Installing and Setting Up a Django Project in Visual Studio Code

1. Install Python and VS Code

Make sure Python is installed on your system. You can download it from python.org.
Install VS Code from code.visualstudio.com

2. Install the Python Extension in VS Code

Open VS Code.
Go to Extensions (on the sidebar or press Ctrl+Shift+X).
Search for Python by Microsoft and install it. This extension provides Python support and helpful tools for development in VS Code.

3. Open a New Folder for Your Django Project

In VS Code, go to File > Open Folder and create or open a folder where you want to store your Django project.

4. Set Up a Virtual Environment (Recommended)

Open a terminal in VS Code by going to Terminal > New Terminal.
Create a virtual environment to keep dependencies isolated:

python -m venv env

Activate the virtual environment:
On Windows:

.\env\Scripts\activate

On macOS/Linux:

source env/bin/activate

You should see (env) in your terminal prompt, indicating the virtual environment is active.

5. Install Django

With the virtual environment activated, install Django using pip:

pip install django

You can verify the installation by checking the Django version:

python -m django –version

6. Create a New Django Project

In the terminal, run the following command to start a new Django project. Replace myproject with the desired project name:

django-admin startproject myproject

This will create a new folder named myproject with all necessary Django files and configurations.

7. Open Your Django Project in VS Code

In VS Code, navigate to the myproject folder (your Django project directory).
The folder structure should look like this:

myproject/
├── myproject/
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── settings.py
│ ├── urls.py
│ ├── wsgi.py
│ └── asgi.py
└── manage.py

8. Run the Django Development Server

To verify everything is working, run the Django development server:

python manage.py runserver

If successful, you’ll see an output indicating the server is running, such as:

Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/. You should see the default Django welcome page.

9. Configure VS Code Settings (Optional)

VS Code can be configured to recognize and use your virtual environment automatically:
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P to open the command palette.
2. Search for and select Python: Select Interpreter.
3. Choose the Python interpreter from your virtual environment (it should be inside the env folder).

10. Create Your First Django App (Optional)

Inside your Django project folder, you can create an app with:

python manage.py startapp myapp

This will create a new myapp folder with additional files for managing views, models, and more within your project.

11. Install the Django Extension (Optional)

There is also a Django extension in VS Code’s marketplace. This provides helpful tools like syntax highlighting and snippets for Django.

With these steps, your Django development environment should be fully set up in VS Code. Let me know if you have any questions or encounter any issues along the way!