Skip to main content

How to create a new Django app and model in back-end?

In this guide, we will show you how to create a new Django app in the backend package using ShipFast. The app will be named store, and it will contain a Product model. Follow these steps:

Create new Django app​

First, navigate to the backend directory of the boilerplate by running the following command in your terminal:

cd packages/backend

Next, create a new Django app using the following command:

packages/backend
pnpm shipfast backend shell
cd apps && django-admin startapp store
info

Django will generate a new directory named after the app within packages/backend/apps. This directory will contain various files and folders that make up your app, including:

  • models.py: This is where you define the data models for your app.
  • views.py: This is where you define the views (functions or methods) that handle HTTP requests and return HTTP responses.
  • urls.py: This is where you define the URL patterns for your app.
  • admin.py: This is where you can define how your app's models are displayed and edited in the Django admin interface.

App needs to be included in the LOCAL_APPS list in the settings.py file to make it available to the rest of your project.

packages/backend/config/settings.py
LOCAL_APPS = [
    "apps.content",
    ...
    "apps.store",
]

Once you have created your app, you can start building out its functionality by adding models, views, URLs, and other components as needed.

Create new model​

Navigate to your new app directory and create a simple Django model inside models.py named Product with two fields - id and name:

packages/backend/apps/store/models.py
import hashid_field
from django.db import models


class Product(models.Model):
  id = hashid_field.HashidAutoField(primary_key=True)
  name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
info
ShipFast comes with the ability to use Hashid fields in your Django models. Hashids are a way of generating short, unique, and non-sequential ids from a given input. They are typically used to obfuscate database ids and make them harder to guess or predict.

Create and run database migrations​

Next, you need to create a migration for your new model. Run the following command:

packages/backend
pnpm shipfast backend makemigrations

This will create a new migration file for your app. Now, migrate your database by running the following command:

packages/backend
pnpm shipfast backend migrate

This will create the necessary database tables for your app.