Project Structure¶
Todo
I’m not satisfied with the current way this page is scructured and how things are explained.
Let’s go through the basics of file structure and folders, so that you’ll get an overview of what you’re dealing with and don’t feel completely lost or overwhelmed. We won’t go through the full levels of file structure, but just the essentials.
.github¶
This directory is a GitHub-specific folder, meant for configurations related to GitHub like bots, GitHub Actions workflows, etc.
At the root of the folder, you’ll see a dependabot.yml file. It is a config file for Dependabot that is configured to
check weekly for dependency upgrades in your requirements files (more on that in the virtualenv management section).
There is a workflow directory with a ci.yml file (CI stands for Continuous Integration).
This file is meant to run tests, deployment checks, and type checks every time you push a new commit to GitHub to make sure nothing has broken
from the previous commit (assuming you do write tests).
docs¶
This folder is meant to house the documentation for your projects. The documentation uses a basic sphinx setup with the furo theme. There is a basic structure in place that encourages you to structure your documentation based on your django applications. By default, you are meant to write using reStructuredText, but the myst-parser is configured so that you can use markdown. Even if you are not planning to have very detailed and highly structured documentation (for some ideas on that, check out the documentation writing guide), it can be a good place to keep notes on your project architecture, setup, external services, etc. It doesn’t have to be optimal to be useful.
“The Palest Ink Is Better Than the Best Memory.”
—Chinese proverb
project_dir¶
This is the core of your project. It contains all the essentials of your Django project: settings, root urls, applications, templates, and static. Every
piece of code meant for the main project goes in there. It is very close to the default Django layout. The main difference is that when
you run the Django startapp command, it puts new apps in the root directory. That’s why Falco comes with its own start-app command that
will move new apps to the project_dir and automatically register them in your settings INSTALLED_APPS.
deploy¶
This folder contains the essentials for your project deployment. More details can be found in the deployment section.
tests¶
This folder is where you write your tests. It can follow the same structure as your Django project, with a new tests folder
for each application, or you can have one tests folder per application directory.
Here is an overview of the complete file structure of a generated project:
