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Open-source Seed project crafted on top of Soft Dashboard and Django

Soft UI Dashboard Django

A simple open-source project that uses Django as the backend framework and Soft Dashboard for the UI. For newcomers, Soft UI Dashboard is a modern Bootstrap 5 design built with over 70 frontend individual elements, like buttons, inputs, navbars, nav tabs, cards, and Django is a leading web framework coded by programming experts.

Product Features

  • Up-to-date dependencies: Django 3.2.6 LTS
  • SCSS compilation via Gulp
  • UI Kit: Soft UI Dashboard (Free Version)
  • SQLite Database, Django Native ORM
  • Modular design, clean codebase
  • Session-Based Authentication, Forms validation
  • Deployment scripts: Docker, Gunicorn / Nginx

How to compile the product

In order to have a successful build, a minimal programming kit is required: Python3, GIT, and a modern code editor like VsCode or Atom. Once all the tools are installed and accessible via the terminal, we can start compiling the product in a local environment:

Step #1 - Download the sources from the product page

$ unzip soft-ui-dashboard-django.zip
$ cd soft-ui-dashboard-django

Step 2 - Create a virtual environment and install the dependencies

$ # Virtualenv modules installation (Unix based systems)
$ virtualenv env
$ source env/bin/activate
$
$ # Virtualenv modules installation (Windows based systems)
$ # virtualenv env
$ # .\env\Scripts\activate
$
$ # Install modules - SQLite Storage
$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Step #3 - Set up the database

$ python manage.py makemigrations
$ python manage.py migrate

Step #4 - Start the app

$ python manage.py runserver
$
$ # Access the app in the browser: http://127.0.0.1:8000/

At this point, Soft UI Dashboard Django should be up and running in the browser on port 8000.

Codebase structure

The product comes with a simple, intuitive structure as shown below:

< PROJECT ROOT >
   |
   |-- core/                               # Implements app configuration
   |    |-- settings.py                    # Defines Global Settings
   |    |-- wsgi.py                        # Start the app in production
   |    |-- urls.py                        # Define URLs served by all apps/nodes
   |
   |-- apps/
   |    |
   |    |-- home/                          # A simple app that serve HTML files
   |    |    |-- views.py                  # Serve HTML pages for authenticated users
   |    |    |-- urls.py                   # Define some super simple routes  
   |    |
   |    |-- authentication/                # Handles auth routes (login and register)
   |    |    |-- urls.py                   # Define authentication routes  
   |    |    |-- views.py                  # Handles login and registration  
   |    |    |-- forms.py                  # Define auth forms (login and register)
   |    |
   |    |-- static/
   |    |    |-- <css, JS, images>         # CSS files, Javascripts files
   |    |
   |    |-- templates/                     # Templates used to render pages
   |         |-- includes/                 # HTML chunks and components
   |         |    |-- navigation.html      # Top menu component
   |         |    |-- sidebar.html         # Sidebar component
   |         |    |-- footer.html          # App Footer
   |         |    |-- scripts.html         # Scripts common to all pages
   |         |
   |         |-- layouts/                   # Master pages
   |         |    |-- base-fullscreen.html  # Used by Authentication pages
   |         |    |-- base.html             # Used by common pages
   |         |
   |         |-- accounts/                  # Authentication pages
   |         |    |-- login.html            # Login page
   |         |    |-- register.html         # Register page
   |         |
   |         |-- home/                      # UI Kit Pages
   |              |-- index.html            # Index page
   |              |-- 404-page.html         # 404 page
   |              |-- *.html                # All other pages
   |
   |-- requirements.txt                     # Development modules - SQLite storage
   |
   |-- .env                                 # Inject Configuration via Environment
   |-- manage.py                            # Start the app - Django default start script
   |
   |-- ************************************************************************

The bootstrap flow

  • Django bootstrapper manage.py uses core/settings.py as the main configuration file
  • core/settings.py loads the app magic from .env file
  • Redirect the guest users to Login page
  • Unlock the pages served by app node for authenticated users

Recompile CSS

To recompile SCSS files, follow this setup:

Step #1 - Install tools

  • NodeJS 12.x or higher
  • Gulp - globally
    • npm install -g gulp-cli
  • Yarn (optional)

Step #2 - Change the working directory to assets folder

$ cd apps/static/assets

Step #3 - Install modules (this will create a classic node_modules directory)

$ npm install
// OR
$ yarn

Step #4 - Edit & Recompile SCSS files

$ gulp scss

The generated file is saved in apps/static/assets/css directory.

Start in Docker

The project can be started in Docker, the popular virtualization software, with just a few commands typed in the terminal:

Step #1 - Download the sources from the product page

$ unzip soft-ui-dashboard-django.zip
$ cd soft-ui-dashboard-django

Step #2 - Execute Docker commands (inside sources directory)

$ docker-compose pull   # download the packages
$ docker-compose build  # execute local set up
$ docker-compose up     # start the project

Visit http://localhost:85 in your browser. The app should be up & running.