2 min readJan 30, 2024

Django’s philosophy of “Don’t Repeat Yourself” (DRY) encourages developers to write modular and reusable code. One effective way to achieve this is by creating reusable apps — self-contained components that can be easily integrated into different projects. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the process of building a reusable app in Django using a simple example.

Step 1: Set Up Your Django Project

Assuming you have Django installed, start by creating a new project:

django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject

Step 2: Create a Reusable App

Inside your project directory, create a new app:

python manage.py startapp myapp

Step 3: Define Models in Your Reusable App

In myapp/models.py, define the models for your app. For this example, let's create a Book model:

# myapp/models.py
from django.db import models

class Book(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    author = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

Step 4: Create Views and Templates

Now, create views and templates for your app. In myapp/views.py, define a simple view to display a list of books:

# myapp/views.py
from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Book

def book_list(request):
    books = Book.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'myapp/book_list.html', {'books': books})

Create a template in myapp/templates/myapp/book_list.html:

<!-- myapp/templates/myapp/book_list.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Book List</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Book List</h1>
    <ul>
        {% for book in books %}
            <li>{{ book.title }} by {{ book.author }}</li>
        {% endfor %}
    </ul>
</body>
</html>

Step 5: Create URLs

Define the URLs for your app in myapp/urls.py:

# myapp/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from .views import book_list

app_name = 'myapp'
urlpatterns = [
    path('books/', book_list, name='book_list'),
]

Step 6: Include the App URLs in Your Project

Include the URLs from your app in myproject/urls.py:

# myproject/urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('myapp/', include('myapp.urls')),
]

Read the full article here:
https://espere.in/Building-Reusable-Apps-in-Django:-A-Step-by-Step-Guide/