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To manage the libraries or packages you've used and installed in your Django project, you can use pip (Python's package installer) along with a requirements.txt file. Here's how to do it:

1. Create a requirements.txt file

• To list all the installed packages in your Django project, you can create a requirements.txt file by running the following command in your terminal:

  pip freeze > requirements.txt

• This command will generate a requirements.txt file that lists all the packages you've installed with pip, along with their versions.

2. Include the requirements.txt file in your project

• Make sure to include the requirements.txt file in your version control system (like Git) so that it can be shared across different devices or with other developers.

3. Installing packages on a new device

• When you switch to a new device or set up your Django project on another machine, you can install all the required packages by running:

  pip install -r requirements.txt

• This command reads the requirements.txt file and installs all the listed packages.

4. Virtual Environments (Optional but recommended)

• It's a good practice to use a virtual environment to manage your project's dependencies separately from other Python projects on your machine.
• You can create a virtual environment with:

  python -m venv myenv

• Activate the virtual environment:
  • On Windows:

    myenv\Scripts\activate

  • On macOS/Linux:

    source venv/bin/activate

• After activating the virtual environment, you can install packages using pip, and they will be isolated to your project.

5. Updating requirements.txt after installing new packages

• Whenever you install a new package, remember to update your requirements.txt file by running:

  pip freeze > requirements.txt

This approach ensures that your Django project's dependencies are well-managed and easily transferable across different devices, similar to how npm manages dependencies in Node.js projects.

6. Run the app

• Create a new project

python -m venv myenv
myenv\Scripts\activate
django-admin startproject < project_name >
python manage.py startapp < app_name >

• Alternatively you can use Pipfile to manage your dependencies

to install all your dependencies:

pipenv install

when installing a new dependencies:

pipenv install < package_name >

• Activate your Virtual Environment

myenv\Scripts\activate

and then migrate your SQL files

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py showmigrations
python manage.py migrate

• Run your app

python manage.py runserver

• To create a Django Super User

python manage.py createsuperuser