Implementing SSL with Certbot for Django

Django Introduction

Chapter 1. Django Key Concepts

Web Framework and Django

Websites vs. Django Web Apps

How Django Handles HTTP Request and HTTP Response

Django's MVT Framework

Django Templates vs. Django APIs

Chapter 2. Django Quick Start Guide

Install Python

Install Visual Studio Code

Create Project Directory

Set Up Virtual Environment

Install Django

Start Django Project

Run Server

Database Migration

URL dispatcher – urls.py

Create Superuser and Log In to Django Admin

Start App

Create HTML Templates

Create Views

Add URL Patterns

Project vs. App

Chapter 3. Django Models and Databases

Create a Database in Django

Relational Database

Create Django Models

Makemigrations and Migrate

Add Models in Django Admin – admin.py

Change Display Name of Record Objects

Django Models – Data Field Type

Django Models – Field Options

Django Models – Help Text Option

Django Models – Choices Option

Django Models – DateField with datetime Module

Django Models – Relationship Fields

Django Models – ID

Django Models – ForeignKey (OneToMany Relationship)

Django Models – OneToOneField

Django Models – ManyToManyField

Chapter 4. Create CRUD Web Application

CRUD Web Application

Basic CRUD Structure in Django

Django Generic Views

How To Write Class-Based Views with Generic Views

Generic View Basic Attributes

URL Dispatcher for CRUD Views

Django Templates for CRUD Views

Django Template Language (DTL)

Template for List Page

get_FOO_display method

Template for Detail Page

Template with Model Relations

Template for Create and Update Page

Template for Delete Page

Add Links – {% url %} tag

Extend Templates – {% extends %} tag

Check Developing App UI on Mobile Device

Django Templates with Bootstrap

Crispy Forms

Customize Views (1) – Change List Order

Customizing Views (2) – Filter Lists

Context

Customize Views (3) – Add Extra Context

Modularize Templates – {% include %} tag

Static Files in Development Environment – {% static %} tag

STATIC_URL and STATICFILES_DIRS

Create Index HTML

Chapter 5. User Management

User Authentication

Overview of User Management Functions

User Management Function Development with Django

Approaches to Building User Management Functions in Django

Django Allauth (1) – Introduction

Django Allauth (2) – Installation and Initial Settings

Django Allauth (3) – Email Verification via Console

Django Allauth (4) – Email Verification via Gmail

Django Allauth (5) – Social Login with GitHub

Django Allauth (6) – Social Login with Google

Django Allauth (7) – Allauth Template File Setup

Django Allauth (8) – Add Basic Styling with Bootstrap and Crispy Forms

Django Allauth (9) – Customize Sign-in and Sign-up Pages

User Models

User Login Status Icon on Navigation Bar

Chapter 6. Deploy Django App

Overview of Django App Deployment (1)

Overview of Django App Deployment (2)

Key Steps of Django App Deployment

Hosting Service Initial Settings (1) – AWS Lightsail setup

Hosting Service Initial Settings (2) – SSH Remote Connection

Manage Local Computer and Remote Server Simultaneously

Tips for Managing Local Development and Remote Production Environment

Hosting Service Initial Settings (3) – Clone Project Directory with GitHub

Production Database Setup

Django Production Settings (1) – Settings.py for Development and Production

Django Production Settings (2) – Production Settings

Django Production Settings (3) – django-environ and .env file

Static File Settings

Django and Dependency Installation on Production Server

Web Server and Application Server in Django

Application Server Setup – Gunicorn

Web Server Setup – Nginx

Domain Setup

SSL Setup – Certbot

Email Setting – SendGrid

Social Login for Production

Manage Local Development and Remote Production Environment

SSL authentication mechanism

As explained, a prerequisite for establishing SSL communication is having a web server with an SSL certificate (SSL server). Here are the key processes of the SSL authentication mechanism:

A client sends a request to the SSL server

When the SSL server receives the request, the SSL server sends its SSL certificate with its public key to the client

Once the client receives the SSL certificate and verifies it, the client creates a symmetric key and encrypts the symmetric key using the public key from the server

Then, the client sends the encrypted symmetric key to the SSL server

When the SSL server receives the encrypted symmetric key, the SSL server decrypts it with its own private key. By now, the client and the SSL server have the same symmetric key sent through a secured channel.

Both use the symmetric key as a session key to create a secured communication channel

As you can see in the processes above, SSL uses both Asymmetric Encryption and Symmetric Encryption. SSL uses Asymmetric Encryption for the first authentication, which is more secure. For a session key, SSL uses Symmetric Encryption, which is faster.

How to set up SSL using Certbot

Certbot allows you to get an SSL certificate on your web server easily and quickly.

Here are the key steps:

Install Certbot for Nginx on Ubuntu OS
Open an SSL port
Obtain an SSL certificate by running the certbot command
Check the result and test the configuration

Install Certbot for Nginx on Ubuntu OS

Run the command below if you are using Nginx.

Command Line - INPUT

sudo apt-get install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

If you are using a different server, check the Certbot instruction page.

Open SSL port<