Django Soft Dashboard

Open-source Django Starter coded on top Soft UI Dashboard Design (Free Version).
Django Admin Dashboard generated by the AppSeed platform on top of Soft UI Dashboard design (free version) crafted by Creative-Tim.
Version: v1.0.7 - release date 2022-05-24
Built with App Generator​
SQLite Database, Django Native ORM
Session-Based Authentication, Forms validation
Deployment scripts: Docker, Gunicorn/Nginx
Links
👉 Soft UI Dashboard Django - Product page
👉 Soft UI Dashboard Django - LIVE Demo
👉 Support (Email and LIVE on Discord) for registered users.
Django Soft Dashboard - Open-Source Starter
✨ 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 of 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 used by Python to compile the app dependencies in your environment.
(Optional) Docker - a popular virtualization software
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✨ Start the app in Docker
👉 Step 1 - Download the code from the GH repository (using GIT)
$ # Get the code
$ git clone https://github.com/app-generator/django-soft-ui-dashboard.git
$ cd django-soft-ui-dashboard
👉 Step 2 - Start the APP in Docker
$ docker-compose up --build 
Visit http://localhost:5085 in your browser. The app should be up & running.
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✨ Manual Build
Download the code
$ # Get the code
$ git clone https://github.com/app-generator/django-soft-ui-dashboard.git
$ cd django-soft-ui-dashboard
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👉 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/.
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👉 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/.
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✨ 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.exe manage.py createsuperuser
>>> Username (leave blank to use 'test'): test
>>> Email address: [email protected]
>>> Password: *******
>>> Password (again): *******
>>> Superuser created successfully.
Once the superuser is successfully created, we can access the admin section:
http://localhost:8000/admin/ (make sure you have a / at the end).
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👉 Create (Ordinary) Users
By default, the app redirects guest users to authenticate. In order to access the private pages, follow this set up:
Start the app via python manage.py runserver
Access the registration page and create a new user:
http://127.0.0.1:8000/register/
Access the sign in page and authenticate
http://127.0.0.1:8000/login/
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✨ 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
   |
   |-- ************************************************************************
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✨ Application Bootstrap Flow
The entry point of the project is the core.settings.py file where the project configuration is bundled. The most important files that make the project functional are listed below:
manage.py (saved in the root of the project) loads core/settings.py
core/settings.py:
Loads the .env file (dynamic configuration)
Loads the project routing:
core.urls.py
Defines the templates directory
apps/templates
Defines the INSTALLED_APPS section
apps.home - custom app that serve all pages
If the DB_ENGINE variable is not present in the environment
SQLite persistence is used
If the DB_ENGINE is present
The DB URI is built dynamically for MySql or PostgreSQL.
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✨ Project Routing
The core file that bundles together all routing rules is core/urls.py.
The home application being a generic router that serves all pages defined in the templates/home directory, should be the last rule defined in the urlpatterns.
NOTE: all new apps, should be included above apps.home.urls generic rule.
urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),          # Django admin route
    path("", include("apps.authentication.urls")), # Auth routes - login / register
​
    # ADD NEW Routes HERE
​
    # Leave `Home.Urls` as last the last line
    path("", include("apps.home.urls"))
]
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✨ UI Assets and Templates
The project comes with a modern UI fully migrated and usable with Django Template Engine.
👉 Page 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
   |
   |-- ************************************************************************
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👉 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">
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
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✨ Default Apps
The codebase comes with two simple apps that handle the authentication and serve all pages saved in the apps/templates/home directory.
👉 Authentication App
This default app defined in apps/authentication handles the authentication routes login, register. The most important files that make the authentication usable, are listed below:
forms.py - defines the Login, Registration forms
views.py - implements the login, registration flow
routes.py - map routing rules over the views
models.py - EMPTY file
The extended user model is NOT provided
👉 Home App
This app returns all pages saved in the templates/home directory to authenticated users. In case a page is not found, a generic page is returned using a 404 HTTP error status.
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✨ 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
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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.
👉 Adding a new app
The existing codebase can be extended with ease with new apps and features. Here are the steps that create a new application named polls.
Create a new app using startapp command (make sure you are in the root of the project)
$ python manage.py startapp polls
Write a simple view for the new app - Edit polls/views.py
from django.http import HttpResponse
​
def index(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello! This is the polls APP index.")
Create urls.py inside the polls directory
from django.urls import path
​
from . import views
​
urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index, name='index'),
]
Update project routing - core/urls.py file:
urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),         
    path("", include("apps.authentication.urls")), 
​
    # ADD NEW Routes HERE
    path('polls/', include('polls.urls')),  # <-- NEW
​
    # Leave `Home.Urls` as last the last line
    path("", include("apps.home.urls"))
]
Enable the new app - Update core/settings.py file:
... (truncated content)
​
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'polls',                       # <-- NEW
    'apps.home' 
]
​
... (truncated content)
Start the project and access the project in the browser:
http://localhost:8000/polls/
Django new app - browser output.
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👉 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/datta-able-assets, the .env file should be updated as below:
# No Slash at the end
ASSETS_ROOT=https://cdn.your-server.com/datta-able-assets
🚀 Where to go from here
👉 Access the support page in case something is missing
👉 Use Soft UI Dashboard Generator to generate a new project
👉 Check-out the PREMIUM version, Soft UI Dashboard PRO (live demo) for more features and improved UI
✅ Bootstrap 5 version
✅ More pages & components
✅ Priority on support
✅ Soft UI Dashboard PRO - product page
Soft UI Dashboard PRO - Starter generated by AppSeed.
Django Star Admin
Django Soft Dashboard PRO
Last modified 2d ago
Django Soft Dashboard

✨ Environment

✨ Start the app in Docker

✨ Manual Build

👉 Set Up for `Unix`, `MacOS`

👉 Set Up for `Windows`

✨ Manage App `Users`

👉 Create `Superusers`

👉 Create (Ordinary) Users

✨ Codebase structure

✨ Application Bootstrap Flow

✨ Project Routing

✨ UI Assets and Templates

👉 Page Templates

👉 Static Assets

✨ Default Apps

👉 Authentication App

👉 Home App

✨ Customisation

👉 Set up the MySql Database

👉 Adding a new app

👉 Static Assets for `production`

🚀 Where to go from here
