How I Built and Deployed My First Web Application with Django in 5 Weeks

Tips for first-time Python website developers

Hello, I’m Jason

I am a programmer, machine learning practitioner, and automation enthusiast, originally from Korea. Even though I do not have a CS degree, I fell in love with coding after college and have been learning new things on my own ever since.

Introduction

In July 2019, I launched my first web application, Salary Ninja, a tool for salary insights. It took me a total of five weeks while working full-time to learn Django, code, and deploy this application on a server.

As part of becoming a full-stack engineer/problem-solver, I wanted to up my game by tapping into the front-end world. My idea was to build a website where you can search a database and return results with insights. Because I knew nothing about building a web application, I researched different options, tools, and frameworks. I want to share about the process I went through, as it might shed some light for those who want to build one themselves.

Rough timeline:

• Week 1: Formulating idea, researching different frameworks, finding the right tutorials and resources, buying the domain name, etc.
• Week 2: Completing the official Django tutorial
• Week 3: Implementing Salary Ninja back-end with Django
• Week 4: Implementing Salary Ninja front-end, charts, and tables
• Week 5: Deploying on DigitalOcean, adding Google Analytics, and wrapping up

1. Idea

Everything starts with an idea. You can turn your idea into a reality with grit, perseverance, and the belief that you can achieve anything to which you set your mind. What I love about the software world is that once you have an idea, most likely, you can embody it. All you have to do is sit down and find the right resources to carry it out and not give up.