When integrating Django REST Framework (DRF) with a traditional Django template, you can use JavaScript (via the Fetch API or jQuery AJAX) to call your DRF API endpoints. This guide provides step-by-step examples and covers important considerations like CSRF tokens, authentication, relevant settings/middleware, and best practices.

Overview of the Approach

In a typical setup, your Django app renders an HTML template, and that page includes JavaScript which calls DRF endpoints (usually returning JSON). If the page and the DRF API share the same domain and session, you can leverage Django’s session authentication for AJAX calls. If the API is hosted on a different domain or meant for third-party clients, you’ll likely use token-based authentication instead. In either case, you must handle CSRF protection for any “unsafe” HTTP methods (POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) when making requests from a Django template.

Below, we’ll walk through examples using both the Fetch API …

django-chunked-upload is a Django add-on (a “Django app”) that makes it easy to upload very large files by splitting them into smaller pieces, or chunks. Instead of sending one giant file all at once, the browser sends many smaller parts to the server. The library then stitches these chunks back together. In practice, this means a user can resume an upload if something goes wrong – for example, if the network drops, they don’t have to restart from zero. In fact, the library’s description says it “enables users to upload large files… in multiple chunks, with the ability to resume if the upload is interrupted”. One blog explains the idea simply: “you break a file into chunks, and upload them separately instead of the entire thing in one go”. Django-chunked-upload automates this process on the server side so you don’t have to write all the logic yourself.

Why chunked …

A few years ago, I followed a predictable path when clients approached me for web development. When a YouTube creator came to me recently needing a website to support her channel and improve its SEO, I found myself at a familiar crossroads – but this time, I made a different choice.

The Old Way: Defaulting to CMS

In the past, my instinct would have been to reach for WordPress or Joomla. These content management systems offered a comfortable familiarity and the promise of rapid deployment. Within hours, I could have a functional site up and running.

But there was always a trade-off. I'd spend days or weeks wrestling with themes, plugins, and custom code to bend these platforms to my client's specific needs. The initial speed came with a long tail of customization work, often leading to compromises in functionality or design.

My Turning Point: Choosing Django from Scratch

With …

When it comes to building web applications, developers are always on the lookout for frameworks that strike the right balance between speed, scalability, and robustness. Django, a high-level Python web framework, has earned a reputation for helping developers rapidly build secure, scalable, and maintainable web applications.

In this post, we'll explore the power of Django, its key features, and how it enables you to develop applications efficiently without compromising on performance or flexibility.

What Makes Django Stand Out?

Django is more than just a framework—it's a full-fledged web development ecosystem that provides everything you need to build powerful web applications, from user authentication to data management and everything in between. Here's why Django stands out as one of the best choices for building scalable web applications:

1. Rapid Development

One of the core philosophies behind Django is “Don’t Repeat Yourself” (DRY). This means that Django encourages code reusability, which …

Django’s templating system is a powerful way to separate presentation from business logic. In this guide, we’ll build a robust base.html template that leverages popular front-end libraries such as Bootstrap 5.3, Bootstrap Icons, Font Awesome, and Google Fonts. Additionally, we’ll incorporate a responsive navbar, a footer, and Django’s messaging framework with JavaScript that automatically dismisses alerts after 5 seconds. We’ll also create three sample pages—home.html, about.html, and contact.html—to demonstrate how to extend the base template.

1. Setting Up the Base Template (base.html)

The base.html template serves as the skeleton for all your pages. By placing common elements—like the header, footer, and scripts—in one file, you ensure consistency and ease future maintenance.

Key Elements in base.html:

• CSS Frameworks and Icon Libraries:
  We load Bootstrap 5.3 via its CDN, alongside Bootstrap Icons and Font Awesome for a variety of icon options. …