--- title: How I start Django apps in 2022 slug: how-i-start-django-apps-in-2022 published_at: 2022-07-07 00:00:00 +0000 updated_at: 2024-07-27 21:59:27 +0000 summary: In this article, you will learn how to set up a Django application in 2022 with Tailwind, authentication, and payments. πŸš€ Follow step-by-step instructions to scaffold your environment, integrate Tailwind, implement user authentication, and handle payments using dj-stripe. tags: [Stripe, Django, Tailwind] author: CJ Avilla url: https://www.cjav.dev/articles/how-i-start-django-apps-in-2022 type: article --- # How I start Django apps in 2022 *Published: July 07, 2022* *Tags: Stripe, Django, Tailwind* This is mostly a note to self about the steps for setting up a fully operational django application with tailwind, authentication, and payments. ## Scaffold the python environment From some parent directory run: ```bash python -m venv venv so venv/bin/activate ``` Install django ```bash pip install Django ``` ## Create the django app Note, the project name can't have dashes. Not sure why 🀷. ```bash django-admin startproject proj cd proj python manage.py runserver ``` That should start the server running at [localhost:8000](http://localhost:8000). ```bash mkdir -p templates/registration touch templates/home.html templates/registration/{login,signup}.html ``` `home.html` will act as our landing page. Update the `proj/urls.py` with: ```python from django.contrib import admin from django.urls import path, include from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView urlpatterns = [ # ... path('', TemplateView.as_view(template_name='home.html'), name='home'), ] ``` ## Setup Tailwind Mostly follow [this guide](https://django-tailwind.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html). Adding again here because some stuff tripped me up. ```bash python -m pip install django-tailwind ``` Update `proj/settings.py`: ```python INSTALLED_APPS = [ # other Django apps 'tailwind', ] # ... TEMPLATES = [ { 'DIRS': [ BASE_DIR / 'templates' ], # ... } ] ``` Then run and accept the default app name (`theme`): ```bash python manage.py tailwind init ``` Update `proj/settings.py` again and add the `theme` app, also set the `TAILWIND_APP_NAME` and `INTERNAL_IPS` (not sure what those do 🀷): ```python INSTALLED_APPS = [ # other Django apps 'tailwind', 'theme', 'django_browser_reload', ] MIDDLEWARE = [ # ... 'django_browser_reload.middleware.BrowserReloadMiddleware', # ... ] TAILWIND_APP_NAME = 'theme' INTERNAL_IPS = ['127.0.0.1',] ``` Then back in the `proj/urls.py` file add this ditty: ```python urlpatterns = [ # ..., path('__reload__/', include('django_browser_reload.urls')), ] ``` After all that, now we install the Tailwind dependencies and start the watcher: ```bash python manage.py tailwind install python manage.py tailwind start ``` Update the `theme/templates/base.html` file to remove boiler plate: ```html {% raw %} {% load static tailwind_tags %} <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title></title> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge"> {% tailwind_css %} </head> <body class="leading-normal tracking-normal"> <div class="max-w-7xl mx-auto px-4 sm:px-6 lg:px-8"> <!-- We've used 3xl here, but feel free to try other max-widths based on your needs --> <div class="max-w-3xl mx-auto"> {% if user.is_authenticated %} Hi {{ user.username }}! <p><a href="{% url 'logout' %}">Log Out</a></p> {% else %} <p>You are not logged in</p> <a href="{% url 'login' %}">Log In</a> {% endif %} {% block content %}{% endblock %} </div> </div> </body> </html> {% endraw %} ``` You may need to run this to get the static assets built. This prints a backtrace for me, but seems to work: ```bash python manage.py collectstatic --noinput ``` ## Setup Authentication We need to create the templates from scratch for login, and we need to build both view and template for sign up. We also need an app for creating the registration flow: ```bash python manage.py startapp accounts ``` While we're in the terminal, we'll also create a superuser πŸ¦Έβ€β™‚οΈ ```bash python manage.py createsuperuser ``` Create a new file `accounts/urls.py`: ```python from django.urls import path from .views import SignUpView app_name = 'accounts' urlpatterns = [ path('signup/', SignUpView.as_view(), name='signup') ] ``` Then update the `accounts/views.py` file: ```python from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm from django.shortcuts import render from django.urls import reverse_lazy from django.views import generic class SignUpView(generic.CreateView): form_class = UserCreationForm success_url = reverse_lazy('login') template_name = 'registration/signup.html' ``` Update the `proj/urls.py` with: ```python from django.contrib import admin from django.urls import path, include urlpatterns = [ # ... path('accounts/', include('accounts.urls')), path('accounts/', include('django.contrib.auth.urls')), ] ``` Update `proj/settings.py` with: ```python INSTALLED_APPS = [ # ... 