How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 5

Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at 8:45 PM | 3 min read

Last modified on Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 10:35 AM

#macOS, #django, #env, #fullstack development, #grep, #pipe, #python3, #series, #virtualenv, #vscode

Collage of different names and colors

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Important Note: Before committing anything to Git or pushing anything to remote, please visit How to create a fullstack application using Django and Python Part 4 where I discuss how to add the python-dotenv package to the Django site and why it is crucial to do it. This article assumes you have a working knowledge of Git.

Table of Contents

Changing a Django project name after it has already been migrated

When I first created the project for this Django site, I did not think much about the project name, and named it basic_django_web_page. I named the root directory of the site basic-django-web-page. But after already having made migrations (makemigrations) and then migrated the site (migrate), I wanted to change the root directory of the Django site to django-boards, and the project name to django_boards. It made more sense and was more consistent with the rest of the site namespaces. I had to change both high level project directory to django_boards and the project subdirectory to django_boards as well.

But how was I going to do this?

Researching the name changing issue

I had never changed a project name after making model migrations, but I was determined to make the name change so that I would not have to re-create the site. That simply would have been a waste of time.

I came across all sorts of solutions which just didn't work, so I won't even bother mentioning them. Then I came across a thread on stackoverflow that gave me the answer(s) I was looking for!

Changing old project name to new project name throughout the Django site

I typed in the old project name in the Search (eyeglass icon) field in Visual Studio Code to quickly find out where it came up in the project code base:

  1. It appeared in .gitignore.
  2. It appeared in manage.py.
  3. It appeared in asgi.py.
  4. It appeared in settings.py.
  5. it appeared in urls.py.

I removed all instances of basic_django_web_page and replaced it with django_boards. This included any reference to the project name in string comments! Those references count too.

After I did all that, committed the changes, pushed them to Github, and then tried to run the development server, it worked.

But... when I went back later to the same thread where I found my solutions, I learned that there was still more checking I should do.

Running the env | grep django command

I also learned in the stackoverflow thread (listed in Related Resources) that I should run the env | grep django command to see if the old project name was lingering anywhere in the virtual environment (venv). The following was returned in Terminal:

PATH=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/basic-django-web-page/venv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/shims:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/Users/mariacam/mongodb/bin:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:/Library/PostgreSQL/10/bin:/Users/mariacam/.rbenv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.yarn/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin:/Users/mariacam/.nvm/versions/node/v20.15.0/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/mariacam/.rvm/bin
PWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/django_boards
OLDPWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards
VIRTUAL_ENV=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/basic-django-web-page/venv

The new project name was recognized, and was also set in all the right places in the code base, i.e., including DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE in settings.py,but the original root directory name did appear in the VIRTUAL_ENV variable.

Breaking down the env | grep django command

The env | grep django command is used to filter environment variables related to Django.

  • The env command lists all the environment variables in the current shell session.
  • | (pipe) operator pipes the output of the env command to the grep command.
  • grep django searches through the output for lines that contain the string "django".

The env | grep django command displays all environment variables that include "django" in their names or values. This is useful when we want to check any environment settings related to Django.

All I had to do to fix the value of VIRTUAL_ENV was the following:

  1. I opened up venv/bin/activate in vim with the following command:
vim venv/bin/activate
  1. Then I added the following at the bottom of the file:
export VIRTUAL_ENV=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/venv
  1. Then I ran the env | grep django command again, and the following was returned:
PATH=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/basic-django-web-page/venv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/shims:/Users/mariacam/.pyenv/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/Users/mariacam/mongodb/bin:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:/Library/PostgreSQL/10/bin:/Users/mariacam/.rbenv/bin:/Users/mariacam/.yarn/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin:/Users/mariacam/.nvm/versions/node/v20.15.0/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/mariacam/.rvm/bin
PWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards
OLDPWD=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/django_boards
VIRTUAL_ENV=/Users/mariacam/Python-Development/django-boards/venv

Success! My VIRTUAL_ENV variable value was updated to the correct path!

And that is how I changed the name of my Django project from "basic_django_web_page" to "django_boards".

Conclusion

In this section, I discussed and showed how one can change a project name after it has already been created and migrated.