Introduction to Django Authentication

Django comes with a built-in authentication system that allows you to manage user accounts and permissions. In this tutorial, we will explore how to use Django's authentication system.

Step 1: Create a User Model

Django provides a built-in User model that you can use to create user accounts. To create a custom user model, define a new model that inherits from AbstractBaseUser:

from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser
from django.db import models

class CustomUser(AbstractBaseUser):
    username = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    email = models.EmailField(unique=True)

Step 2: Create a User Form

Create a form to handle user registration and login:

from django import forms
from .models import CustomUser

class UserRegistrationForm(forms.ModelForm):
    password = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput)
    confirm_password = forms.CharField(widget=forms.PasswordInput)
    class Meta:
        model = CustomUser
        fields = ('username', 'email', 'password')

Step 3: Create Views for Registration and Login

Create views to handle user registration and login:

from django.shortcuts import render, redirect
from .forms import UserRegistrationForm
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login

def register(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = UserRegistrationForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            user = form.save(commit=False)
            user.set_password(form.cleaned_data['password'])
            user.save()
            return redirect('login')
    else:
        form = UserRegistrationForm()
    return render(request, 'register.html', {'form': form})

Step 4: Add URL Patterns

Add URL patterns to map to the registration and login views:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('register/', views.register, name='register'),
    path('login/', views.login, name='login'),
]