'accounts.apps.AccountsConfig', ] # ... LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/' # new LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL = '/' # new ``` Create the login form: ```html {% raw %} {% extends 'base.html' %} {% block content %} <h2>Log In</h2> <form method="post"> {% csrf_token %} {{ form.as_p }} <button type="submit">Log In</button> </form> {% endblock %} {% endraw %} ``` Now, if all went as planned, you should be able to login here: [localhost:8000/accounts/login/](http://localhost:8000/accounts/login/) Then create the signup form: ```html {% raw %}{% extends "base.html" %} {% block content %} <h2>Sign up</h2> <form method="post"> {% csrf_token %} {{ form.as_p }} <button type="submit">Sign Up</button> </form> {% endblock %} {% endraw %} ``` It's nice to have on the nav, so let's update the base and drop this in: ```html {% raw %} <a href="{% url 'accounts:signup' %}">Register</a> {% endraw %} ``` ## Take a break Let's catch our breath, take a look at the lakes 🐟 and mountains πŸ” (love that emoji), Before we get back on the trail, let's make sure we've run all the migrations and stuff: ```bash python manage.py makemigrations python manage.py migrate ``` Alright, the marathon continues! ## Payments We're going to use [dj-stripe](https://dj-stripe.dev/) for handling webhooks and building the database models for us. ### Setup dj-stripe Install it: ```bash pip install dj-stripe ``` Fire up the Stripe CLI's listener in another terminal so that it forwards webhook events to the dj-stripe endpoint (We'll need that webhook signing secret in the next step). ```bash stripe listen --forward-to localhost:8000/stripe/webhook/ ``` Update settings: ```python INSTALLED_APPS = [ # ... "djstripe", # ... ] # ... import os STRIPE_TEST_SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get("STRIPE_TEST_SECRET_KEY", "<your secret key>") STRIPE_LIVE_MODE = False # Change to True in production DJSTRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET = "whsec_xxx" # Get it from the section in the Stripe dashboard where you added the webhook endpoint DJSTRIPE_USE_NATIVE_JSONFIELD = True # We recommend setting to True for new installations DJSTRIPE_FOREIGN_KEY_TO_FIELD = "id" ``` Add to `proj/urls.py`: ```python path("stripe/", include("djstripe.urls", namespace="djstripe")), ``` Run the dj-stripe migrations to create all the data: ```bash python manage.py migrate ``` ### Create the billing app This app will render views for pricing pages, know how to handle payment flows, and customer lifecycle management. Create the app ```bash python manage.py startapp billing ``` Then register it in the settings: ```python INSTALLED_APPS = [ # ... 'billing.apps.BillingConfig', ] ``` ### Pricing page Add a view to the billing app that will render our pricing table, we'll also wire up a simple checkout route that we'll build a bit later and will use Stripe Checkout to redirect to the Checkout page. Create a new View in `billing/views.py` like this: ```python from django.shortcuts import render from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView from django.http import HttpResponseRedirect class PricingView(TemplateView): template_name = 'prices.html' def get_context_data(self, *args, **kwargs): return {'prices': []} def checkout(request, price_id): return HttpResponseRedirect("/pay") ``` We'll come back a little later and flesh out the logic for fetching prices, let's just get the app set up. Next we'll create a `billing/urls.py` file and wire up the Pricing view to the `/billing/prices/` route: ```python from django.urls import path from . import views app_name = 'billing' urlpatterns = [ path("prices/", views.PricingView.as_view(), name="pricing"), path("checkout/<str:price_id>", views.checkout, name="checkout") ] ``` We also need to make sure our billing urls work at the root `proj/urls.py`: ```python path('billing/', include('billing.urls')), ``` And, if we point at `prices.html` I guess we better create that too. We'll need to create the templates dir for the billing