Dynamic Site Generation with Markdown & Django
Start Date: June 23, 2026
Status: Pre-Registration
This course teaches you the essentials of making your first Django-powered blog. Drawing on inspiration from static site generators and the markdown standard, we add capabilities only possible from an active server to help you build your next markdown-powered super-site.
Topics include:
- The basics of Django -- models, views, templates, url mappings, and everything else you need to configure a basic blog.
- CSS, theming, and external css/javascript libraries essential for creating a changeable website theme
- Additional functionality useful for any site: tags, breadcrumbs, pagination, and search
- Creating an import script to update your blog externally
- How to use your existing folder structure to define your new website's navigation
- Common approaches for running your site locally on your development computer and remotely on a server.
Prerequisites: Familiarity with Python is preferred but not required. I will point you to external Python resources if you need to catch up.
Note: To get the most out of this course, I recommend paying for an external server to host your site. This is not required but is essential if you want to deploy your new site to the internet with a domain name
Lectures
Upcoming:
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Introduction, Course Overview, Schedule, and Expectations
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Status: Not Released
Paywall: Free
Introduction and welcome to the course. We go over the course schedule and objectives. We also discuss who this course is best suited for, what you should be comfortable or at least familiar with at the beginning of the course, what topics we will cover, and what I hope you come away with. It should be an exciting course!
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Defining Project Design Goals and Motivations
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Status: Not Released
Paywall: Free
The topic of this lecture is to outline some of my own design goals when I was creating a markdown-based blog in Django, and how that may translate to your own project direction. I introduce different flavors of Markdown, other markdown related tools I have used in the past, and why I felt like these tools did not deliver exactly the kind of functionality I desired.
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Setting up your Development Environment
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Status: Not Released
Paywall: Free
This lecture goes over installation and setuop of the tools you will use in the course, including * Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) * git * VSCode * other software prerequisites
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Course created by:
- danaukes@danaukes.com
Instructors:
- danaukes@danaukes.com
Upcoming:
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Past Items:
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