Django Structure — MTV Pattern

Django is a full-stack web framework with a "batteries included" philosophy. Admin panel, ORM, authentication, and form processing are all built in.

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Django vs FastAPI

Item	Django	FastAPI
Philosophy	Full-stack, batteries included	Micro, modular
ORM	Built-in Django ORM	Optional (SQLAlchemy, etc.)
Admin	Built-in Admin	None
Async	Partial (Django 4.1+)	Native async
Auto docs	None (drf-spectacular)	Auto OpenAPI
Learning curve	Steep	Gentle
Best for	CMS, admin panels, large services	API servers, microservices

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Installation and Project Setup

pip install django djangorestframework

# Create project
django-admin startproject myproject .

# Create apps
python manage.py startapp users
python manage.py startapp products

# Dev server
python manage.py runserver

# DB migration
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

# Create superuser
python manage.py createsuperuser

---

MTV Pattern

Request
    │
    ▼
urls.py        ← URL routing
    │
    ▼
View           ← Business logic
    │
    ├── Model  ← Database access (ORM)
    │
    ▼
Template       ← HTML rendering (or JSON serialization)
    │
    ▼
Response

MVC (general)  Django MTV
Controller  →  View
Model       →  Model
View        →  Template

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Project Structure

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── myproject/
│   ├── settings/
│   │   ├── base.py             # common settings
│   │   ├── development.py      # dev environment
│   │   └── production.py       # production environment
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── asgi.py
│   └── wsgi.py
├── users/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── serializers.py
│   ├── admin.py
│   └── tests.py
└── products/
    ├── models.py
    ├── views.py
    └── ...

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Settings Split Strategy

# myproject/settings/base.py
from pathlib import Path

BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent.parent

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    "django.contrib.admin",
    "django.contrib.auth",
    "django.contrib.contenttypes",
    "django.contrib.sessions",
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    "rest_framework",
    "corsheaders",
    "users",
    "products",
]

DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
        "NAME": BASE_DIR / "db.sqlite3",
    }
}

AUTH_USER_MODEL = "users.User"
DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = "django.db.models.BigAutoField"

# myproject/settings/development.py
from .base import *

DEBUG = True
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["localhost", "127.0.0.1"]
CORS_ALLOW_ALL_ORIGINS = True
EMAIL_BACKEND = "django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend"

# myproject/settings/production.py
from .base import *
import os

DEBUG = False
SECRET_KEY = os.environ["DJANGO_SECRET_KEY"]
ALLOWED_HOSTS = os.environ["ALLOWED_HOSTS"].split(",")

DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql",
        "NAME": os.environ["DB_NAME"],
        "USER": os.environ["DB_USER"],
        "PASSWORD": os.environ["DB_PASSWORD"],
        "HOST": os.environ["DB_HOST"],
        "PORT": "5432",
    }
}

SECURE_HSTS_SECONDS = 31536000
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT = True
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True

# Select environment
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myproject.settings.development
python manage.py runserver

---

URL Configuration

# myproject/urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
    path("api/v1/users/", include("users.urls")),
    path("api/v1/products/", include("products.urls")),
]

---

Summary

Concept	Description
MTV	Model-Template-View pattern
startproject	Create project skeleton
startapp	Create feature app
settings/ split	base / development / production
INSTALLED_APPS	Register apps
AUTH_USER_MODEL	Specify custom User model

Django allows rapid development by following conventions.