app. ```bash mkdir -p billing/templates/ touch billing/templates/{prices,thanks}.html ``` The goal with the next section is to build a nice pricing table that will have links to `/billing/checkout/price_abc123/` where the price is the price for a given plan level that users can subscribe. This is a lot of tailwind stuff to build the pricing page, just stick with me. If you're looking carefully, you'll see that we don't actually return any prices yet so all of that inner loop is skipped anyways at this point: ```html {% raw %} {% extends "base.html" %} {% block content %} <div class="max-w-7xl mx-auto py-12 px-4 bg-white sm:px-6 lg:px-8"> <h2 class="text-3xl font-extrabold text-gray-900 sm:text-5xl sm:leading-none sm:tracking-tight lg:text-6xl">Pricing</h2> <!-- Tiers --> <div class="mt-12 space-y-12 lg:space-y-0 lg:grid lg:grid-cols-3 lg:gap-x-8"> {% for price in prices %} <div class="relative p-8 bg-white border border-gray-200 rounded-2xl shadow-sm flex flex-col"> <div class="flex-1"> <h3 class="text-xl font-semibold text-gray-900">{{ price.product.name }}</h3> <!-- recommended? --> {% if price.most_popular %} <p class="absolute top-0 py-1.5 px-4 bg-emerald-500 rounded-full text-xs font-semibold uppercase tracking-wide text-white transform -translate-y-1/2">Recommended</p> {% endif %} <!-- /recommended? --> <p class="mt-4 flex items-baselin text-gray-900"> <span class="text-5xl font-extrabold tracking-tight">${{ price.amount|floatformat:-2 }}</span> <span class="ml-1 text-xl font-semibold">/{{ price.recurring.interval }}</span> </p> <p class="mt-6 text-gray-500">{{ price.product.description }}</p> <!-- Feature list --> <ul role="list" class="mt-6 space-y-6"> {% for feature in price.features %} <li class="flex"> <!-- Heroicon name: outline/check --> <svg class="flex-shrink-0 w-6 h-6 text-emerald-500" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true"> <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M5 13l4 4L19 7" /> </svg> <span class="ml-3 text-gray-500">{{ feature }}</span> </li> {% endfor %} </ul> </div> <!-- recommended? --> {% if price.most_popular %} <a href="{% url 'polls:checkout' price.id %}" class="bg-emerald-500 text-white hover:bg-emerald-400 mt-8 block w-full py-3 px-6 border border-transparent rounded-md text-center font-medium">Monthly billing</a> {% else %} <a href="{% url 'polls:checkout' price.id %}" class="bg-emerald-50 text-emerald-700 hover:bg-emerald-100 mt-8 block w-full py-3 px-6 border border-transparent rounded-md text-center font-medium">Monthly billing</a> {% endif %} </div> {% endfor %} </div> </div> {% endblock %} {% endraw %} ``` Okay, now this should show at least our header: [localhost:8000/billing/prices/](http://localhost:8000/billing/prices/) Time to fetch prices to hydrate this beast. At this point we have a few options for sourcing the data that will back our pricing page. We'll want to show something like this: <img src="/images/pricing-table.png" width="600" alt="Screenshot of a pricing table with three prices" /> To get the product name, description, features and their respective prices, we could either use the data in the database stored by dj-stripe (much faster!). Or we can fetch from the Stripe API (risk of network failure and a little slower). Here's how we might fetch from dj-stripe's data: ```python prices = djstripe.models.Price.filter(**filters) ``` However, if we want to use the Stripe API directly (which I chose to do), we could fetch the list of monthly prices filtered by their `lookup_keys`. Later we'll pass in the interval. ```python prices = stripe.Price.list( expand=['data.product'], recurring={ 'interval': 'month', }, lookup_keys=[ 'startup', 'startup_annual', 'business', 'business_annual', 'enterprise', 'enterprise_annual', ] ) ``` Next we want to pull some attributes out of the product level metadata and attach that directly to the price objects: ```python for p in prices['data']: p.features = json.loads(p.product.metadata.features) p.most_popular = 'most_popular' in p.product.metadata p.amount = p.unit_amount / 100 ``` To get that to work, we need to both import `json` and set our Stripe API key. Here's what it looks like all together: ```python # billing/views.py from django.shortcuts import render from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView from django.http import HttpResponseRedirect # new from here down import json import stripe from djstripe.settings import djstripe_settings stripe.api_key = djstripe_settings.