The Django Poll Application

This repository hosts a simple, lightweight poll application that was built with Django, designed to showcase fundamental Django concepts like models, views, templates, and the admin interface.

Table of Contents

• Live Deployment
• User Interface
• Features
• Technologies Used
• Installation
• Usage
• Project Structure
• Customization
• Contributions
• License
• Contact

Live Deployment

You can access the live deployment of this project here.

The app is hosted on Render, a cloud platform that offers free hosting for static sites and web services. The deployment is automatically updated whenever changes are pushed to the master branch.

Note: The server may spin down after a period of inactivity, so the initial load time may be longer. It may take up to 2 minutes to load the page if the server is inactive for a while. Please be patient!

User Interface

Homepage

Poll Details

Poll Results

Admin Interface

Features

• Create Polls: Admin users can easily create questions and add multiple answer choices.
• Vote: Users can view available polls and vote for their preferred choices.
• Results: Real-time results are displayed after voting, showing the distribution of votes.
• Admin Dashboard: A robust admin interface allows for managing questions, choices, and viewing results.
• Correct Answers: Admin users can specify correct answers for each question, and users see if they voted correctly on the results page.
• Homepage and Navigation: Clear navigation between the homepage (list of polls), poll details, and results.
• Basic Styling: Includes basic CSS styles for a clean and visually appealing presentation.

Technologies Used

• Django: Web framework for rapid development.
• Python: The programming language used for the backend logic.
• HTML/CSS: For structuring and styling the user interface.
• JavaScript (Optional): Used for adding interactivity (e.g., Chart.js in your results.html).

Installation

1. Clone the Repository: Clone the repository using the Code button in the repository's main GitHub page.

2. Create a Virtual Environment:

   python -m venv .venv

3. Activate the Virtual Environment:

   source .venv/bin/activate  # Linux/macOS
   .\venv\Scripts\activate    # Windows

4. Run Migrations:

   python manage.py makemigrations
   python manage.py migrate

5. Create Admin User:

   python manage.py createsuperuser

6. Start the Server:

   python manage.py runserver

Important: Remember to change the Django production secret key and set DEBUG to True in PollApplication/settings.py order to run the server:

SECRET_KEY = 'your_secret_key'

DEBUG = True

Also, as you develop the app, every time you make changes to the data in the back end, be sure that you migrate them to the SQLite database using the following commands:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Then start the server again using python manage.py runserver and you'll be all set!

Usage

1. Access the Admin Interface: Go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ and log in with your superuser credentials.
2. Create Polls:
   • Click "Polls" or "Questions" in the admin interface.
   • Click "Add Question" and fill out the question text and publication date.
   • Click "Save and continue editing" to add answer choices.
   • Mark the correct answer using the checkbox.
3. View Polls: Visit the homepage (http://127.0.0.1:8000/polls/) to see the list of available polls.
4. Vote: Click on a poll to view details and select your answer.
5. View Results: After voting, you'll be redirected to the results page, where you can see the vote distribution and whether you answered correctly.

Project Structure

• polls/:
  • models.py: Defines the Question and Choice models.
  • views.py: Contains the views for displaying polls, voting, and showing results.
  • admin.py: Customizes the Django admin for poll management.
  • urls.py: Defines the URL patterns for the poll app.
  • tests.py: Contains test cases for the app.
  • __init__.py: Makes the directory a Python package.
  • apps.py: Configuration for the app.
  • templates/polls/: Contains the HTML templates for the app's views.
    • index.html: Homepage with a list of polls.
    • detail.html: Poll details and voting form.
    • results.html: Poll results with vote distribution.
  • static/: (Optional) Stores static files like CSS for styling.
    • images/: Contains images used in the app.
    • polls/style.css: CSS file for styling the app.
  • migrations/: Contains database migration files.
• PollApplication/:
  • settings.py: Contains the project settings and configurations.
  • urls.py: Defines the URL patterns for the entire project.
  • wsgi.py: WSGI configuration for deployment.
  • asgi.py: ASGI configuration for deployment.
  • __init__.py: Makes the directory a Python package.
• db.sqlite3: The default SQLite database file.
• manage.py: A command-line utility for interacting with the project.

Customization

• Templates: Modify the HTML templates (index.html, detail.html, results.html) to customize the look and feel of the poll pages.
• Styling: Add more CSS rules to style.css or create new stylesheets for further customization.
• Functionality: Extend the models or views to add more features like user authentication, poll comments, or social media sharing.

REST API Usage

This app also includes a REST API built with Django REST Framework (DRF). Here are the available endpoints:

Endpoint	Methods	Description	Authentication Required
/api/questions/	GET, POST, PUT, DELETE	List/create/update/delete questions.	✅
/api/questions/<id>/	GET, PUT, DELETE	Retrieve/update/delete a specific question.	✅
/api/choices/	GET, POST, PUT, DELETE	List/create/update/delete choices.	✅
/api/choices/<id>/	GET, PUT, DELETE	Retrieve/update/delete a specific choice.	✅

Example Usage (with curl):

# Get all questions
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/questions/

# Get a specific question
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/questions/1/

For example, if you run curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/questions/, you will get this output:

[{"id":3,"question_text":"huhu","pub_date":"2024-06-10T07:21:01Z"},{"id":4,"question_text":"hehehehe","pub_date":"2024-06-11T15:01:59Z"},{"id":5,"question_text":"What is the capital of France?","pub_date":"2024-06-11T15:11:04Z"}]

You can also directly visit the API endpoints in your browser:

Authentication: To use POST, PUT, or DELETE methods, you'll need a valid token, typically obtained after user login. Include this token in the Authorization header:

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Token <your_token>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"question_text": "Is this a new question?", "pub_date": "2023-12-12T12:00:00Z"}' http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/questions/

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests. Feel free to also fork and customize this repo to fit your needs.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Contact

If you have any questions about this project or Django (or even the Django REST Framework) in general, feel free to contact me! I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have (hopefully I'll know the answers to them...)

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Thank you for visiting today! Created with ❤️ in 2024 by Son Nguyen.