If you’ve ever worked with Django, you know that models are the backbone of any Django application. As a Python developer, I can confidently say that mastering Django models is essential to building scalable and maintainable web applications.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through how to create a model in Django from scratch. Whether you’re building a real estate listing site for US properties or a simple employee management system, understanding models will empower you to design your database schema efficiently.
Let’s get right in!
Django Model
In Django, a model is a Python class that represents a database table. Each attribute of the class corresponds to a database field. Django models provide an abstraction layer, so you don’t have to write raw SQL queries to interact with your database.
Think of models as the blueprint of your data. For example, if you’re creating a real estate app, you might have a Property model with fields like address, price, and listing_date.
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How to Create a Model in Django: The Basics
Creating a model in Django is easy. You define a class in your app’s models.py file that inherits from django.db.models.Model then add fields as class attributes.
Here’s an example of a simple Property model for a US-based real estate application:
# myapp/models.py
from django.db import models
class Property(models.Model):
address = models.CharField(max_length=255)
city = models.CharField(max_length=100)
state = models.CharField(max_length=2) # Use US state abbreviations
zip_code = models.CharField(max_length=10)
price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=12, decimal_places=2)
listing_date = models.DateField(auto_now_add=True)
is_available = models.BooleanField(default=True)
def __str__(self):
return f"{self.address}, {self.city}, {self.state} {self.zip_code}"Explanation of Fields:
CharField: Used for short text fields like address and city.DecimalField: Perfect for currency values like price with fixed decimal places.DateField: Stores dates;auto_now_add=Trueautomatically sets the field to the current date when the object is created.BooleanField: A simple True/False field to indicate availability.
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Step-by-Step: Add a Model to Your Django Project
Now, I will explain to you how to add a model to your Django project.
1. Create a Django App
If you haven’t already created an app, run:
python manage.py startapp myapp2. Define Your Model
Add your model class to myapp/models.py as shown above.
3. Register the App
Make sure your app is registered in the project’s settings.py:
INSTALLED_APPS = [
# other apps
'myapp',
]4. Create and Apply Migrations
Django uses migrations to propagate your model changes to the database.
Run:
python manage.py makemigrations myapp
python manage.py migrateThis will create the necessary database tables for your model.
5. Use the Model in Django Admin (Optional but Recommended)
To manage your data via Django’s admin interface, register your model in myapp/admin.py:
from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Property
admin.site.register(Property)Now, when you run the development server and log into the admin panel, you can add, edit, and delete property listings easily.
I executed the above example code and added the screenshot below.
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Method 2: Use Django’s AbstractBaseModel for Reusable Models
Sometimes, you want to create reusable models that can be inherited by other models. Django provides an abstract base class feature for this.
Here’s how you can create a base model for timestamp fields:
from django.db import models
class TimeStampedModel(models.Model):
created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
class Meta:
abstract = TrueNow, you can inherit this in your Property model:
class Property(TimeStampedModel):
address = models.CharField(max_length=255)
city = models.CharField(max_length=100)
state = models.CharField(max_length=2)
zip_code = models.CharField(max_length=10)
price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=12, decimal_places=2)
is_available = models.BooleanField(default=True)
def __str__(self):
return f"{self.address}, {self.city}, {self.state} {self.zip_code}"This approach adds created_at and updated_at fields automatically to all models inheriting from TimeStampedModel, saving you from repeating yourself.
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Method 3: Use Choices for Field Validation
For fields like state you might want to restrict inputs to valid US state abbreviations. Django’s choices option is perfect for this.
Here’s how you can implement it:
class Property(models.Model):
US_STATES = [
('AL', 'Alabama'),
('AK', 'Alaska'),
# Add all states here...
('NY', 'New York'),
('CA', 'California'),
('TX', 'Texas'),
# ...
]
address = models.CharField(max_length=255)
city = models.CharField(max_length=100)
state = models.CharField(max_length=2, choices=US_STATES)
zip_code = models.CharField(max_length=10)
price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=12, decimal_places=2)
listing_date = models.DateField(auto_now_add=True)
is_available = models.BooleanField(default=True)
def __str__(self):
return f"{self.address}, {self.city}, {self.state} {self.zip_code}"This way, Django will enforce that only valid state abbreviations are saved.
How to Query Your Django Models
Once your model is ready and migrated, you can interact with it via Django’s ORM in your views or shell.
For example, to get all available properties in California:
available_properties = Property.objects.filter(state='CA', is_available=True)To create a new property:
new_property = Property.objects.create(
address="123 Main St",
city="Los Angeles",
state="CA",
zip_code="90001",
price=750000.00,
is_available=True
)Creating models in Django is one of the most fundamental skills you need to build any web application. From defining simple fields to creating reusable abstract models and adding validation through choices, Django’s model system is powerful and flexible.
I’ve found that starting with a clear data schema and leveraging Django’s ORM saves a lot of time and headaches down the road. The examples above, especially with US-specific contexts like state choices and property listings, can be easily adapted to your projects.
If you’re new to Django, don’t hesitate to experiment with models and migrations. The more you practice, the more intuitive it becomes.
Happy coding!
Other Django articles you may also like:
- Create a User Profile Using Django
- Create an API in Python Django
- JWT Authentication Using Django Rest Framework
I am Bijay Kumar, a Microsoft MVP in SharePoint. Apart from SharePoint, I started working on Python, Machine learning, and artificial intelligence for the last 5 years. During this time I got expertise in various Python libraries also like Tkinter, Pandas, NumPy, Turtle, Django, Matplotlib, Tensorflow, Scipy, Scikit-Learn, etc… for various clients in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Check out my profile.
