Introduction to the Web Interface

Welcome to the first lesson of our course on building an image generation web application with Django! In this course, you'll learn how to create a user-friendly web interface for an AI-powered image generation service using Django's robust framework. By the end of this course, you'll have built a complete web application that allows users to generate images based on text prompts and view their generation history.

In this first lesson, we'll focus on creating the HTML structure for our application. This structure will serve as the foundation for our user interface, providing the elements that users will interact with to generate images and view their history.

Our application will have two main sections:

  1. A "Generate Image" tab where users can enter prompts and customize their image generation.
  2. A "View History" tab where users can see their previously generated images.

Before we dive into the code, let's understand how Django handles HTML templates. In a Django application, HTML files are typically stored in a folder called templates. Django uses a powerful templating engine that allows us to include dynamic content in our HTML files. We'll see this in action when we link our CSS and JavaScript files using Django's template tags.

Now, let's start building our HTML interface!

App File Structure

Before we start building the HTML for our image generation interface, let's take a moment to understand how our Django application is organized. A clear file structure helps us stay organized as our project grows in complexity.

Here's the structure we'll be working with:

Folder Responsibilities

  • project/: The main project directory that contains the management script and static files.

    • manage.py: Facilitates various Django management commands, such as running the server and managing migrations.
    • static/: Stores frontend static files like CSS and JavaScript.

  • myproject/: Contains the core configuration and setup for the Django project.

    • settings.py: Houses configuration settings for the project, including database and middleware configurations.
    • urls.py: Maps URLs to views at the project level.
    • wsgi.py: Serves as the entry point for the application when deployed on a production server.
    • asgi.py: Handles asynchronous HTTP requests, serving as the entry point for asynchronous web servers.
    • init.py: Marks the directory as a Python package.

  • myapp/: Contains the main application logic and specific configurations.

    • migrations/: Stores database migration files, tracking changes to the data models.
    • templates/: Holds HTML templates rendered by Django.
    • init.py: Marks the directory as a Python package.
    • admin.py: Configures how models are presented in the Django admin interface.
    • apps.py: Manages application-specific configurations.
    • utils.py: Contains utility functions and classes for the application.
    • models.py: Defines data models using Django's ORM.
    • services.py: Contains services used by the application.
    • urls.py: Maps URLs to views within the application.
    • views.py: Contains the logic for handling user requests and rendering templates.

With this structure in mind, you'll find it easier to understand where each part of the code lives as we build out the HTML and connect it to our Django backend.

Creating the Basic HTML Document Structure

Every HTML document starts with a basic structure that includes the document type declaration, the HTML root element, and the head and body sections. Let's create this structure for our image generator application.

Let's break down what each part of this code does:

  • <!DOCTYPE html> tells the browser that this is an HTML5 document.
  • <html lang="en"> is the root element of the HTML document, with "en" specifying English as the language.
  • The <head> section contains metadata about the document:
    • <meta charset="UTF-8"> specifies the character encoding for the document.
    • <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> ensures proper scaling on mobile devices.
    • <title>AI Image Generator</title> sets the title that appears in the browser tab.
    • <link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static 'css/style.css' %}"> links to our CSS file using Django's {% static %} template tag.

Notice the {% static 'css/style.css' %} syntax. This is a Django template tag that generates the correct URL for our CSS file. In Django, static files like CSS, JavaScript, and images are typically stored in a folder called static. The {% static %} tag helps Django generate the correct path to these files.

Now that we have our basic structure, let's add the content to our body section.

Building the Tab Navigation System

Our application will have two main tabs: one for generating images and another for viewing the history of generated images. Let's create the tab navigation system that will allow users to switch between these views.

In this code, we've added:

  • A <div> with the class tabs that contains two buttons, one for each tab.
  • Each button has an onclick attribute that calls a JavaScript function named openTab with the ID of the tab to open.
  • Two <div> elements with the class tab-content and IDs generate and history. These will contain the content for each tab.
  • The "history" tab content has style="display:none;" to hide it initially, showing only the "generate" tab when the page loads.

The openTab function will be defined in our JavaScript file, which we'll link at the end of our HTML document. This function will handle showing and hiding the appropriate tab content when a user clicks on a tab button.

Now, let's fill in the content for each tab.

Designing the Image Generation Form

The "Generate Image" tab will contain a form where users can enter a prompt for the image they want to generate and select an aspect ratio. Let's create this form:

Let's examine the elements in our form:

  • A container <div> to hold all the form elements.
  • An <h1> heading that displays the title of our application.
  • An <input> field where users can enter their image description (prompt).
  • A dropdown <select> menu for choosing the aspect ratio of the generated image, with options for square, widescreen, classic, and portrait formats.
  • A button that, when clicked, will call a JavaScript function named generateImage() to process the form and generate the image.
  • A loading message that will be displayed while the image is being generated. It's initially hidden with style="display: none;".
  • An empty <div> with the ID image-container where the generated image will be displayed.

The generateImage() function will be defined in our JavaScript file. It will collect the values from the form, send them to our backend API, and display the resulting image in the image-container div.

Setting Up the History View

The "View History" tab will allow users to see their previously generated images. Let's create the content for this tab:

The history view is simpler than the generation form:

  • A container <div> to hold all the elements.
  • An <h1> heading that displays "Image History".
  • A button that, when clicked, will call a JavaScript function named fetchHistory() to load the user's previously generated images.
  • An empty <div> with the ID history-container where the images will be displayed.

The fetchHistory() function will be defined in our JavaScript file. It will fetch the user's image history from our backend API and display the images in the history-container div.

Connecting Everything Together

Now that we have created all the necessary HTML elements, let's connect everything together by adding the script tag at the end of our body section:

Just like with our CSS file, we use the {% static %} template tag to generate the correct path to our JavaScript file.

Here's the complete HTML code for our image generator application:

Summary

In this lesson, we've created the HTML structure for our image generator application using Django. We've set up a tab navigation system, designed a form for generating images, and created a view for displaying the image history. We've also linked our CSS and JavaScript files using Django's {% static %} template tag.

Right now, our application doesn't look very appealing because we haven't added any styling yet. Additionally, the buttons don't do anything because we haven't implemented the JavaScript functions. In the next lesson, we'll add CSS to style our application and make it visually appealing. After that, we'll implement the JavaScript functions to handle user interactions and communicate with our backend API.

The HTML structure we've created serves as the foundation for our application. It defines the elements that users will interact with and provides the structure that our CSS and JavaScript will build upon. By understanding this structure, you'll be better prepared to implement the styling and functionality in the upcoming lessons.

In the practice exercises that follow, you'll have the opportunity to modify this HTML structure and experiment with different elements to better understand how they work together. You'll also get to see how the HTML structure interacts with CSS and JavaScript to create a complete web application in a Django context.

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