Adding Data Using the API

This section briefly describes how to use the Django shell interface and database API to quickly add a single Person object to the People table. The Django shell is a Python shell that gives you access to the database API included with Django. The database API is a set of Python methods that allow you to access the project database from the data model.

Try It Yourself: Add a Person Object to the iFriends Database Open the Django shell, and follow these steps to add yourself as a Person object in the People model of the iFriends database. 1. From a console prompt, change to the root directory of the iFriends project. 2. Enter the following command to invoke the Django shell: python manage.py shell 3. From the shell prompt, enter the following to import the Person class from the People package: from iFriends.People.models import Person 4. Enter the following command to create a Person object named p: p = Person(name="<your name>", email="<your eMail>") 5. Save the Person object you just created using the following command: p.save() 6. Verify that the object was created by using the Person.objects.all() function, which returns a list of all Person objects, and then print the list: lst = Person.objects.all() print lst Figure 2.5 shows these commands. Figure 2.5. Using the Python shell to add an object to the database. [View full size image] A Person object has now been created in the iFriends database. We will discuss accessing the database and using the database API in more depth later.