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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/unesexact/internship-portal-django/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

All runtime configuration for Internship Portal lives in a single file: config/settings.py. During local development the defaults work out of the box, but before you deploy to any public-facing environment you must update several of these values to harden security, point to the correct database, and serve files correctly. This page walks through each important setting, explains what it controls, and shows you exactly what to change.
Never run Internship Portal in production with DEBUG = True or with the default SECRET_KEY that ships in the repository. Both settings are intentionally insecure placeholders suitable only for local development. Leaving either of them unchanged on a public server exposes your users and your data.

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Secret Key

Django uses SECRET_KEY to cryptographically sign cookies, sessions, CSRF tokens, and other security-sensitive data. The value committed to the repository is a known-insecure placeholder: 
# config/settings.py
SECRET_KEY = "django-insecure-vs@u76qf@^x=g#idlcwphyhy41q#2!%k127uy0thml=d6ksojs"
Generate a fresh, random key before deploying: 
python -c "from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())"
Store the result as an environment variable so it never appears in source control, then read it in settings.py: 
import os

SECRET_KEY = os.environ["DJANGO_SECRET_KEY"]
Set the variable in your shell, CI environment, or hosting platform’s secrets manager before starting the server.

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Debug Mode

DEBUG = True enables Django’s interactive error pages, which display full stack traces, local variable values, and configuration details directly in the browser. This is invaluable during development but a critical security risk in production. 
# Development
DEBUG = True

# Production — set to False
DEBUG = False
When DEBUG is False, Django stops serving detailed error pages and falls back to your configured 404 and 500 handlers. You must also configure ALLOWED_HOSTS (see below) before the server will accept requests with debug mode off.

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Allowed Hosts

ALLOWED_HOSTS is a list of hostnames that Django will accept in the Host HTTP header. With DEBUG = True the list is ignored; with DEBUG = False any request whose host is not in the list is rejected with a 400 Bad Request. 
# Default (development only — do not use in production)
ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

# Production example
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["yourdomain.com", "www.yourdomain.com"]
Add every domain or subdomain — including any IP addresses — that your server will respond to. If you are running behind a reverse proxy, also include the proxy’s internal address if it forwards requests using the bare IP.

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Database

By default Internship Portal uses SQLite, which requires no installation and stores the entire database in a single file at the project root: 
# config/settings.py
DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
        "NAME": BASE_DIR / "db.sqlite3",
    }
}
SQLite is sufficient for development and low-traffic deployments, but for production you should switch to PostgreSQL. Install psycopg2 (pip install psycopg2-binary) and update the DATABASES block: 
DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql",
        "NAME": os.environ["DB_NAME"],
        "USER": os.environ["DB_USER"],
        "PASSWORD": os.environ["DB_PASSWORD"],
        "HOST": os.environ.get("DB_HOST", "localhost"),
        "PORT": os.environ.get("DB_PORT", "5432"),
    }
}
After switching engines, run python manage.py migrate against the new database to recreate the schema.

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Media Files

The MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT settings control where Django stores and serves user-uploaded files. Internship Portal uploads two types of files: CV documents (PDFs or other files uploaded by students) and profile pictures (images for both user types). 
# config/settings.py
MEDIA_URL = "/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "media"
During development, Django’s development server serves media files automatically via the route added at the bottom of config/urls.py: 
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
In production, Django does not serve media files itself. You should configure your web server (nginx, Apache) or a CDN (AWS S3, Cloudflare R2) to serve the contents of MEDIA_ROOT at the path defined by MEDIA_URL. Remove or guard the static() route addition so it only runs when DEBUG = True.

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Installed Apps

Beyond Django’s built-in contrib apps, Internship Portal registers three custom applications in INSTALLED_APPS: 
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # Django built-ins
    "django.contrib.admin",
    "django.contrib.auth",
    "django.contrib.contenttypes",
    "django.contrib.sessions",
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    # Custom apps
    "internships",
    "applications",
    "users.apps.UsersConfig",
]
Each custom app owns a distinct slice of the domain:
AppResponsibility
users.apps.UsersConfigUser registration, login/logout, Profile model (student and company fields, CV upload, profile picture), and the notifications context processor that injects unread notification counts into every template.
internshipsInternship model with title, company (FK to User), location, description, and active/closed status. Provides views for listing, detail, creation, and status toggling.
applicationsApplication model (student → internship with pending/accepted/rejected status) and Notification model. Handles submission, duplicate prevention via unique_together, and status updates that trigger notifications.
users is registered using its AppConfig class (users.apps.UsersConfig) so that Django correctly discovers its signals.py file, which is responsible for automatically creating a Profile record whenever a new User is saved.

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