In this lesson we’ll make Django think and respond:

• Build function-based views (FBVs)
• Return HTML, JSON, and redirects
• Pass data from views to templates
• Create a random poem view

We’ll use your existing project:

• Project: hello_django
• Main folder: config
• Apps: home, blog
• Port: 8011
  (So URLs look like: http://your-server-ip:8011/...)

Throughout the lesson I’ll highlight “Common mistake” boxes to help you avoid typical beginner errors.

---

1. What is a View?

A view is a Python function that:

1. Receives a request (request)
2. Returns a response (HttpResponse, template, JSON, redirect, etc.)

Basic shape:

def my_view(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello from a view!")

Views live in each app’s views.py:

• home/views.py
• blog/views.py

---

2. Home App Views (HTML + Redirect)

We’ll start with the home app: the root page /, /about/, and a redirect /go-about/.

2.1. Update home/views.py

Open:

home/views.py

and make sure it looks like this:

from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.shortcuts import render, redirect   # ✅ VERY IMPORTANT IMPORTS

def home_page(request):
    return HttpResponse("<h1>Welcome to Hello Django!</h1>")

def about_page(request):
    # This will look for templates/home/about.html
    return render(request, "home/about.html")

def go_to_about(request):
    # Redirect to the URL named "about"
    return redirect("about")

🧠 Common mistake #1 – “NameError: ‘render’ is not defined”
Always import render (and redirect) from django.shortcuts at the top of the file:

from django.shortcuts import render, redirect

---

2.2. Home URLs – home/urls.py

Now connect these views to URLs.

Open (or create):

home/urls.py

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path("", views.home_page, name="home"),          # /
    path("about/", views.about_page, name="about"),  # /about/
    path("go-about/", views.go_to_about, name="go-about"),  # /go-about/
]

🧠 Common mistake #2 – URL points to non-existent view
If you write views.go_to_about but your function is named go_about, you’ll get:
AttributeError: module 'home.views' has no attribute 'go_to_about'.
✅ Make sure the function name in the URL matches the function name in views.py exactly.

---

2.3. Include home.urls in the Project URLs

This should already be done from previous lessons, but confirm that:

config/urls.py contains:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('home.urls')),     # root URLs from home app
    path('blog/', include('blog.urls')) # blog URLs under /blog/
]

Now test:

• http://your-server-ip:8011/ → “Welcome to Hello Django!”
• http://your-server-ip:8011/about/ → template page
• http://your-server-ip:8011/go-about/ → redirects to /about/

🧠 Common mistake #3 – Redirect fails
If you see NameError: 'redirect' is not defined, you forgot:

from django.shortcuts import redirect

---

3. Blog App – Poem Detail & List Views

Now we’ll work in the blog app and create:

• A poem detail view: /blog/poems/1/
• A poem list view: /blog/poems/

3.1. Update blog/views.py

Open:

blog/views.py

import random
from django.shortcuts import render
from django.http import JsonResponse

def poem_detail(request, id):
    """
    Simple detail view that just shows the poem ID.
    Later we will connect this to a real database.
    """
    return render(request, "blog/poem_detail.html", {"id": id})

def poem_list(request):
    """
    Pass a list of poem titles to the template.
    """
    poems = ["Poem One", "Poem Two", "Poem Three"]
    return render(request, "blog/poems.html", {"poems": poems})

def random_poem(request):
    """
    Homework view – shows a random poem.
    """
    poems = [
        "The sun rises on ancient hills.",
        "Whispers of wind echo in the valley.",
        "Lonely stars guard the night sky.",
        "Dreams fall like rain on silent earth."
    ]
    poem = random.choice(poems)
    return render(request, "blog/random_poem.html", {"poem": poem})

def sample_json(request):
    """
    Simple JSON API-style response.
    """
    data = {
        "name": "Omar",
        "language": "Django",
        "status": "Learning Views"
    }
    return JsonResponse(data)

🧠 Common mistake #4 – “module ‘blog.views’ has no attribute ‘poem_detail’”
This happens when your URL says views.poem_detail but you never created the function.
✅ Always create the view function before wiring it in urls.py.

