How To Use PostgreSQL with your Django Application

The Django framework comes into the picture when building web applications with Python. Django is a flexible framework that provides developers with outstanding features to create applications swiftly. Django applications are set by default to store data in a lightweight SQLite database file. This works effectively in some situations only.

Although Django has an SQLite3 database by default, developers prefer PostgreSQL over SQLite3 database files. Now you might consider why it is so. The main reason is PostgreSQL’s customized offering to tackle complex databases Django PostgreSQL integration can increase production performance.

If you are looking for steps to configure PostgreSQL Database with Django, then you landed in the right place. This guide will teach you how to connect PostgreSQL database in Django to use in your applications. In addition to that, it also walks through PostgreSQL and Django briefly.

What is PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL(also known as Postgres) is an open-source relational database that is adaptable to both SQL (relational) and JSON (non-relational). The PostgreSQL project began in 1986 at the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of Professor Michael Stonebreaker. The project was initially called POSTGRES, after the previous Ingres database, which was also created at Berkeley. POSTGRES sought to include only the capabilities required to handle different data types fully.

PostgreSQL supports transactions with Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) attributes and automatically updatable views, materialized views, triggers, foreign keys, and stored procedures. 

Key Features of PostgreSQL

• Scalability:  PostgreSQL is intended to manage a wide range of workloads, from single computers to data warehouses or Web applications with many concurrent users. 
• Compatible with major OS: PostgreSQL is the default database for macOS servers and is also available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.
• Giant User Base: Many firms have created PostgreSQL-based products and solutions. Apple, Fujitsu, Red Hat, Cisco, Juniper Network, Instagram, and other organizations are among those featured.
• Security: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group (PGDG) takes security very seriously. This enables users to put their faith in PostgreSQL to preserve their mission-critical data.

What is Django?

Django is a Python-based web framework for the back end that uses the model-template-views (MTV) architecture paradigm. It is maintained by the Django Software Foundation (DSF), an independent organization headquartered in the United States.

Using Django, you can create a sophisticated and database-driven website. Its framework promotes component reusability, pluggability, the use of minimal code, low coupling, quick development, and the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” concept.

Key Features of Django

• Open Source: Django is an open-source and robust framework with an active community, excellent documentation, and several free and paid-for support alternatives.
• Fast Development: Django allows you to create web apps from concept to launch in a couple of hours. Django handles most of the tedium of web development, allowing you to focus on developing your app rather than reinventing the wheel.
• Fully Loaded with Features: Django contains a plethora of add-ons for popular web development tasks. Django handles user authentication, content administration, site mapping, RSS feeds, and many more functions straight out of the box.
• Reassure Security: Django prioritizes security and assists developers in avoiding numerous common security flaws such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, and clickjacking. Its user authentication mechanism allows for the safe management of user accounts and passwords.

Why is Django PostgreSQL Connection Useful?

The primary reasons to use Django PostgreSQL integration are mentioned below:

• Django includes a variety of data types that are exclusively compatible with PostgreSQL.
• Django provides django.contrib.postgres for PostgreSQL database operations.
• If you are creating a map-based application or storing geographical data, you must utilize PostgreSQL since it works with GeoDjango.
• Django supports the most functionality in PostgreSQL.
• Django offers crucial PostgreSQL-specific features such as aggregation functions, database constraints, form fields widgets, lookups, full-text search, Validators, and more.

We’ve seen how Django is the most capable web framework, and PostgreSQL is the most robust and dependable RDBMS. As a developer, you can leverage the versatility of PostgreSQL to work with almost any type of data and the unbeatable features of Django to develop fast and secure web applications.

How to Establish Django PostgreSQL Connection?

Now that you have a clear vision of the benefits in your mind, let’s walk past the steps required to establish the Django PostgreSQL connection. But first, let’s state some prerequisites.

Prerequisites and Tools Requirements

• Basic Knowledge of Python 
• Familiar with the Django environment
• Visual Code Studio
• Python version 3++ installed
• Windows Operating System
• PostgreSQL Database installed

Note: Just in case you haven’t installed PostgreSQL yet, then you can Download and install the PostgreSQL database. 

Step 1: Creating and Activating Virtual Environment

Open your Command Line Interface(CLI) and create a project directory using the following command. 

mkdir django-postgres

After creating the directory, the next step is to point towards the created directory with the following command.

cd django-postgres

In the Project development phase creating a virtual environment is a good practice. You can control the environment by segregating its environment from the rest of the systems.

The command to create a virtual environment is as follows:

python -m venv env;

The final step is to activate the virtual environment by running the command given below.

env/scripts/activate

Step 2: Installing Django and PostgreSQL

Now you have created a virtual environment for your project, so it’s time to install the required dependencies i.e., Django and PostgreSQL.

pip install django

The above command will install the latest version of Django to your project. 

Install the “psycopg2” module to get Python to operate with Postgres.

pip install psycopg2

Step 3: Creating Application in Django

Let’s create our first project, which will only have one project in our project directory but will let us add as many applications as we need.

django-admin startproject postgresTest

As a result of the above command, the “postgreTest” project folder will be generated in your project directory. You can verify the same in Visual Studio Editor.

Open up the project directory in Visual Studio and activate the virtual environment. Open the Visual Studio terminal and move to the project directory using the following command.

cd postgresTest

python manage.py startapp testdb

To launch your first app, use the following command.

Note: Don’t forget to mention your newly created application in the INSTALLED_APPS list in the settings.py file.

Kudos to you for creating your first application in Django!

Now, try running the server to ensure that everything is working correctly. Run the following command in the visual studio terminal.

python manage.py runserver

If everything is working correctly, you will get a link where your application is hosted on the local server. After clicking that link, you will land on the webpage shown below.

Step 4: Configuring Django Application Settings

Create a database named “test” in your Postgres server using pgAdmin4. 

It is now time to switch from the default database connection, i.e., SQLite3, to PostgreSQL in your Django project.

• Go to the settings.py file. 

By default, you will find the lines of code that are shown below. This code is configuring Django with the default database(SQLite3).

DATABASES = {
   'default': {
       'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
       'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
   }
}

You need to change the above settings to the parameters as shown below:

DATABASES = {
   'default': {
       'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
       'NAME': ‘<database_name>’,
       'USER': '<database_username>',
       'PASSWORD': '<password>',
       'HOST': '<database_hostname_or_ip>',
       'PORT': '<database_port>',
   }
}

Step 5: Testing Connection 

Run the following command to migrate all tables in our Django project to PostgreSQL.

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

You will get the output as shown below.

Congratulations!! You’ve successfully established the Django PostgreSQL connection.

Conclusion

In this guide, you have learned about PostgreSQL and Django briefly, their key features respectively, benefits of establishing a Django PostgreSQL connection. Moreover, you now have a detailed understanding of how to use PostgreSQL with your Django application.

Hopefully, you will try leveraging the Django PostgreSQL connection for your future web applications. Feel free to leave a comment below expressing your thoughts or recommendations.

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