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Django Adminator

Open-source Django Starter coded on top Adminator design.

Django Admin Dashboard generated by the AppSeed platform on top of Adminator design, an iconic free dahsboard template. Adminator is one of the best open-source admin dashboard & control panel theme. Built on top of Bootstrap, Adminator provides a range of responsive, reusable, and commonly used components.

v1.0.3 - release date 2022-06-11

✅ Features​

  • Built with App Generator
  • UI Kit: Adminator, designed by ColorLib
  • SQLite Database, Django Native ORM
  • Session-Based Authentication, Forms validation
  • Deployment: Docker

Adminator - Free Dashboard Template

✅ Environment​

To use the starter, Python3 should be installed properly in the workstation. If you are not sure if Python is installed, please open a terminal and type python --version. Here is the full list with dependencies and tools required to build the app:

  • Python3 - the programming language used to code the app
  • GIT - used to clone the source code from the Github repository
  • Basic development tools (g++ compiler, python development libraries ..etc) used by Python to compile the app dependencies in your environment.
  • (Optional) Docker - a popular virtualization software

✅ Start in Docker​

👉 Step 1 - Download the code from the GH repository (using GIT)

$ # Get the code
$ git clone https://github.com/app-generator/django-adminator.git
$ cd django-adminator

👉 Step 2 - Start the APP in Docker

$ docker-compose up --build

Visit http://localhost:5085 in your browser. The app should be up & running.

✅ Manual Build​

Download the code

$ # Get the code
$ git clone https://github.com/app-generator/django-adminator.git
$ cd django-adminator

👉 Set Up for Unix, MacOS​

Install modules via VENV

$ virtualenv env
$ source env/bin/activate
$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Set Up Database

$ python manage.py makemigrations
$ python manage.py migrate

Start the app

$ python manage.py runserver

At this point, the app runs at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

👉 Set Up for Windows​

Install modules via VENV (windows)

$ virtualenv env
$ .\env\Scripts\activate
$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Set Up Database

$ python manage.py makemigrations
$ python manage.py migrate

Start the app

$ python manage.py runserver

At this point, the app runs at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

✅ Manage App Users​

By default, the starter is not provided with users. To access the private pages and the admin section (reserved for superusers) follow up the next sections.

👉 Create Superusers​

To access the admin section, Django requires superuser privilegies. Let's create a new superuser and access the admin section of the project:

$ python manage.py createsuperuser

Once the superuser is successfully created, we can access the admin section:

http://localhost:8000/admin/

✅ Codebase structure​

The project is coded using a simple and intuitive structure presented below:

< PROJECT ROOT >
   |
   |-- core/                           # Implements app configuration
   |    |-- settings.py                # Defines Global Settings
   |    |-- wsgi.py                    # Start the app in production
   |    |-- urls.py                    # Define URLs served by all apps/nodes
   |
   |-- apps/
   |    |
   |    |-- home/                      # A simple app that serve HTML files
   |    |    |-- views.py              # Serve HTML pages for authenticated users
   |    |    |-- urls.py               # Define some super simple routes
   |    |
   |    |-- authentication/            # Handles auth routes (login and register)
   |    |    |-- urls.py               # Define authentication routes
   |    |    |-- views.py              # Handles login and registration
   |    |    |-- forms.py              # Define auth forms (login and register)
   |    |
   |    |-- static/
   |    |    |-- <css, JS, images>     # CSS files, Javascripts files
   |    |
   |    |-- templates/                 # Templates used to render pages
   |         |-- includes/             # HTML chunks and components
   |         |    |-- navigation.html  # Top menu component
   |         |    |-- footer.html      # App Footer
   |         |    |-- scripts.html     # Scripts common to all pages
   |         |
   |         |-- layouts/              # Master pages
   |         |    |-- base.html        # Used by common pages
   |         |
   |         |-- accounts/             # Authentication pages
   |         |    |-- login.html       # Login page
   |         |    |-- register.html    # Register page
   |         |
   |         |-- home/                 # UI Kit Pages
   |              |-- index.html       # Index page
   |              |-- page-404.html    # 404 page
   |              |-- *.html           # All other pages
   |
   |-- requirements.txt                # Development modules - SQLite storage
   |
   |-- .env                            # Inject Configuration via Environment
   |-- manage.py                       # Start the app - Django default start script
   |
   |-- ************************************************************************

✅ UI Templates and Assets​

The project comes with a modern UI fully migrated and usable with Django Template Engine.

