This guide will help you with several considerations when starting a new project.

Table of contents

∘ What are the first things you do when you start a new Python / Django project?

∘ Documentation

∘ Package management

∘ Docker

∘ Linting

∘ Security checks

∘ Git hooks

∘ Continuous Integration (CI)

∘ Documenting your API

∘ Tests cases

∘ Badges

∘ Changelog

∘ Settings

∘ .gitignore / .dockerignore

∘ Wrapping up

What are the first things you do when you start a new Python / Django project?

• You start it from scratch with the ./manage.py startproject and jump right into coding your requirements?
• You start selecting some essential libraries you need to help your project down the road?

Whatever way you decide to start your projects, it’s always good to keep in mind that in the future you may or may not be there to maintain the code and deliver new requirements, you may be already working in a new project or another company. No one knows what the future holds for us.

How many times have you found yourself going back to a code written months ago and feeling bad about what you see (also feeling good about your growth in that time period), so many ways you could do it differently now, or maybe having a hard time to follow the logic due to so many reasons.

There are some things you can do to improve your overall code quality and standards followed by the team and we’ll go through them here.

#development #guidelines #python #django #best-practices #best practices when starting a new python/django project