70 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
=================
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FAQ: Using Django
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=================
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Why do I get an error about importing :envvar:`DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE`?
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=======================================================================
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Make sure that:
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* The environment variable :envvar:`DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE` is set to a
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fully-qualified Python module (i.e. ``mysite.settings``).
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* Said module is on ``sys.path`` (``import mysite.settings`` should work).
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* The module doesn't contain syntax errors.
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I can't stand your template language. Do I have to use it?
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==========================================================
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We happen to think our template engine is the best thing since chunky bacon,
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but we recognize that choosing a template language runs close to religion.
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There's nothing about Django that requires using the template language, so
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if you're attached to Jinja2, Mako, or whatever, feel free to use those.
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Do I have to use your model/database layer?
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===========================================
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Nope. Just like the template system, the model/database layer is decoupled from
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the rest of the framework.
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The one exception is: If you use a different database library, you won't get to
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use Django's automatically-generated admin site. That app is coupled to the
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Django database layer.
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How do I use image and file fields?
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===================================
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Using a :class:`~django.db.models.FileField` or an
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:class:`~django.db.models.ImageField` in a model takes a few steps:
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#. In your settings file, you'll need to define :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` as
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the full path to a directory where you'd like Django to store uploaded
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files. (For performance, these files are not stored in the database.)
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Define :setting:`MEDIA_URL` as the base public URL of that directory.
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Make sure that this directory is writable by the web server's user
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account.
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#. Add the :class:`~django.db.models.FileField` or
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:class:`~django.db.models.ImageField` to your model, defining the
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:attr:`~django.db.models.FileField.upload_to` option to specify a
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subdirectory of :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` to use for uploaded files.
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#. All that will be stored in your database is a path to the file
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(relative to :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT`). You'll most likely want to use the
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convenience :attr:`~django.db.models.fields.files.FieldFile.url` attribute
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provided by Django. For example, if your
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:class:`~django.db.models.ImageField` is called ``mug_shot``, you can get
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the absolute path to your image in a template with
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``{{ object.mug_shot.url }}``.
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How do I make a variable available to all my templates?
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=======================================================
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Sometimes your templates all need the same thing. A common example would be
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dynamically generated menus. At first glance, it seems logical to add a common
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dictionary to the template context.
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The best way to do this in Django is to use a ``RequestContext``. Details on
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how to do this are here: :ref:`subclassing-context-requestcontext`.
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