Django Frontend Kit

Django Frontend Kit is an opinionated frontend scaffolder for Django, integrating seamlessly with ViteJS. It provides a streamlined setup for modern frontend tooling within your Django projects, enabling efficient development and production workflows.

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🚀 Features

• 📦 Seamless ViteJS Integration – Enables modern frontend tooling in Django.
• ⚡ Zero Config Development – Uses Vite’s dev server automatically during development.
• 🔧 Production-Ready Setup – Manages static assets via Django’s collectstatic mechanism.
• 🛠 Easy Scaffolding – One command to generate the required frontend structure.

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📥 Installation

You can install django-frontend-kit using your preferred package manager:

Using uv

uv add django-frontend-kit

Using Poetry

poetry add django-frontend-kit

Using pip

pip install django-frontend-kit

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🔧 Configuration

1️⃣ Add to Installed Apps

In your settings.py, add django-frontend-kit to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "frontend_kit",
    ...
]

2️⃣ Define Frontend Directory

By default, django-frontend-kit looks for a frontend directory specified by DJFK_FRONTEND_DIR. It is recommended to place it in the root of your project:

DJFK_FRONTEND_DIR = BASE_DIR / "frontend"

Templating support

For Django template engine to find the frontend files, add DJFK_FRONTEND_DIR to TEMPLATES DIRS in settings.py:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        ...
        "DIRS": [
            ...
            DJFK_FRONTEND_DIR
            ...
        ],
        ...
    }
]

3️⃣ Configure Vite Integration

During development, django-frontend-kit will use Vite's dev server. Set the dev server URL:

VITE_DEV_SERVER_URL = "http://localhost:5173/"

To collect staticfiles built by Vite, add the VITE_OUTPUT_DIR to STATICFILES_DIRS in settings.py:

VITE_OUTPUT_DIR = os.environ.get("VITE_OUTPUT_DIR", "./dist")
STATICFILES_DIRS = [VITE_OUTPUT_DIR]

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⚡ Quick Start

1️⃣ Frontend Setup

Run the following command to create the required frontend structure:

python manage.py scaffold

This will generate the frontend directory and Vite configuration in BASE_DIR.

2️⃣ Initialize the Frontend Project

Create a package.json file:

npm init -y

Install the necessary dependencies:

npm install vite @iamwaseem99/vite-plugin-django-frontend-kit

Start Development Server

To start the development server, run:

npm run dev 

Build for Production

To generate production-ready frontend assets, run:

npm run build

and run the following command to collect static files:

python manage.py collectstatic  

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TODO:

README

• [] Add philosophy.
• [] Explain the project structure.
• [] Add how to add and use layouts, pages, shared files.
• [] Add how to use third party libraries like tailwind, react, alpine, etc.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.