Django user registration: Sample django-registration templates and demo code using Bootstrap 3.

Psst!

Hey you.

Yes, you there, looking at the screen with a combination of confusion, surprise and frustration. Is this the first time you’re trying to create a Django website with user sign up and log in capabilities? Looking for a “built-in” way to do that?

Well, there isn’t one. Sometimes implementing common website functionality that you’d think should be easy and straightforward isn’t so much. But hey, that’s pretty much always going to be the case with any web framework. Though as always, be sure to keep in mind that despite moments of confusion or frustration with the Django learning curve, at least it’s not PHP. So there’s that.

So yes, Django has user authentication built in, and you get a nice admin interface for free if you want it, but none of that is going to help you much with user sign up, as such. You’ll either have to roll your own solution on top of the bits Django does provide, or use one of many external packages, each with their unique combination of advantages and disadvantages.

The closest thing to a “standard” way to provide user sign up is django-registration. This only does local sign up (i.e. based on username/email). If you want log in via social media accounts, that’s a whole other thing.

But if all you need/want is local sign up, django-registration will get the job done. After a bit of fiddling. Including creating your own templates.

UPDATE: Since this post was written, django-registration went through a period where it was not maintained and seemingly abandoned, which led to the creation of a fork called django-registration-redux. AFAIK both are now maintained and compatible with recent versions of Django. I have no advice to offer as to which is preferable theses days, or whether other alternatives entirely are best considered.

Keep in mind user sign up is something where there isn’t likely to be one-size-fits-all approach that will work for everyone. Different websites are likely to want different approaches, hence the different possible registration backends django-registration provides. Then there’s front end differences. Not just appearance, but also differences in front-end frameworks, and any specific django template libraries used within the project.

So this post isn’t intended to be authoritative, or an opinion as to best practices — just a starting point. Because having at least some working sample code is often useful when starting out.

What follows are some pointers and examples that might be useful for those trying to get their head around the whole process of integrating django-registration, and creating the required templates.

<a class="btn btn-lg btn-primary"
   href="{% url 'registration_register' %}">Register</a>

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% load bootstrap3 %}

{% block title %}Registration{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-sm-offset-2 col-sm-10">
      <h1>Sign up</h1>
      <p>Already registered?
        <a href="{% url 'django.contrib.auth.views.login' %}">Sign in here.</a></p>
    </div>
  </div>

  <form action="{% url 'registration_register' %}"
        method="post" role="form" class="form-horizontal">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {% bootstrap_form form layout='horizontal' %}
    {% buttons %}
    <div class="col-sm-offset-2 col-sm-10">
      <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">
        {% bootstrap_icon "star" %} Sign Me Up!
      </button>
    </div>
    {% endbuttons %}
  </form>
</div>
{% endblock %}

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block title %}Registration complete{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-8">
      <h1>Registration complete!</h1>

      <p>An activation email has been sent.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block title %}Account activation error{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <h1>Account activation error</h1>
    <div class="alert alert-danger col-md-9">
      <p>The activation key <strong>{{ activation_key }}</strong> is invalid or expired.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

{% endblock %}

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block title %}Account activation complete{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
<div class="container">
  <h1>Success!</h1>
  <p class="lead">Account successfully activated!</p>
  <p>You can now sign in to the website.</p>

  <p><a href="{% url 'django.contrib.auth.views.login' %}"
        class="btn btn-success"
        role="button">Sign in</a>
  </p>
</div>
{% endblock %}

{{ site.name }}: Please activate your account.

To activate your account, please visit the following page:

http://{{ site.domain }}{% url 'registration_activate' activation_key %}

This page will expire in {{ expiration_days }} day{{ expiration_days|pluralize }}.

url(r'^accounts/', include('registration.backends.default.urls')),
url(r'^password/change/$',
                auth_views.password_change,
                name='password_change'),
url(r'^password/change/done/$',
                auth_views.password_change_done,
                name='password_change_done'),
url(r'^password/reset/$',
                auth_views.password_reset,
                name='password_reset'),
url(r'^accounts/password/reset/done/$',
                auth_views.password_reset_done,
                name='password_reset_done'),
url(r'^password/reset/complete/$',
                auth_views.password_reset_complete,
                name='password_reset_complete'),
url(r'^password/reset/confirm/(?P<uidb64>[0-9A-Za-z_\-]+)/(?P<token>.+)/$',
                auth_views.password_reset_confirm,
                name='password_reset_confirm'),