Django Final Project

The final project for my degree, that is a dashboard to help visualize data.

Requirements

You must have installed a Python version bigger than 3.9. For this project, the development was done under 3.12

You must have Node 22 installed on your machine

You must have a Docker runtime installed, you can either install Docker Desktop, Podman or Rancher and configure it to use the Docker CLI.

Quick Start

1. Setup a .env.dev on the infra folder Copy the contents of infra/.env.example and save the changes as a new file. Use the name .env.dev

2. Start the development environment This will ensure that you get the correct dependencies installed and also a Postgres DB ready to go.

docker-compose up --build

3. Visit http://localhost:8000/ in your browser

4. Build assets if changing JS or CSS Assets are built separately

cd backend
node build.js

Documentation

• Project Description

Project Structure

final_project/
├── dashboard/           # Main Django project directory
├── docs/               # Project documentation
│   ├── DESCRIPTION.MD  # Project description
│   ├── USE_CASES_UML.md # Use cases and UML diagrams
│   └── SCENARIOS.md    # Project scenarios
├── venv/               # Python virtual environment
├── activate.sh         # Virtual environment setup script
└── .gitignore         # Git ignore rules

Manual Commands

If you prefer to run commands manually:

1. Create and activate virtual environment:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/Scripts/activate  # On Windows with Git Bash

2. Install dependencies:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

3. Run migrations:

cd backend
python3 manage.py migrate

4. Start the development server:

python3 manage.py runserver

Troubleshooting

1. If scripts are not executable:

   • Run chmod +x *.sh to make scripts executable

2. If Django is not found:

   • Make sure your virtual environment is activated
   • Run pip3 install -r requirements.txt

3. If migrations fail:

   • Run python3 manage.py makemigrations
   • Then python3 manage.py migrate

4. If templates aren't found:

   • Check that your app is in INSTALLED_APPS
   • Verify template directory structure
   • Ensure template names in views match actual files