Introduction

In this tutorial, we will be exploring how to set up user authentication in Django, a high-level Python web framework. User authentication is an essential feature in most web applications as it helps in identifying and verifying users.

You will learn how to:

• Register new users
• Authenticate and log in users
• Log out users
• Handle password changes

Prerequisites:

• Basic Python programming skills
• Basic understanding of Django web framework
• Django and Python installed on your local machine

Step-by-Step Guide

Django comes with a built-in user authentication system. This includes the models, forms, views, and templates needed for user registration, login, logout, and password management.

To set up user authentication:

1. Create a Django project and an app within the project.
2. Set up your database in settings.py.
3. Create your templates for registration, login, logout, and password change.

Code Examples

Register New Users

1. In your views.py, import the necessary modules and create a register view.

from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm
from django.shortcuts import render, redirect

def register(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = UserCreationForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            return redirect('login')
    else:
        form = UserCreationForm()
    return render(request, 'register.html', {'form': form})

Here we use Django's built-in UserCreationForm which takes care of the registration process.

Login Users

1. In your views.py, create a login view:

from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login

def user_login(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        username = request.POST['username']
        password = request.POST['password']
        user = authenticate(request, username=username, password=password)
        if user is not None:
            login(request, user)
            return redirect('home')
    return render(request, 'login.html')

This view authenticates the user using Django's built-in authenticate function.

Logout Users

1. In views.py, create a logout view:

from django.contrib.auth import logout

def user_logout(request):
    logout(request)
    return redirect('home')

This view logs out the user using Django's built-in logout function.

Summary

In this tutorial, we learned how to set up user authentication in Django by creating views for registration, login, and logout. We used Django's built-in functions and forms for these processes.

Next, you can learn how to manage user sessions and how to handle password changes.

Additional resources:

• Django Documentation: Authentication
• Django for Beginners: User Authentication

Practice Exercises

1. Create a Django project with user authentication.
2. Add a feature to allow users to edit their profile.
3. Implement password change and reset features.

Solutions:

• Solutions to these exercises can be found in the Django Documentation's "Authentication" section.