First Django Admin

A step-by-step guide to creating a simple web application that empowers you to enlist reporters in data entry and refinement.

You will learn just enough about the Django framework to design database tables, load in data and create an administration panel for others to improve it. You will not bother with all the other web developer crap.

Table of contents

• What you will make
• Act 1: Hello Django
• Act 2: Hello models
• Act 3: Hello loader
• Act 4: Hello admin
• Act 5: Hello newsroom
• Act 6: Hello homework
• Epilogue: Hello dumper

About the authors

This guide was developed by Ben Welsh and Ken Schwencke for a workshop on March 8 at the 2015 conference of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) in Atlanta. In 2021, it was updated by University of Maryland professor Derek Willis to support the latest Python tools.