---

3.2. Blog URLs – blog/urls.py

Open:

blog/urls.py

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path("poems/", views.poem_list, name="poem_list"),             # /blog/poems/
    path("poems/<int:id>/", views.poem_detail, name="poem_detail"),# /blog/poems/1/
    path("random-poem/", views.random_poem, name="random_poem"),   # /blog/random-poem/
    path("api/info/", views.sample_json, name="sample-json"),      # /blog/api/info/
]

🧠 Common mistake #5 – 404 on /blog/poems/
If Django shows a 404 and the error page lists only
blog/poems/<int:id>/ but not blog/poems/, it means you forgot:

path("poems/", views.poem_list, name="poem_list")

---

4. Templates for the Blog Views

Create these files:

4.1. blog/templates/blog/poem_detail.html

<h1>Poem Detail Page</h1>
<p>Poem ID: {{ id }}</p>
<p>(Later we will load the poem from the database.)</p>

4.2. blog/templates/blog/poems.html

<h1>Poem List</h1>

<ul>
    {% for poem in poems %}
        <li>{{ poem }}</li>
    {% endfor %}
</ul>

4.3. blog/templates/blog/random_poem.html

<h1>Your Random Poem</h1>
<p>{{ poem }}</p>

<p>Refresh the page to get another one!</p>

And for the home about page:

4.4. home/templates/home/about.html

<h1>About This Site</h1>
<p>This page is rendered from a template using Django's render() function.</p>

---

5. JSON Response – First Step Toward APIs

Your JSON view is already a tiny API:

def sample_json(request):
    data = {
        "name": "Omar",
        "language": "Django",
        "status": "Learning Views"
    }
    return JsonResponse(data)

Because blog/urls.py is included under path('blog/', include('blog.urls')) in config/urls.py, the full URL is:

http://your-server-ip:8011/blog/api/info/

🧠 Common mistake #6 – 404 on /api/info/
If you go to /api/info/ you get 404 because the route is under /blog/.
✅ Always remember the app prefix. For this project:

• Home URLs: / and /about/ etc.
• Blog URLs: /blog/...

---

6. Homework – Random Poem View (You Already Built It!)

Goal: Create a view that displays a random poem.

We already included the solution above:

• View: random_poem in blog/views.py
• URL: path("random-poem/", views.random_poem, name="random_poem")
• Template: blog/random_poem.html

Final URL in browser:

http://your-server-ip:8011/blog/random-poem/

Refresh the page to see different poems.

---

7. Checklist – Avoiding Errors

Before you move to the next lesson, confirm:

✔ Imports

• home/views.py has: from django.http import HttpResponse from django.shortcuts import render, redirect
• blog/views.py has: import random from django.shortcuts import render from django.http import JsonResponse

✔ URLs and Views Match

• Every views.X in home/urls.py and blog/urls.py has a matching function def X(...) in the correct views.py.
• config/urls.py includes both: path('', include('home.urls')), path('blog/', include('blog.urls')),

✔ Paths You Can Visit

• / → home text
• /about/ → About template
• /go-about/ → redirects to /about/
• /blog/poems/ → poem list
• /blog/poems/1/ → poem detail with ID
• /blog/random-poem/ → random poem
• /blog/api/info/ → JSON response

If all of these work, you’ve successfully completed Lesson 5: Views with clean, error-free code.

