is an excellent tutorial so far. Very well organized, easy to understand. Looking forward to building my first Django app!

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