brickdjango 0.2.3

A custom Django app/package

🔤 "BrickDjango" – Meaning in Depth BrickDjango is a metaphorical name that combines:

"Brick" – the basic building block of construction.

"Django" – the popular Python web framework you're customizing.

🧱 What “Brick” Suggests: Modularity: Bricks are independent units that come together to form larger structures. Similarly, your Django structure has modular apps, separated settings, and organized layout.

Foundation & Scalability: Bricks form the foundation of a strong, scalable structure. Your custom project structure aims to do the same for Django projects.

Simplicity with Power: Bricks are simple, but powerful when arranged well — just like your approach to Django project architecture.

📘 BrickDjango User Guide

Table of Contents

1. Installation

2. Features

3. Getting Started

4. Creating a New Project

5. Creating New Apps

6. Project Structure Overview

7. Configuring Settings

8. Best Practices

9. Troubleshooting

🔰 Introduction

BrickDjango is a custom Django project scaffolding tool that helps developers start Django projects and apps with a modular, scalable, and maintainable folder structure.

This guide walks you through installing, using, and extending BrickDjango.

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📦 Installation

Requirements:

• Python 3.10+
• pip (Python package manager)
• Virtual environment setup

Steps:

1. Clone or install BrickDjango:

bash pip install brickdjango

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

bash python -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

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⚙️ Features

• Modular project layout (apps/, config/, base/)
• CLI for structured app/project creation
• Automatic app namespacing (apps.myapp)
• Environment-based settings (dev/prod)
• Follows Django best practices with added organization

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🚀 Getting Started

Use the brickdjango CLI to bootstrap your projects and apps easily.

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🏗️ Creating a New Project

bash brickdjango startproject

✅ This command sets up a new Django project with the custom BrickDjango folder layout.

Example:

bash brickdjango startproject mysite cd mysite

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🧱 Creating a New App

bash brickdjango startapp

✅ This creates a Django app inside the apps/ directory with proper namespace.

Example:

bash brickdjango startapp blog

🔁 This will create: apps/blog/ and modify apps.py like this:

python from django.apps import AppConfig

class BlogConfig(AppConfig): default_auto_field = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField' name = 'apps.blog'

Add the app to INSTALLED_APPS in config/settings/base.py:

python INSTALLED_APPS = [ # ... 'apps.blog', ]

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🗂️ Project Structure Overview

    
Master/
├── base/
│   └── utils/
│       └── utils.py
├── apps/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── blog/
│   │   ├── admin.py
│   │   ├── apps.py
│   │   ├── models.py
│   │   ├── views.py
│   │   ├── tests.py
│   │   └── migrations/
├── config/
│   ├── settings/
│   │   ├── base.py
│   │   ├── development.py
│   │   ├── production.py
│   │   └── .env
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── asgi.py
│   └── wsgi.py
├── manage.py
├── requirements.txt
├── README.md
└── venv/

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⚙️ Settings Management

BrickDjango separates settings by environment:

• base.py: Common settings
• development.py: For local dev
• production.py: For deployment

You can load them using an environment variable in manage.py or wsgi.py:

python os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'config.settings.development')

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🛠️ Best Practices

• Always create apps via brickdjango startapp
• Keep all business logic apps in apps/
• Share reusable code via base/utils/
• Commit a .env.example for environment variables
• Use separate settings for dev and prod

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🧰 Troubleshooting

🔸 Error: "Destination directory does not exist"

Make sure apps/ exists:

bash mkdir -p apps brickdjango startapp blog

🔸 Error: "App already exists"

Choose another app name or remove the existing folder.

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BrickDjango gives you a strong foundation to build scalable, maintainable Django applications with ease. Whether you're prototyping or building for production, its modular architecture keeps your code clean and your workflow efficient.

We hope BrickDjango helps you build amazing things — one brick at a time. 🧱✨