In this lesson, you will learn how Django finds and displays pages using URLs & routing.
By the end of today’s lesson, you will be able to:

✔ Understand how project URLs and app URLs work together
✔ Use path() and re_path()
✔ Create routes with parameters like <id>
✔ Add URLs for your own apps (home and blog)
✔ Prepare for the homework: /poems/<id>/ route

This lesson uses your actual project:

hello_django/
    config/
        urls.py
    home/
        views.py
        urls.py
    blog/
        views.py
        urls.py

---

🚀 1. How Django Handles URLs

When you open your project in the browser:

http://YOUR-SERVER-IP:8011/

Django starts looking for URLs in this order:

1. hello_django/config/urls.py → main router
2. It includes URLs from each installed app
3. Then each app handles its own routes

Think of it like this:

• config/urls.py = traffic police
• home/urls.py = routes for homepage, about page, etc.
• blog/urls.py = routes for blog posts

---

📁 2. Project URLs (config/urls.py)

Open:

hello_django/config/urls.py

It should look like this:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('home.urls')),     # Home app
    path('blog/', include('blog.urls')), # Blog app
]

This tells Django:

• When the URL starts with nothing ("") → go to home.urls
• When URL starts with "blog/" → go to blog.urls

---

📁 3. App URLs

Each app needs its own urls.py.
You already created them in Lesson 3 — now we add routes.

---

🏠 home/urls.py

home/
    urls.py

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.home_page, name='home'),
    path('about/', views.about_page, name='about'),
]

home/views.py

from django.http import HttpResponse

def home_page(request):
    return HttpResponse("<h1>Welcome to Home Page</h1>")

def about_page(request):
    return HttpResponse("<h1>About Page</h1>")

Now the following works:

• /
• /about/

---

📝 blog/urls.py

blog/
    urls.py

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.blog_index, name='blog_index'),
]

blog/views.py

from django.http import HttpResponse

def blog_index(request):
    return HttpResponse("<h1>Blog Home</h1>")

This creates:

/blog/

---

🧭 4. Using path() and re_path()

✔ path() — the one you will use 99% of the time

path('post/<int:id>/', views.post_detail)

✔ re_path() — for advanced URLs using regex

(We rarely need this now.)

Example:

from django.urls import re_path
re_path(r'^article/(?P<slug>[-\w]+)/$', views.article_detail)

---

🔢 5. Route Parameters (Very Important)

Django lets you capture values from the URL.

Example:

/blog/post/5/

In the URL:

path('post/<int:id>/', views.post_detail)

In the view:

def post_detail(request, id):
    return HttpResponse(f"Post ID = {id}")

---

🎯 6. Homework

Create a route: /poems/<id>/

Inside blog/urls.py:

path('poems/<int:id>/', views.poem_detail, name='poem_detail'),

Inside blog/views.py:

def poem_detail(request, id):
    return HttpResponse(f"This is poem number {id}")

Test it:

http://YOUR-IP:8011/blog/poems/7/

📝 2. Lesson 4 Quiz

Here is your beginner-friendly quiz, exactly matching what you learned.

---

🔥 Quiz: Lesson 4 — URLs & Routing

Question 1

What is the purpose of config/urls.py in a Django project?

A. It stores all HTML templates
B. It is the main router that includes each app’s URLs
C. It stores database models
D. It contains CSS files

---

Question 2

Which function is used for basic routing in Django?

A. route()
B. url()
C. path()
D. redirect()

---

Question 3

Given this route:

path('post/<int:id>/', views.post_detail)

What URL will display the post with ID 7?

A. /post/7/
B. /post?id=7
C. /post/<7>/
D. /7/post/

---

Question 4

Which import is required to include URLs from an app?

A. from django.urls import link
B. from django.urls import re_path
C. from django.urls import include
D. from django.shortcuts import path

---

Question 5

True or False:
If you forget to create urls.py inside your app, Django will crash with a routing error.

