PyShop: A Simple Django E-commerce Project

Project Overview

PyShop is a foundational e-commerce web application built with Django, designed to demonstrate core web development concepts, including database management, user interface rendering, and admin functionality. This project serves as a practical learning experience in creating a basic online shop where products can be listed, viewed, and managed.

Problem Solved

This project addresses the fundamental requirement of displaying products online. It provides a simple, yet effective, platform for:

• Showcasing a catalog of products.
• Providing detailed information for each product.
• Allowing administrative control over product inventory.

Features

• Product Catalog: Browse a list of available products.
• Product Details: View individual product pages with descriptions, prices, and images.
• Admin Panel: Utilize Django's powerful built-in admin interface to easily add, update, and delete products.
• Basic UI: Simple and clean user interface for navigation.

Technologies Used

• Backend:
  • Python - The core programming language.
  • Django - High-level Python web framework for rapid development.
  • SQLite - Default database for development, lightweight and file-based.
• Frontend:
  • HTML5, CSS3 - For structuring and styling web pages.
  • Bootstrap - Front-end framework for responsive and modern design.

Installation & Setup

Follow these steps to get PyShop up and running on your local machine.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/meez-111/pyshop-django-shop.git](https://github.com/meez-111/pyshop-django-shop.git)
   cd pyshop-django-shop

2. Create and activate a virtual environment: It's highly recommended to use a virtual environment to manage project dependencies.

   python -m venv venv
   # On Windows:
   .\venv\Scripts\activate
   # On macOS/Linux:
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   • Make sure you have your requirements.txt file in the project root.

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Apply database migrations:

   python manage.py makemigrations products
   python manage.py migrate

5. Create a superuser (for admin access): You'll need an admin account to manage products through the Django admin panel.

   python manage.py createsuperuser

   Follow the prompts to create a username, email, and password.

6. Run the development server:

   python manage.py runserver

   The application will be accessible at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Usage

1. Browse Products:

   • Open your web browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/products.

2. Manage Products via Admin Panel:

   • Go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin.
   • Log in using the superuser credentials you created.
   • From the admin dashboard, you can add new products, edit existing ones, and manage categories. Remember to upload images for your products to media/products/.

Important Notes & Best Practices

• .gitignore: Ensure your .gitignore file correctly excludes sensitive data and unnecessary files like db.sqlite3 (your local development database) and the media/ folder (for user-uploaded files). These should never be committed to version control, especially in public repositories. If these were committed previously, use git rm --cached to stop tracking them.
• requirements.txt: Always maintain an up-to-date requirements.txt file (by running pip freeze > requirements.txt after installing dependencies) to ensure anyone can easily install all necessary libraries for your project.
• SECRET_KEY: For production environments, your Django SECRET_KEY should be stored securely as an environment variable, not directly in settings.py.
• Static & Media Files: In a production deployment, static and media files are served differently (e.g., via a web server like Nginx or a cloud storage solution).

Future Enhancements (Ideas for expanding the project)

• Shopping Cart & Checkout: Implement functionality for users to add items to a cart, proceed to checkout, and place orders.
• User Authentication: Allow users to register, log in, and manage their profiles.
• Search Functionality: Add a search bar to filter products by name or description.
• Payment Gateway Integration: Integrate with a mock or real payment gateway (e.g., Stripe, PayPal).
• Product Reviews: Enable users to leave reviews for products.
• Deployment: Deploy the application to a cloud platform (e.g., Heroku, Render, AWS, DigitalOcean) to make it publicly accessible.

Contributing

Feel free to fork this repository, make improvements, and submit pull requests. Any contributions are welcome!

Contacts

LinkeIn: My LinkedIn

Email: My Email