Build a Full-Featured Django Library Management System from Scratch

Django File Configuration

Django template file configuration

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "template")],  # template folder location
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Django static file configuration

STATIC_URL = '/static/'  # URL prefix for static files
STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),  # static file location
]

Disable CSRF middleware temporarily for testing forms

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    # 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

Django Database Configuration

Switch from the default SQLite to MySQL to simplify development with PyMySQL.

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',  # important to use uppercase keys
        'NAME': 'test_site',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': 3306,
        'USER': 'root',
        'PASSWORD': '',  # leave empty if no password
    }
}

Configure PyMySQL as MySQLdb in

__init__.py

import pymysql
pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()

Django Core Modules

HttpResponse returns data to the browser.

def index(request):
    # business logic
    return HttpResponse("Hello World")

render fills a template with context data.

def index(request):
    # business logic
    return render(request, "index.html", {"name": "Albert", "hobby": ["音乐", "篮球"]})

redirect performs URL redirection (default 302).

def index(request):
    # business logic
    return redirect("/home/")

To make the redirect permanent, add permanent=True to redirect().

Django Library Management System

Requirements:

Display publisher, book, and author pages.

One publisher can publish many books (one‑to‑many).

One author can write many books and a book can have multiple authors (many‑to‑many).

Create Django Project

Run the following commands in a terminal:

# Django-admin startproject lms
# cd lms
# python3 manage.py startapp app01

Set up the database, modify settings, and define URL routes.

"""lms URL Configuration

The `urlpatterns` list routes URLs to views. For more information see:
    https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/topics/http/urls/
"""
from django.conf.urls import url
from django.contrib import admin
from app01 import views

urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
    url(r'^publisher_list/', views.publisher_list),
    url(r'^add_publisher/', views.add_publisher),
    url(r'^drop_publisher/', views.drop_publisher),
    url(r'^edit_publisher/', views.edit_publisher),
    url(r'^book_list/', views.book_list),
    url(r'^add_book/', views.add_book),
    url(r'^drop_book/', views.drop_book),
    url(r'^edit_book/', views.edit_book),
    url(r'^author_list/', views.author_list),
    url(r'^add_author/', views.add_author),
    url(r'^drop_author/', views.drop_author),
    url(r'^edit_author/', views.edit_author),
    url(r'^$', views.publisher_list),  # default route
]

Define Models (app01/models.py)

from django.db import models

# Publisher model
class Publisher(models.Model):
    id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=64)

# Book model
class Book(models.Model):
    id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=64)
    publisher = models.ForeignKey(to=Publisher)

# Author model
class Author(models.Model):
    id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=64)
    book = models.ManyToManyField(to=Book)

Views (app01/views.py)

from django.shortcuts import render, redirect
from app01 import models

# Publisher list
def publisher_list(request):
    publisher = models.Publisher.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'publisher_list.html', {'publisher_list': publisher})

# Add publisher
def add_publisher(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        new_publisher_name = request.POST.get('name')
        models.Publisher.objects.create(name=new_publisher_name)
        return redirect('/publisher_list/')
    return render(request, 'add_publisher.html')

# Delete publisher
def drop_publisher(request):
    drop_id = request.GET.get('id')
    drop_obj = models.Publisher.objects.get(id=drop_id)
    drop_obj.delete()
    return redirect('/publisher_list/')

# Edit publisher
def edit_publisher(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        edit_id = request.GET.get('id')
        edit_obj = models.Publisher.objects.get(id=edit_id)
        new_name = request.POST.get('name')
        edit_obj.name = new_name
        edit_obj.save()
        return redirect('/publisher_list/')
    edit_id = request.GET.get('id')
    edit_obj = models.Publisher.objects.get(id=edit_id)
    return render(request, 'edit_publisher.html', {'publisher': edit_obj})

# Book list
def book_list(request):
    book = models.Book.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'book_list.html', {'book_list': book})

# Add book
def add_book(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        new_book_name = request.POST.get('name')
        publisher_id = request.POST.get('publisher_id')
        models.Book.objects.create(name=new_book_name, publisher_id=publisher_id)
        return redirect('/book_list/')
    res = models.Publisher.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'add_book.html', {'publisher_list': res})

# Delete book
def drop_book(request):
    drop_id = request.GET.get('id')
    drop_obj = models.Book.objects.get(id=drop_id)
    drop_obj.delete()
    return redirect('/book_list/')

# Edit book
def edit_book(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        new_book_name = request.POST.get('name')
        new_publisher_id = request.POST.get('publisher_id')
        edit_id = request.GET.get('id')
        edit_obj = models.Book.objects.get(id=edit_id)
        edit_obj.name = new_book_name
        edit_obj.publisher_id = new_publisher_id
        edit_obj.save()
        return redirect('/book_list/')
    edit_id = request.GET.get('id')
    edit_obj = models.Book.objects.get(id=edit_id)
    all_publisher = models.Publisher.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'edit_book.html', {'book': edit_obj, 'publisher_list': all_publisher})

# Author list
def author_list(request):
    author = models.Author.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'author_list.html', {'author_list': author})

# Add author
def add_author(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        new_author_name = request.POST.get('name')
        models.Author.objects.create(name=new_author_name)
        return redirect('/author_list/')
    return render(request, 'add_author.html')

# Delete author
def drop_author(request):
    drop_id = request.GET.get('id')
    drop_obj = models.Author.objects.get(id=drop_id)
    drop_obj.delete()
    return redirect('/author_list/')

# Edit author
def edit_author(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        edit_id = request.GET.get('id')
        edit_obj = models.Author.objects.get(id=edit_id)
        new_author_name = request.POST.get('name')
        new_book_id = request.POST.getlist('book_id')
        edit_obj.name = new_author_name
        edit_obj.book.set(new_book_id)
        edit_obj.save()
        return redirect('/author_list/')
    edit_id = request.GET.get('id')
    edit_obj = models.Author.objects.get(id=edit_id)
    all_book = models.Book.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'edit_author.html', {'author': edit_obj, 'book_list': all_book})

Front‑End Templates

Typical template snippets use Django's template language to loop over querysets and bind data to forms.

<tbody>
    {% for publisher in publisher_list %}
    <tr>
        <td>{{ forloop.counter }}</td>
        <td>{{ publisher.name }}</td>
        <td class="text-center">
            <a class="btn btn-info btn-sm" href="/edit_publisher/?id={{ publisher.id }}"><i class="fa fa-pencil fa-fw" aria-hidden="true"></i>编辑</a>
            <a class="btn btn-danger btn-sm" href="/drop_publisher/?id={{ publisher.id }}"><i class="fa fa-trash-o fa-fw" aria-hidden="true"></i>删除</a>
        </td>
    </tr>
    {% endfor %}
</tbody>

When selecting a publisher for a book, use conditional logic to set the selected option.

<select class="form-control" name="publisher_id">
    {% for publisher in publisher_list %}
        {% if publisher == book.publisher %}
            <option selected value="{{ publisher.id }}">{{ publisher.name }}</option>
        {% else %}
            <option value="{{ publisher.id }}">{{ publisher.name }}</option>
        {% endif %}
    {% endfor %}
</select>

The complete source code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/mayite/lms .