What’s the Difference Between a Project and an App in Django?

In Django, you can use two primary components to create a web application; apps and projects. Developers sometimes use these terms interchangeably, although they have distinct meanings and functions in the Django web framework.

Understanding Django Projects

In Django, a project is a top-level container for your web application. A project contains the configurations for your web application and one or more apps, each providing a specific set of functionalities or features for your web application. It also contains any components shared between its different apps. In a Django project, you can find tools and utilities that make it easy to manage your web application, such as the Django command-line utility and the Django development server.

Components of a Django Project

A Django project typically contains different apps and your web application’s configurations. Whenever you create a new project, Django automatically generates files containing these configurations. The components included in a Django project are:

1. Settings: The settings module contains configurations needed for your project and the individual apps in your project. This module primarily contains configuration options such as the database connection, middleware, installed app, allowed hosts, and other configurations needed for your web app to work.
2. URLs: The URLs module defines a URL pattern for your application. Each URL pattern in your project can either map to another URL pattern in your app or directly to a view function that handles the request for the specific URL. Whether the URL pattern maps to a view function or another URL pattern in your app, the ultimate goal is to map it to a view that handles the request effectively.
3. WSGI: The WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface) module is the Python standard for web servers and applications. The WSGI module makes it possible for Django to run on various servers.
4. ASGI: The ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) module handles asynchronous requests such as WebSockets connections. ASGI is a standard for asynchronous web servers to communicate with Python web applications.
5. Other components: Sometimes, you will be required to add your own components to your Django project, depending on your application’s requirements. These components include static files, templates, media files, and custom management commands.

How to Create a Django Project

To create a Django project, you should use the django-admin command-line utility. You can create your Django project by following these steps:

1. In your command-line interface, navigate to the directory where you want to create your Django project.
2. Install Django with the pip package manager.

    pip install django 

3. Type the following command and run it:

    django-admin startproject <your_project_name> 

The above command will create a directory like this:

You will notice a redundancy in the names of your project directory, i.,e., your project name appears twice. If you want to get rid of this, you can add a period when you run your startproject command like this:

 django-admin startproject <your_project_name> .
 

Now, your project structure will look like this:

With the above steps, you must have successfully created a Django Project. The manage.py file created in your project is important for interacting with your Django project.

Understanding a Django App

The purpose of an app is to provide your Django project with specific functionality. An app helps you organize your codebase by breaking your project’s functionalities into smaller components.

For example, in a blog project, you will have an app dedicated to authentication and authorization and another dedicated to blog posts. You can create multiple apps based on your project’s specific needs.

Components of a Django App

A Django app consists of modules related to the project, i.e., to a specific feature of your website. Like with a project, Django automatically generates helpful files when you create an app. The files generated by Django include the following:

1. views.py: This file will contain all the logic necessary for receiving requests and sending responses. It also determines which HTML template to render based on the user’s actions on your website.
2. models.py: This module establishes the data structure of your app and determines how the database will store it. It uses Django’s ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) to define the data. The models component defines different database relationships in Django.
3. admin.py: The admin module defines the administration interface of your Django app. You should register your models inside the admin file. If you need additional admin functionalities beyond the ones provided by Django, you can define custom views for your admin interface in this module.
4. urls.py: This file defines the URL patterns or routes unique to a particular Django app. Sometimes, Django does not automatically generate this file. If this happens, you can manually create it in your app directory.

Django generates some other components, such as apps.py and tests.py. These files define your app configurations and let you write unit tests respectively.

How to Create a Django App

Before creating an app, you must have created a project. After you create your project, navigate to the directory containing the manage.py file and run the following command in your terminal:

 python manage.py startproject <app_name>
 

The above command will create a folder structure like this in the same directory level as your project:

Difference Between an App and a Project in Django

There are some distinct differences between a project and an app in Django. Some of them are listed below.

Code Reusability

In Django, an app is a reusable component of your web application. This means that if you have an app that handles user authentication for one project, you can reuse the same app in another project with little or no changes. A project, on the other hand, is not reusable. Once you create a project for a particular web application, you cannot use it for another application.

Scope of Operation

A project operates on a higher level than an app because it is responsible for your website's overall configuration and management. On the other hand, an app is only responsible for a specific feature or functionality of your website.

Folder Structure

The most obvious difference between an app and a project is their folder structures. A project typically includes settings and other configuration files responsible for your website's well-being.

An app follows Django’s MVT architecture. It only contains files and configurations responsible for the well-being of a specific feature of your website.

Your Project and App Work Together to Create a Good Web Application

Although your project and app have their uniqueness, they are ultimately used to give you a seamless experience when building your application. You should be able to combine both the project and app components to build and customize your web application. With your app and project in place, you can start building your website with Django.