👉 UI Templates​

All pages and components are saved inside the apps/templates directory. Here are the standard directories:

  • templates/layouts: UI masterpages
  • templates/includes: UI components (used across multiple pages)
  • templates/accounts: login & registration page
  • templates/home: all other pages served via a generic routing by apps/home app
< PROJECT ROOT >
   |
   |-- core/                           # Implements app configuration
   |-- apps/
   |    |
   |    |-- home/                      # A simple app that serve HTML files
   |    |-- authentication/            # Handles auth routes (login and register)
   |    |
   |    |-- static/
   |    |    |-- <css, JS, images>     # CSS files, Javascripts files
   |    |
   |    |-- templates/                 # Templates used to render pages
   |         |-- includes/             # HTML chunks and components
   |         |    |-- navigation.html  # Top menu component
   |         |    |-- footer.html      # App Footer
   |         |    |-- scripts.html     # Scripts common to all pages
   |         |
   |         |-- layouts/              # Master pages
   |         |    |-- base.html        # Used by common pages
   |         |
   |         |-- accounts/             # Authentication pages
   |         |    |-- login.html       # Login page
   |         |    |-- register.html    # Register page
   |         |
   |         |-- home/                 # UI Kit Pages
   |              |-- index.html       # Index page
   |              |-- page-404.html    # 404 page
   |              |-- *.html           # All other pages
   |
   |-- ************************************************************************

👉 Static Assets​

The static assets used by the project (JS, CSS, images) are saved inside the apps/static/assets folder. This path can be customized with ease via ASSETS_ROOT variable saved in the .env file.

How it works

  • .env defines the ASSETS_ROOT variable
  • core/settings.py read the value of ASSETS_ROOT and defaults to /static/assets if not found:
# content of core/settings.py (truncated content)

ASSETS_ROOT = os.getenv('ASSETS_ROOT', '/static/assets')
  • All pages and components use the ASSETS_ROOT variable. Here is a sample extracted from templates/layouts/base.html:
<head>
    <!-- Source Code -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ ASSETS_ROOT }}/css/style.css" />

    <!-- RUNTIME -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/assets/css/style.css" />
</head>

At runtime, the href property is resolved to /static/assets/css/style.css based on the value saved in the .env file:

# No Slash at the end
ASSETS_ROOT=/static/assets

✅ Customisation​

👉 Set up the MySql Database​

Note: Make sure your Mysql server is properly installed and accessible.

Step 1 - Create the MySql Database to be used by the app

  • Create a new MySql database
  • Create a new user and assign full privilegies (read/write)

Step 2 - Install mysqlclient package

$ pip install mysqlclient

Step 3 - Edit the .env to match your MySql DB credentials. Make sure DB_ENGINE is set to mysql.

  • DB_ENGINE : mysql
  • DB_NAME : default value = appseed_db
  • DB_HOST : default value = localhost
  • DB_PORT : default value = 3306
  • DB_USERNAME: default value = appseed_db_usr
  • DB_PASS : default value = pass

Here is a sample:

# .env sample

DB_ENGINE=mysql               # Database Driver
DB_NAME=appseed_flask         # Database Name
DB_USERNAME=appseed_flask_usr # Database User
DB_PASS=STRONG_PASS_HERE      # Password
DB_HOST=localhost             # Database HOST, default is localhost
DB_PORT=3306                  # MySql port, default = 3306

At this point, the app should use MySql for the persistence layer.

👉 Static Assets for production​

As explained in the Static Assets section, the assets are managed via:

  • apps/static/assets - the folder where JS, CSS, and images files are saved
  • ASSETS_ROOT - environment variable, that defaults to /static/assets if not defined

In production, the contents of the apps/static/assets files should be copied to an external (public) directory and the ASSETS_ROOT environment variable updated accordingly.

For instance, if the static files are copied to https://cdn.your-server.com/adminator-assets, the .env file should be updated as below:

# No Slash at the end
ASSETS_ROOT=https://cdn.your-server.com/adminator-assets

✅ Resources​