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY class PricingView(TemplateView): template_name = 'pricing.html' def get_context_data(self, *args, **kwargs): prices = stripe.Price.list( expand=['data.product'], recurring={ 'interval': 'month', }, lookup_keys=[ 'startup', 'startup_annual', 'business', 'business_annual', 'enterprise', 'enterprise_annual', ] ) for p in prices['data']: p.features = json.loads( p.product.metadata.features ) p.most_popular = 'most_popular' in p.product.metadata p.amount = p.unit_amount / 100 sorted_prices = sorted(prices['data'], key=lambda p: p['unit_amount']) return { 'prices': sorted_prices } #checkout route is still down here somewhere. ``` Next step, let's actually redirect to Stripe Checkout! ### Redirecting to Stripe Checkout This is straight forward, even though there are a lot of arguments to the API call, it's 1 API call to get a thing that has a URL that we then redirect to and it looks like this: ```python from django.urls import reverse from djstripe.models import Customer # ... @login_required def checkout(request, price_id): # Gotta go create this success url later. success_url = request.build_absolute_uri(reverse("billing:thanks")) cancel_url = request.build_absolute_uri(reverse("billing:prices")) metadata = { f"{djstripe_settings.SUBSCRIBER_CUSTOMER_KEY}": request.user.id } # Ensure this subscriber has a Stripe customer, if not create one # This will fire an API call to Stripe to create a new customer. customer, created = Customer.get_or_create(subscriber=request.user) session = stripe.checkout.Session.create( customer=customer.id, subscription_data={ "metadata": metadata, }, line_items=[{ "price": price_id, "quantity": 1, }], mode="subscription", success_url=success_url, cancel_url=cancel_url, metadata=metadata, ) return HttpResponseRedirect(session.url) def thanks(request): return render(request, "thanks.html", {}) ``` Note that the user must be logged in, thats so we can upsert the related Stripe Customer and associate the new subscription with that customer. We'll need this import so we can use that `@login_required` decorator: ```python from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required ``` ### Setting up the customer portal and billing management The customer portal is a Stripe hosted page for billing management. Customers can do things like update their card on file, change between plan levels, cancel, etc. The integration is similar, and even simpler than checkout. We again make an API call to create a billing portal session, then redirect to it's URL. First we create the view: ```python @login_required def billing(request): customer = get_object_or_404(Customer, subscriber=request.user) return_url = request.build_absolute_uri( reverse("billing:thanks") ) session = stripe.billing_portal.Session.create( customer=customer.id, return_url=return_url, ) return HttpResponseRedirect(session.url) ``` ### Provisioning access The `@login_required` ensures we have a logged in user who is who they say that they are. Now we need to ensure the user has an active subscription. Here's one approach that builds a simple decorator for basic view functions: Put this in `proj/decorators.py` ```python from functools import wraps from djstripe.models import Customer from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured from django.http import HttpResponse, Http404, HttpResponseRedirect from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model from django.contrib.auth.models import AnonymousUser def is_active(subscriber): if isinstance(subscriber, AnonymousUser): raise ImproperlyConfigured(ANONYMOUS_USER_ERROR_MSG) if isinstance(subscriber, get_user_model()): if subscriber.is_superuser or subscriber.is_staff: return True try: customer = Customer.objects.get(subscriber=subscriber) except Customer.DoesNotExist: return False return customer.has_any_active_subscription() def subscription_required(view_func=None): @wraps(view_func) def wrapper(request, *args, **kwargs): if is_active(request.user): print('user is subscribed') return view_func(request, *args, **kwargs) return HttpResponseRedirect("/polls/") return wrapper ``` Now for basic views, you can do something like this: ```python @subscription_required def secret_view(request): return ResponseForPayingSubscribers() ``` I haven't built a mixin to make this work with class based views, but the logic would be very similar. --- [Back to all articles](https://www.cjav.dev/articles) --- ## Hey Agent, thanks for visiting! 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