---

Question 6

What does this view return?

def poem_detail(request, id):
    return HttpResponse(f"This is poem number {id}")

A. Always “This is poem number 1”
B. A page showing the poem based on the URL ID
C. An error
D. An empty page

---

Question 7

Which URL belongs to the blog app if your config/urls.py has:

path('blog/', include('blog.urls'))

A. /blog/poems/5/
B. /poems/5/
C. /home/blog/poems/5/
D. /blog-poems/5/

---

---

▶️ 7. Run Your Server on Port 8011

Use:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8011

If everything is correct, you now have working routes:

URL	What it shows
/	Home Page
/about/	About page
/blog/	Blog homepage
/blog/poems/1/	Poem #1

Homework and quiz solutions

---

🎉 Lesson 4 Summary

By now you understand:

✔ How Django routes URLs
✔ How project and app URLs work together
✔ How to pass parameters in routes
✔ How to build dynamic pages like /poems/7/
✔ How your project’s folder structure works with routing

📘 Lesson 3: Django Apps

🔰 Introduction

In Django, a project is the whole website — but the real power comes from apps.
Each feature inside a Django project is built as a separate app so your project stays clean, organized, and professional just like modern company websites.

Examples of apps:

• blog
• accounts (login system)
• store
• api
• poems (for your future poetry system)

By the end of this lesson, you will:
✔ Understand what an app is
✔ Create your first Django app
✔ Install the app inside settings.py
✔ Build the foundation for your project’s future apps
✔ Be ready for the homework: create a blog app

---

🧩 1. What is a Django App?

A Django app is:

• A module inside your project
• Responsible for doing one job
• Reusable (you can copy it into another project)
• Easy to maintain

Think of a Django project like a company building:

Floor	Purpose
Project	Entire building
App	A department (HR, IT, Finance)

Each department does one job.
Each app does one job.

---

🏗 2. Creating New App

Make sure your virtual environment is active:

source venv/bin/activate

Go inside your Django project directory (where manage.py is):

cd hello_django

Create your new app:

python manage.py startapp home

You will now see this new folder:

home/
    admin.py
    apps.py
    models.py
    views.py
    urls.py (you will create this)

This app is now part of your project — but Django does not use it yet.

You must install it.

---

⚙️ 3. Installing the App in settings.py

Open:

hello_django/config/settings.py

Find the INSTALLED_APPS section.

Add your app:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'core',
    'home', # Your apps
]

That’s it — your app is now registered!

---

🌐 4. Creating the New App View

Inside home/views.py:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def homepage(request):
    return HttpResponse("Welcome to my first Django app!")

Now create a urls.py file inside the app:

home/urls.py

Add this:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.homepage, name='homepage'),
]

---

🔗 5. Include App URLs in Project URLs

Open:

hello_django/config/urls.py

Update to:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('core/', include('core.urls')),  
    path('', include('home.urls')),
]

Now visit:

run the server: 
python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8011

then visit:
http://your-server-ip:8011/

You should see:

“Welcome to my first Django app!”

---

🚨 Beginners Troubleshooting

❗ “ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘home’”

You created the app outside the project folder.
Make sure home/ is next to manage.py.

---

❗ “TemplateDoesNotExist”

You added templates before creating the templates folder.
We will fix this in Lesson 6.

---

❗ Running server on busy port

Use a different port:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8011

(We use 8011 in all lessons to avoid conflicts)

---

📝 Homework

Create a new app called blog

Your task:

1. Create the app python manage.py startapp blog
2. Add it to INSTALLED_APPS
3. Create a view:
   Inside blog/views.py def blog_home(request): return HttpResponse("This is the blog homepage.")
4. Create urls.py for the app
5. Include it in project urls.py at: /blog/

Example:

http://your-server-ip:8011/blog/

It should display:

This is the blog homepage.

---

You said:

🚀 Introduction

In this lesson, you will install Django on your Ubuntu server, create your development environment, and run your first Django project online using your server’s IP address. By the end of the lesson, you will have two working pages:

• / → Success / Home page
• /about/ → Simple About page

This lesson is intentionally beginner-friendly, with detailed steps and a troubleshooting section based on real issues that learners often face.

