Building a Full-Stack Web App with Django and Vue.js
Why Choose Django and Vue.js?
When it comes to building modern web applications, having the right tools is crucial. Django, a Python-based framework, and Vue.js, a popular JavaScript frontend framework, make a powerful combination. Django provides a robust backend, while Vue.js enables you to create interactive and scalable interfaces. With Vue.js, you can take advantage of application reactivity, scalability, and flexibility, as well as component reusability.
Setting Up a Django Project
To get started, create a project folder and navigate to it in your terminal. Then, create a virtual environment using the command python -m venv django_rest_api. Activate the virtual environment and install Django using pip install django. Initialize and start the Django REST project with django-admin startproject django_rest_api_tasks and python manage.py startapp tasks.
Creating a Task Model
Define the structure of a task model in tasks/models.py. This will set up a task with title, description, completed, and created_at values. Run the migrations command to initialize the task model to a SQLite database.
Adding Django REST Framework
Install Django REST framework using pip install djangorestframework. Add rest_framework to the list of installed apps in django_rest_api_tasks/settings.py. Create a serializers.py file in the tasks app directory to define the model and fields for the API.
Setting Up CRUD Operations
In tasks/views.py, handle incoming requests for getting and creating tasks. Prepare a urls.py file in the tasks app directory to define URLs for fetching and adding tasks, as well as deleting and updating a task with a dynamic ID.
Setting Up a CORS API Policy
To enable communication between the Django REST API and the Vue client app, set up a Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) API policy. Install django-cors-headers using pip install django-cors-headers. Add corsheaders to the list of installed apps in django_rest_api_tasks/settings.py.
Setting Up the Vue.js Client App
Create a fresh directory and call it client. Install the Vue CLI using npm install -g @vue/cli. Create a new Vue app using vue create client. Install Axios using npm install axios.
Fetching Tasks
Create a Tasks.vue file in the src/components directory. Add code to render the view and fetch tasks from the API. Configure Axios in src/main.js.
Creating a Task
Add a form to create a new task in Tasks.vue. Implement the submitForm method to handle creating a task.
Updating a Task
Implement the toggleTask method to update a task’s status.
Deleting a Task
Implement the deleteTask function to delete a task.
By following this guide, you’ve learned how to build a full-stack web app using Django and Vue.js. This combination provides a powerful foundation for building scalable and interactive web applications.