Welcome back! Now that you have successfully defined and exported Django models, it's time to take another step forward. In this unit, we will focus on integrating SQLite3 with the Django ORM and creating a model. This is where the magic of database manipulation truly comes to life.

In this lesson, you'll master the following:

• Integrating SQLite3 with Django's ORM (Object-Relational Mapper)
• Defining a model to represent your data in Django
• Creating views to interact with your model using HTTP requests

Let's start with a simple example to illustrate how this works. We'll define a Todo model and create a corresponding view to add new tasks.

First, you'll define your model in models.py:

Python
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1from django.db import models
2
3class Todo(models.Model):
4    task = models.CharField(max_length=200)
5
6    def __str__(self):
7        return self.task

In this example, the Todo model has a single field task to store the task description.

Next, we'll create a view to handle adding new tasks. Update your views.py:

Python
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1from django.http import JsonResponse
2from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
3from .models import Todo
4import json
5
6@csrf_exempt
7def add_todo(request):
8    if request.method == 'POST':
9        data = json.loads(request.body)
10        new_todo = Todo(task=data['task'])
11        new_todo.save()
12        return JsonResponse({'id': new_todo.id, 'task': new_todo.task}, status=201)
13    return JsonResponse({'message': 'Invalid request'}, status=400)

This view will accept POST requests to add new tasks to the database. Note the use of @csrf_exempt to disable CSRF protection for this view. In short, CSRF protection is a security feature to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks. In a production environment, you should handle CSRF protection properly but in this course, we will disable it for simplicity.

Finally, you'll need to map this view to a URL in your urls.py:

Python
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1from django.contrib import admin
2from django.urls import path
3from myapp import views
4
5urlpatterns = [
6    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
7    path('add-todo/', views.add_todo, name='add_todo'),
8]

Now, when you send a POST request to /add-todo/ with a JSON payload like {"task": "Buy groceries"}, a new Todo object will be created in the database with the task description "Buy groceries".

Integrating SQLite3 with Django ORM and creating a model is essential for efficiently managing your application's data. With the ORM, you can perform database operations using familiar Python code, making your development process smoother and more productive. This integration enables:

• Seamless database interactions without writing raw SQL queries
• Efficient data manipulation and retrieval
• Simplified creation of RESTful APIs to interact with your data

Mastering these skills will empower you to build more dynamic and responsive web applications. You'll be able to perform create and read operations seamlessly, making your development workflow more fluid and effective.

Excited to get hands-on? Let’s jump into the practice section, where you can start applying what you’ve learned!