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Introduction

In this quickstart tutorial, we will demonstrate how to use Django with Upstash Redis to build a simple web application that increments a counter every time the homepage is accessed.

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Environment Setup

First, install Django and the Upstash Redis client for Python: 
pip install django
pip install upstash-redis

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Database Setup

Create a Redis database using the Upstash Console or Upstash CLI and export the UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL and UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN to your environment: 
export UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL=<YOUR_URL>
export UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN=<YOUR_TOKEN>
You can also use python-dotenv to load environment variables from your .env file.

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Project Setup

Create a new Django project: 
django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject
python manage.py startapp myapp
In myproject/settings.py, add your new app (myapp) to the INSTALLED_APPS list.

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Application Setup

In myapp/views.py, add the following: 
from django.http import HttpResponse
from upstash_redis import Redis

redis = Redis.from_env()

def index(request):
    count = redis.incr('counter')
    return HttpResponse(f'Page visited {count} times.')
In myproject/urls.py, connect the view to a URL pattern: 
from django.urls import path
from myapp import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.index),
]

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Running the Application

Run the development server: 
python manage.py runserver
Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser, and the counter will increment with each page refresh.

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Code Breakdown

  1. Redis Setup: We use the Upstash Redis client to connect to our Redis database using the environment variables UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL and UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN. The Redis.from_env() method initializes this connection.
  2. Increment Counter: In the index view, we increment the counter key each time the homepage is accessed. If the key doesn’t exist, Redis creates it and starts counting from 1.
  3. Display the Count: The updated count is returned as an HTTP response each time the page is loaded.