Django FAQ

• FAQ: General
  • Why does this project exist?
  • What does “Django” mean, and how do you pronounce it?
  • Is Django stable?
  • Does Django scale?
  • Who’s behind this?
  • How is Django licensed?
  • Why does Django include Python’s license file?
  • Which sites use Django?
  • Django appears to be a MVC framework, but you call the Controller the “view”, and the View the “template”. How come you don’t use the standard names?
  • <Framework X> does <feature Y> – why doesn’t Django?
  • Why did you write all of Django from scratch, instead of using other Python libraries?
  • Is Django a content-management-system (CMS)?
  • How can I download the Django documentation to read it offline?
  • How do I cite Django?
  • Where can I find more Django resources?
• FAQ: Installation
  • How do I get started?
  • What are Django’s prerequisites?
  • What Python version can I use with Django?
  • What Python version should I use with Django?
  • Should I use the stable version or development version?
• FAQ: Using Django
  • Why do I get an error about importing DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE?
  • I can’t stand your template language. Do I have to use it?
  • Do I have to use your model/database layer?
  • How do I use image and file fields?
  • How do I make a variable available to all my templates?
• FAQ: Getting Help
  • How do I do X? Why doesn’t Y work? Where can I go to get help?
  • Nobody answered my question! What should I do?
  • I think I’ve found a bug! What should I do?
  • I think I’ve found a security problem! What should I do?
• FAQ: Databases and models
  • How can I see the raw SQL queries Django is running?
  • Can I use Django with a preexisting database?
  • If I make changes to a model, how do I update the database?
  • Do Django models support multiple-column primary keys?
  • Does Django support NoSQL databases?
  • How do I add database-specific options to my CREATE TABLE statements, such as specifying MyISAM as the table type?
• FAQ: The admin
  • I can’t log in. When I enter a valid username and password, it just brings up the login page again, with no error messages.
  • I can’t log in. When I enter a valid username and password, it brings up the login page again, with a “Please enter a correct username and password” error.
  • How do I automatically set a field’s value to the user who last edited the object in the admin?
  • How do I limit admin access so that objects can only be edited by the users who created them?
  • My admin-site CSS and images showed up fine using the development server, but they’re not displaying when using mod_wsgi.
  • My “list_filter” contains a ManyToManyField, but the filter doesn’t display.
  • Some objects aren’t appearing in the admin.
  • How can I customize the functionality of the admin interface?
  • The dynamically-generated admin site is ugly! How can I change it?
  • What browsers are supported for using the admin?
  • What assistive technologies are supported for using the admin?
• FAQ: Contributing code
  • How can I get started contributing code to Django?
  • I submitted a bug fix several weeks ago. Why are you ignoring my contribution?
  • When and how might I remind the team of a change I care about?
  • But I’ve reminded you several times and you keep ignoring my contribution!
  • I’m sure my ticket is absolutely 100% perfect, can I mark it as “Ready For Checkin” myself?
• Troubleshooting
  • Problems running django-admin
  • Miscellaneous