---

🧰 1. Update Your Server & Install Required Tools

SSH into your server:

ssh youruser@your-server-ip

Update and install required packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-venv python3-pip git

Verify:

python3 --version
pip3 --version

---

📁 2. Create a Root Folder for All Django Projects

A good habit is to keep all your Django projects in one folder:

mkdir -p ~/django-projects
cd ~/django-projects

Create a new project folder:

mkdir lesson2_project
cd lesson2_project

---

🧪 3. Create & Activate a Python Virtual Environment

A virtual environment ensures every project has its own isolated dependencies:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

You should now see:

(venv)

If you re-login later, reactivate with:

source ~/django-projects/lesson2_project/venv/bin/activate

---

🟢 4. Install Django

Inside the active venv:

pip install --upgrade pip
pip install django

Check version:

python -m django --version

---

🛠️ 5. Create Your Django Project

Use the name config for the base settings:

django-admin startproject config .

Now your folder contains:

manage.py  
config/  
venv/

---

🌐 6. Run Django on Your Server (Port 1011)

Django’s development server can run on any port.

We’ll use 1011:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:1011

Open in your browser:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:1011

You should see:

🚀 “The install worked successfully!”

---

🏗️ 7. Create Your First App

Every Django feature lives inside an app.

Create one called core:

python manage.py startapp core

---

🧩 8. Register the App

Open your settings:

nano config/settings.py

Find INSTALLED_APPS and add:

'core',

Save and exit.

---

✨ 9. Create Your First View (Home Page)

Open:

nano core/views.py

Add:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def hello(request):
    return HttpResponse("""
        <h1 style='text-align:center;color:#007bff;'>Success!</h1>
        <p style='text-align:center;'>I finished Lesson 2 in Django!</p>
        <p style='text-align:center;font-size:14px;color:gray;'>
        View generated by Webmaster and More's Django server.
        </p>
    """)

---

🌍 10. Add URLs for Your App

Create:

nano core/urls.py

Insert:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.hello, name='hello'),
]

Then connect it in config/urls.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('core.urls')),
]

---

📄 11. Create the /about/ Page

In core/views.py:

def about(request):
    return HttpResponse("""
        <div style='text-align:center;padding:40px;'>
            <h1 style='color:#0066ff;'>My Path to Full Stack</h1>
            <h3>This Django training will help me upgrade to Full Stack Developer.</h3>
            <p>Setting clear goals is the first step to achieving them. Keep pushing forward!</p>
            <p style='font-size:14px;color:gray;'>
                View generated by webmasterandmore's Django server.
            </p>
        </div>
    """)

Then add the URL:

path('about/', views.about, name='about'),

---

🖥️ 12. Visit Your Pages

Home page:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:1011/

About page:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:1011/about/

Both should work now.

---

🚑 Troubleshooting (Beginner-Friendly)

These are real errors you may encounter (and how to fix them).

---

❗ 1. Browser shows HTTPS error (ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR)

Cause: You used https:// instead of http://.

Fix:
Use:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:1011

---

❗ 2. DisallowedHost at /

Error:

Invalid HTTP_HOST header …

Cause: You didn’t add your server IP to ALLOWED_HOSTS.

Fix:

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['YOUR_SERVER_IP', 'localhost', '127.0.0.1']

---

❗ 3. Port already in use

Error:

Error: That port is already in use

Fix: Choose a different port:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:1012

Check used ports:

sudo ss -tulnp

---

❗ 4. favicon.ico 400 errors

Ignore these — browsers request /favicon.ico automatically.

---

📝 Quick Exercise for Lesson 2

1. What is the purpose of creating a virtual environment?
2. How do you create a new Django project using django-admin?
3. How do you start the development server on port 1011?
4. In which file do you register your newly created Django app?
5. What is the purpose of core/urls.py?

Answers PDF: ✔ Delivered in previous message
(lesson2_answers.pdf)

---

🏡 Homework for Lesson 2

1. Make sure your home page works on port 1011.

2. Create a custom “Success” message.

Add your name + your company.

3. Take a screenshot of your working page.

4. Create the /about/ page.

(PDF contains the required answer.)

---

🎉 Conclusion

You have successfully:

• Installed Django on Ubuntu
• Created a project and an app
• Built your first dynamic pages
• Solved common beginner issues
• Hosted your project on your own server

This completes Lesson 2 of the Django Full Stack Developer Path.