How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 5

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Maria Campbell

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on unsplash.com

This post was originally published on my personal blog mariadcampbell.com.

Table of Contents

• Changing a Django project name after it has already been migrated
• Researching the name changing issue
• Changing old project name to new project name throughout the Django site
• Running the env | grep django command
  • Breaking down the env | grep django command
• Related Posts
• Related Resources

Changing a Django project name after it has already been migrated

When I first created the project for this Django site, I did not
think much about the project name, and named it basic_django_web_page.
I named the root directory of the site basic-django-web-page. But after
already having made migrations (makemigrations) and then migrated the
site (migrate), I wanted to change the root directory of the Django
site to django-boards, and the project name to django_boards. It made
more sense and was more consistent with the rest of the
site namespaces. I had to change both high level project directory to
django_boards and the porject subdirectory to django_boards as well.

But how was I going to do this?

Researching the name changing issue

I had never changed a project name after making model migrations, but
I was determined to make the name change so that I would not have to
re-create the site. That simply would have been a waste of time.

I came across all sorts of solutions which just didn't work, so I
won't even bother mentioning them. Then I came across a thread on
stackoverflow that gave me the answer(s) I was looking for!

Changing old project name to new project name throughout the Django site

I typed in the old project name in the Search (eyeglass icon) field
in Visual Studio Code to quickly find out where it came up in the
project code base:

1. It appeared in .gitignore.
2. It appeared in manage.py.
3. It appeared in asgi.py.
4. It appeared in settings.py.
5. it appeared in urls.py.

I removed all instances of basic_django_web_page and replaced it with
django_boards. This included any reference to the project name in
string comments! Those references count too.

After I did all that, committed the changes, pushed them to
Github, and then tried to run the development server, it worked.

But... when I went back later to the same thread where I found my
solutions, I learned that there was still more checking I should do.

Running the env | grep django command

I also learned in the stackoverflow thread (listed in Related Resources)
that I should run the env | grep django command to see if the old
project name was lingering anywhere in the virtual environment (venv).
The following was returned in Terminal:

PATH=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/basic-django-web-page/venv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/shims:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/Users/mariacam/mongodb/bin:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:/Library/PostgreSQL/10/bin:/Users/mariacam/.rbenv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.yarn/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin:/Users/mariacam/.nvm/versions/node/v20.15.0/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/mariacam/.rvm/bin
PWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/django_boards
OLDPWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards
VIRTUAL_ENV=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/basic-django-web-page/venv

The new project name was recognized, and was also set in all the
right places in the code base, i.e., including DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE in
settings.py,but the original root directory name did appear in the
VIRTUAL_ENV variable.

Breaking down the env | grep django command

The env | grep django command is used to filter environment variables related
to Django.

• The env command lists all the environment variables in the current shell session.
• | (pipe) operator pipes the output of the env command to the grep command.
• grep django searches through the output for lines that contain the string "django".

The env | grep django command displays all environment variables that
include "django" in their names or values. This is useful when we want
to check any environment settings related to Django.

All I had to do to fix the value of VIRTUAL_ENV was the following:

1. I opened up venv/bin/activate in vim with the following command:

vim venv/bin/activate

1. Then I added the following at the bottom of the file:

export VIRTUAL_ENV=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/venv

1. Then I ran the env | grep django command again, and the following was returned:

PATH=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/basic-django-web-page/venv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/shims:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/Users/mariacam/mongodb/bin:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:/Library/PostgreSQL/10/bin:/Users/mariacam/.rbenv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.yarn/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin:/Users/mariacam/.nvm/versions/node/v20.15.0/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/mariacam/.rvm/bin
PWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards
OLDPWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/django_boards
VIRTUAL_ENV=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/venv

Success! My VIRTUAL_ENV variable value was updated to the correct path!

And that is how I changed the name of my Django project from
basic_django_web_page to django_boards.

Related Posts

• How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 1
• How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 2
• How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 3
• How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 4

Related Resources

• Is there an easy way to rename a Django project?: stackoverflow

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Maria Campbell

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